CHAP. X.] GLACIERS ENTERING THE SEA. 225 



he was knocked over and over, but not hurt ; and ilie boats, 

 thoiijih tlirice lifted on high and let fall again, received no dam- 

 auo. This was most fortunate for us, for we v/ere a hundred 

 niiles distant from the ship, and we should have been left without 

 ]irovi>ions or fire-arms. I had previously observed that some 

 large frag-ments of rock on the beach had been lately displaced ; 

 but until seeing- this wave, I did not understand the cause. One 

 side of the creek was formed by a spur of mica-slate ; the head 

 by a cliff of ice about forty f^et high ; and the otiier side by a 

 promontory fift}- feet high, built up of huge rounded fragments of 

 R;ranite and mica-slate, out of which old trees were 2.Towin2r. 

 This promontoi-y was evidently a moraine, heaped up at a period 

 when the glacier had greater dimensions. 



AVhen we reached the western mouth of this northern branch 

 of the Beagle Channel, we sailed amonnrst many unknown deso- 

 late islands, and the weather \vas wret'?hedly bad. We met with 

 no natives. The coast was almost everywhere so steep, that we 

 had several times to pull majiy times before we could find space 

 enough to pitch our two tents: ouo nicrht we slept on large round 

 boulders, with putrefying- sea-V;:'eed between ihem; and when the 

 tide rose, we had to get up and move our blanket-bags. The far- 

 thest point westward which we reached was Stewart Island, a 

 distance of about one hundred and fifty miles from our ship. We 

 returned into the Beagle Channel by the southern arm, and 

 thence proceeded, with no adventure, back to Ponsonby Sound. 



February Qth. — We arrived at Woollya. Matthews gave so 

 bad an account of the conduct of the Fue2rians, that Caotain 

 Fitz Roy determined to take him back to the Beagle ; and ulti- 

 mately he was left at Kew Zealand, where his brother was a mis- 

 sionary. From the ti-me of our leaving, a regular system of 

 plunder commenced ; fresh parties of the natives kept arriving- : 

 York and Jemmy lost many things, and Matthews almost every 

 thing which had not been concealed underground. Every article 

 seemed to have been torn up and divided by the natives. Mat- 

 thews described the watch he was obliged always to keep as most 

 harassing; night and day he was surrounded by the natives, who 

 tried to tire him out by making an incessant noise close to his 

 head. One day an old man, whom Matthews asked to leave his 

 wigwam, immediately returned with a large stone in his hand : 



