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purpose of obtaining bearings of remote points : be remarked
to me, ‘ that many miles were passed over in ascending even
moderate heights; the land was very high and very irregulai-;
the mountains seemed not to lie in any uniform direction, and
the longest chain that was observed did not exceed five miles.
The flat land between the heights was never two miles in
extent: the ground was always swampy, and generally there
were small lakes receiving the drainage of mountain-streams.
Indeed the whole country appeared broken and unconnected.’
“ Some of the mountains were ascertained to he 2,500 feet
high, but the general height was about 2,000 feet. A large
island, on the northern side of the harbour, is an excellent
watering-place, at which casks may be conveniently filled in
the boat. It is also an object of great natural beauty: the
hill, which forms its western side, rises to seven or eight hun-
ih’ed feet, almost perpendiculaidy, and when viewed from its
base in a boat, seems stupendous: it is clothed with trees,
among which the light-green leaves of the Winter’s-bark tree,
and the red flowers of the Fuchsia, unite their tints with the
darker foliage of other trees. This perpendicular part extends
to the northward till it is met by the body of the mountain,
which is arched into a spacious cavern, fifty yards wide and a
hundred feet high, whose sides are clothed with a rich growth
of shrubs; and before it a cascade descends down the steep
face of the mountain.
“ On the shore we found two Indian wigwams and the remains
of a third ; but they had evidently been long deserted, for the
grass had grown up both around and within them to the height
of more than a foot. These wigwams were exactly similar to
those in the Strait of Magalhaens: one was larger than any
I had met with, being eighteen feet in diameter. The only land
birds I saw were two owls, which passed by us after dusk with
a screeching noise.
“ On the patches of sandy beach, in the inner harbour, we
hauled tlic seine, but unsuccessfully; we expected to find fish
plentiful here, from seeing many seals on the rocks outside,
and from finding the water quite red with the spawn of crayfish.
Muscles and hmpets were pretty abundant, and the shells
{Concholepas Peruviana) used by the Magalhaenic tribes as
drinking cups, were found adhering to the rocks in great
numbers.
“ Nothing could be worse than the weather we had during
nine days’ stay here ; the wind, in whatever quarter it stood,
brouglit thick heavy clouds, which precipitated themselves in
torrents, or in drizzling rain. We were well sheltered from
the regular winds ; but many troublesome eddies were caused
by the surrounding heights, while the passing clouds showed
that strong and squally north-west winds were prevalent.
“ On the morning of the 24th, we put to sea with a southerly
breeze. The extent of coast from the eastern part of Port Santa
Barbara to the outer of the Guaianeco Islands presents several
inlets running deep into the land ; but it is completely bound
by rocks and rocky islets, which, with its being generally a lee-
shore, renders it extremely unsafe to approach. Observing an
opening between some islets, of which we had taken the bearing
at noon, we stood in to see whether it afforded anchorage;
and approaching the extremity of the lai-ger island, proceeded
along it at the distance of only half a mile, when, after running
two miles through a labyrinth of rocks and kelp, we were compelled
to haul out, and in doing so scarcely weathered, by a
ship’s length, the outer islet. Deeming it useless to expend
further time in the examination of this dangerous portion of
the gulf, we proceeded towards Cape Tres Montes, its northwestern
headland.
^ “ At sunset Cape Tres Montes bore N. 25° W., distant
eighteen miles. In this point of view the cape makes very
high and bold ; to the eastward of it, land was seen uninterruptedly
as far as the eye could reach. We stood in shore next
morning, and were then at a loss to know, precisely, which
was the cape. The highest mountain was the southern projection,
and has been marked on tlie chart as Cape Tres
Montes: but none of the heights, from any point in which
we saw them, ever appeared as ‘ three mounts.’ The land,
though mountainous, seemed more wooded, and had a less