i , I
the Fagiis hctaloides, for the. number of the other species of
beech, and of the Winter’s bark, is quite inconsiderable.
This tree keeps its leaves throughout the year; but its
foliage is of a peculiar brownish-green colour, with a tinge of
yellow. As the whole landscape is thus coloured, it has a
sombre, dull appearance ; nor is it often enlivened by the
rays of the sun.
D e c e m b e r 2 0 t h .—One side of the harbour is formed by
a hill about 1500 feet high, which Captain FitzRoy has called
after Sir J. Banks, in commemoration of his disastrous excursion,
which proved fatal to two of his party, and nearly so
to Dr. Solander. The snowstorm, which was the cause of
their misfortune, happened in the middle of January, corresponding
to our July, and in the latitude of Durham! I
was anxious to reach the summit of this mountain to collect
alpine plants; for flowers of any kind, in the lower part, were
few in number. We followed the same watercourse as on the
previous day, till it dwindled away, and then were compelled to
craivl blindly among the trees. These, from the effects of the
elevation, and of the impetuous winds, were low, thick, and
crooked. At length we reached that which from a distance
appeared like a carpet of fine green turf, but which, to our
vexation, turned out to be a compact mass of little beech-trees
about four or five feet high. These were as thick together
as box in the border of a flower-garden, and we were obliged
to struggle over the flat but treacherous surface. After a
little more trouble we gained the peat, and then the hare
slate rock.
A ridge connected this hill with another, distant some
miles, and more lofty, so that patches of snow were lying on
it. As the day was not far advanced, I determined to walk
there and collect along the road. It would have been very
hard work, had it not been for a well-heaten and straight path
made by the guanacoes ; for these animals, like sheep, always
follow the same line. When we reached the hill we found it
the highest in the immediate neighbourhood, and the waters
flowed to the sea in opposite directions. We obtained a
wide view over the surrounding country: to the nortliward
a swampy moorland extended, but to the southward we had
a scene of savage magnificence, well becoming Tierra del
Fuego. There was a degree of mysterious grandeur in mountain
behind mountain, with the deep intervening valleys, all
covered by one thick, dusky mass of forest. The atmosphere,
likewise, in this climate (where gale succeeds gale,
with rain, hail, and sleet), seems blacker than any where else.
In the Strait of Magellan looking due south from Port
Famine, the distant channels between the mountains appear
from their gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this
world.
D e c e m b e r 2 1 s t .—The Beagle got under way: and on
the succeeding day, favoured to an uncommon degree by a
fine easterly breeze, we closed in with the Barnevelts, and,
running past Cape Deceit with its stony peaks, about three
o’clock doubled the weatherbeaten Cape Horn. The evening
was calm and bright, and we enjoyed a fine view of
the surrounding isles. Cape Horn, however, demanded his
tribute, and before night sent us a gale of wind directly in
our teeth. We stood out to sea, and on the second day again
made the land, when we saw on our weather-bow this
notorious promontory in its proper form—veiled in a mist,
and its dim outline surrounded by a storm of wind and
water. Great black clouds were rolling across the heavens,
and squalls of rain, with hail, swept by us with extreme
violence ; so that the captain determined to run into Wigwam
Cove. This is a snug little harbour, not far from Cape Horn ;
and here, at Christmas-eve, we anchored in smooth water.
The only thing which reminded us of the gale outside, was
every now and then a puff from the mountains, which
seemed to wish to blow us out of the water.
D e c e m b e r 2 5 t h .—Close by the cove, a pointed hill,
called Kater’s Peak,'rises to the height of 1700 feet. The
surrounding islands all consist of conical masses of greenstone,
associated sometimes with less regular hills of baked