July 24th.

We sailed from Port Stanley yesterday at daylight, and after entering Berkeley Sound beat up as far as Hog Island, off which we anchored at sunset, at a distance from the old settlement of Port Louis of about two miles and a half.  As the sole object in coming here was to obtain magnetic observations at the spot used for that purpose in 1842 by the Antarctic Expedition under Sir James Ross, for which one day would suffice, we had little time to make excursions in the neighbourhood.  Two parties were made up to shoot rabbits in some large warrens which have long been established on the shores of Johnson Harbour and at the head of Port Darlington, but they met with very little success.  I preferred accompanying Captain B.J.  Sulivan for the purpose of seeing his gauchos use the lasso and bolas in catching some cattle required for the ship.  This officer, who formerly commanded H.M.S.  Philomel, employed for several years upon the survey of the Falklands, has been one of the first to avail himself of the proposals made by Government to develop the resources of these islands by throwing them open to private enterprise; in association with several gentleman in England he has set on foot an establishment for the purpose of curing beef, hides, and tallow, which, it is expected, will be in full operation in the course of next year.  The terms upon which settlers of the better class are invited to East Falkland are, I believe, the following:  the purchaser of a block of land of a quarter of a square mile at the minimum price of eight shillings an acre (64 pounds) is entitled to a lease of 10,000 acres of contiguous land for the period of twenty years, at the rent of 10 pounds per annum, with right of pre-emption.  Also, according to part of an agreement between Government and Mr. Lafone (an Englishman residing at Montevideo) by which the latter has acquired a right to all the wild cattle on the island (estimated at 30,000 head) until the year 1860, he is bound to reclaim annually a certain number, and supply them to purchasers at the fixed rate of thirty shillings a head.

We landed on Hog Island where Captain Sulivan’s herd of eleven hundred cattle (besides a number of horses) had been kept during the winter, supported chiefly by the tussock grass fringing the shore, which they had cropped so closely that, being a perennial plant of slow growth, two years’ rest would be required to enable it to regain its former vigour.  Large patches of this magnificent grass*—­Dactylis caespitosa of botanists—­along the shores of the mainland have been destroyed by the cattle in their fondness for the nutritious base of the stem, a small portion of which, as thick as the little finger, has a pleasant taste and may be eaten by man, to whom it has occasionally furnished the principal means of subsistence when wandering in the wilds of these inhospitable islands.  Great numbers of upland geese (Chloephaga magellanica) chiefly in small flocks,