Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

the day ended. The food was good - for me smoked ham and avocado, Centolla (the
delicious spider crab), and we drank a good Chilean white wine. To bed about 11
pm ; I didn't see in the New Year.
We rose at 7 o’clock on New Year's Day, had breakfast in our rooms and the taxis
came at 8 o’clock to take us to the airport, where Revell Dick saw us through. We
met the US Geoceiver team (Matson and Schoonemaker), who were to join Biscoe for
Adelaide and a BAS Twin-otter would fly them into the field. Take-off was at 10.30
in a Boeing 727. I had a window seat on the left hand side and splendid views of the
mighty Andes, snow-capped, conical volcanoes, a wide coastal plain and broad
rivers at intervals, mostly dry at that season. As we flew south it became less brown
and arid; trees and bogs appeared. We landed at Concepcion and Puerto Montes.
South of there the lakes and mountains and forest looked very beautiful from the air
and the colouring was superb. But cloud then obscured the land until we were
nearly into the Magellan Straits, when we looked down on a very flat jig-saw puzzle
of land and sea, with very turbid lakes and sandy flats.
We landed at Punta Arenas about 3.30 pm and were met by Gonzales, the Agent.
We stayed at the Hotel Cabo de Hornes. And I had a walk around the town until it
started to rain; the main interest for me was the monument to Chilean Antarctica,
with citations of discovery dating from 1555 or so! We talked in the bar before
dinner, which was very protracted - Centollas and wine again; Nescafé powder for
coffee. Stanley Greene and David Moore were in town and had left a note saying
they hoped to see me. Next day was wet and windy. Stanley and David Moore came
along for discussion and we organized a taxi to take the party out to Fuerte Bulnes
that afternoon, and Brian and I took a taxi to the Instituto de la Patagonica, just
outside the town. We met the Director Sr Martinic and after some chat he handed us
on to Dr Benevida Head of the Zoology Section - a lively chap who wanted to talk
about his research project on Magellanic penguins. He was financed by a grant from
Shell - received after the recent tanker disaster/oil spill in the straits. The work was
mainly aimed at population dynamics, based on flipper-banding 1,000 chicks and 200
pairs of adults annually - for 4 years so far - out of a population of c. 25,000. There
were fur seals and sea lions on the same island, also suitable for research projects.
They showed us their library, with the BAS publications prominent, and their
collection of bird and mammal skins and skeletons. These were very well prepared
and curated, with good clear labeling; they contained about 68% of the birds on the
Magellanes list. I t was most impressive.
I was interested in news of Anellio Aguayo whale biologist colleague who was
exiled for political reasons. There are now no other marine mammalogists in Chile -
though Maturana was Aguayo's assistant. I had requests for my publications. We
had lunch at the hotel preceded by Pisco sours.
Then, with Brian, David and Malcom to Fuerte Bulnes. It was a most pleasant
drive along a dirt road about 40 miles southwest of Punta Arenas. The hillsides were
densely clothes with Notofagus, except where they had been burnt and later cut. The
road ran along the shore, very close to the sea. We saw the first albatrosses (blackbrowed),
steamer ducks, shags, gulls, terns and a small hawk – also a thrush-sized
black bird with a red breast, like a gonolek. We passed a collection of fishermen's
huts, with small fishing boats lying off - the Centolla fishermen - and the beach was
covered with the pink shells of the crabs. Eventually we entered the reconstructed
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