210 TIEREA DEL FUEGO. [chap. x. 



but, ihe bed cf tlie stream soon became a little more open, from 

 tiie Hoods having swept the sides. I continued slowly to advance 

 for an liour akmg; the broken and rocky banks, and was amply 

 repaid by the grandeur of the scene. Tlie gloomy depth of the 

 ravine well accorded with the universal i;igns of violence. On 

 every side were lying in egular masses of rock and torn-up trees ; 

 other trees, though still erect, were decayed to the iieart and 

 ready to fall. Tlie entangled mass of the thriving and the fallen 

 reminded me of the forests within the tropics — yet there was a 

 difference : for in these still solitudes, Death, instead of Life, 

 seemed the predominant spirit. I foiioAved the Avatercourse till 

 I came to a spot, where a great siip had cleared a straight space 

 down the mountain side, j^y tins road I ascended to a consider- 

 able elevation, and obtained a j^oou view of the surrounding 

 woods. The trees all belong to one kind, the Fagus betuloides ; 

 for the number of the other species of I'agus and of the Win- 

 ter's Bark, is quite inconsiderable. 'Ihis beccii keeps its leaves 

 throughout the year; but its foliage is of a peculiar brownisli- 

 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. 



December 20th. — One side of the harbour is formed by a hill 

 about 1503 feet high, which Captain Fitz Roy has called after 

 Sir J. Banks, in commemoration of his disastrous excursion, 

 which prr.ved fatal to two men of his party, and nearly so to 

 Dr. Solander. The snow-storm, uhich 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 parts are few in number. AVo 

 followed the same watercourse as on the previous day, till it dwin- 

 dled away, and we were then compelled to crawl blindly among 

 the trees. These, from the effects of the elevation and of the 

 impetuous uinds, 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 com- 

 pact mass of little beech-trees about four or five feet high. They 

 were as thick together as box in the border of a garden, and we 

 were obliged to struggle over the flat but treacherous surfas^o. 



