ting, it lay upon its belly and stretched out its
head. In the water it appeared unable to maintain itself afloat except
by incessant paddling, the whole of the body being meanwhile under
water.

Of amphibia, only five kinds can be distinctly named; a brown _Coluber_,
two small lizards of the family of _Scincoidea_, a small _Rana_, with a
spot like an eye on the belly, and a small _Bufo_. Of fishes, the most
remarkable was a _Torpedo_, with the back of a reddish brown, and
smooth; and a _Callorhynchus antarcticus_: the latter may very well
remain in the class of _Chimaera_. Of crustaceae, we collected three
_Canceres_, a _Portunus_, a _Porcellana_, a _Sphaeroma_, and a _Ligia_.

The dry land along the coast is extremely poor in insects. The number of
beetles collected in 1816, together with those taken on the present
occasion, amounted only to sixty seven, but they are altogether peculiar
to the country. The most remarkable are a _Carabus_ of the beautiful
colours of the _hispanus_, but with narrow striped cases to the wings,
and a large _Prionus_: the joints of the feet, in this latter, are short
and cylindrical, constituting a distinction from the whole family of the
_Cerambycinae_; in every other respect it is unquestionably a _Prionus_,
and may be called _Pr. Mercurius_, on account of two wing-shaped
appendages, attached to the neck-corselet. Sixteen Carabicides were
found belonging to the _Calosoma_, _Paecilus_, _Harpalus_, _Trechus_,
_Dromius_, and _Peryphus_. We were surprised at finding so few
dung-beetles. We met with only two large ones, namely, the _Megathopa
villosa_ of _Esch_. Entomography, forming a species of the _Ateuchus_,
and a _Copris torulosa_, described in the same work; this, however, is
owing to the very little moisture in the atmosphere, which dries the
dung almost immediately. It is curious, that all the seventeen kinds of
_Copris_ of South America known to us, have but seven stripes upon each
wing-case; whereas those of the Old World have eight: the larger kinds,
_Hamadrias_, _Bucephalus_, and _Isidis_,[4] alone agree with the South
American in the number of stripes. Of the Americans, the _C. Hesperus
Oliv._ is the only one with a border to the seventh stripe, and the _C.
Actaeon Klug_ of Mexico is the only one that has eight stripes.

Various kinds of beetles in Chili seek a shelter from the rays of the
sun in the dry cow-dung: almost all the Heteromerides with wings grown
together, the grea