sportsman. As we emerged from the canal, and skirted along
the eastern shore of Skyring Water, we noticed two men on foot,
walking along the beach. We afterwards learned that they had
a day or two previously left the coal mine where they had been
employed, and were now attempting the precarious task of travelling
on foot to the Chilian settlement, Punta Arenas, in the Straits
of Magellan, a distance of ninety miles.
A t 10.30 a.m. we reached the bay of the mines (Rada de las
Minas), and came to an anchor about half a-mile from the shore.
The settlement was larger than we had expected, and exhibited
fair signs of activity, several shingle-built houses, large store sheds,
and a steam sawmill, showing out conspicuously against the dark
background of forest which spreads for a few miles to either side,
and is seen extending inland to near the summit of Mount
Rogers, a hill to the northward which reaches an elevation of
1,000 feet.
For information concerning Skyring Water, we are mainly
indebted to Fitzroy’s account of the short survey he made in the
year 1829, when in command of H.M.S. Beagle (which account
comprises information obtained from a sealer named Fow, who
visited these waters in pursuit of his trade), and to some papers
published by the Chilian Govcrnme it in \.\\o Aniiario Hydrografico,
detailing the results of two visits made by Chilian men-of-war.
In November 1877 the Chilian gun-boat Mageltanes visited Skyring
Water, making a stay of three weeks, during which time her
boats were mainly employed in making a survey of the eastern
part of the basin. The results of this survey, so far as it went,
favoured the idea of there being a channel connecting Skyring
Water with Smyth’s Channel to the westward. It was brought to
an abrupt termination by the terrible mutiny which took place at
Sandy Point in November 1877; however, in the months of
December i 878, and January and February 1879, Captain Fatorre,
of the corvette Magellanes, made a second incomiplete examination
of Skyring Water. One of his boat parties penetrated a
considerable distance to the westward, where the basin is continuous
with a number of long, narrow, winding inlets or channels,
which enter the hills of the coast range. Here they met with a
party of Fuegians, who were in all respects similar to those of the
western channels, possessing the usual canoe and hunting implements.
They also found numerous traces of Fuegians in all the
sheltered coves which they examined among the inlets towards
the western part of Skyring Water. This would seem to indicate
a direct water communication with Smyth’s Channel, but on the
other hand, the range of tide being found to be exceedingly small,
would tend to prove that its connection with the ocean was at all
eventsremote. This survey was brought to a close in a most
unsatisfactory way when almost on the eve of clearing up the
doubtful question as to the existence of through communication ;
the Magellanes having been ordered north on the outbreak of the
war between Chili and Peru.
The Skyring coal-mines were originally started in the year
1877 by an enterprising German named Haase, who opened the
seam, extracted some coal, and erected sheds, but soon afterwards
(I believe through want of funds) abandoned the undertaking, so
that when the Chilian corvette Magellanes arrived here in October
1877, the settlement was found to be in a deserted condition.
Captain Fatorre then made a trial of some coal which he found
lying in a heap near the pit’s mouth, and after executing a partial
survey of Skyring Water was recalled to Sandy Point, on receiving
news of a disastrous mutiny in that colony.
The settlement remained uninhabited from a few months before
the Magellanes' first visit until the 15th of November, 1879,
when the mine was reopened by Mr. Haase, provided with money,
furnished by a company which had been formed at Buenos Ayres.
Since that time the work has progressed steadily, so that the
mine and adjoining works are now in a tolerably efficient state.
A t the time of our visit, the mines and the settlement were in
charge of Monsieur Arnaud, a French engineer, Mr. Haase having