chap, x.] CAPE HORN. 211 



After a little more trouble we gained the peat, and then the bare 

 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 plants along the road. It would have been very hard 

 work, had it not been for a well-beaten and straight path made 

 by the guanacos ; for these animals, like sheep, always follow 

 the same line. When we reached the hill we found it the high- 

 est in the immediate neighbourhood, and the Maters flowed to 

 the sea in opposite directions. We obtained a wide view over 

 the surrounding country : to the north a swampy moorland ex- 

 tended, but to the south we had a scene of savage magnificence, 

 well becoming: Tierra del Fue^o. There was a degree of mvste- 

 rious grandeur in mountain behind mountain, with the deep in- 

 tervening 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 anywhere 

 else. In the Strait of Magellan, looking due southward from 

 Port Famine, the distant channels between the mountains ap- 

 peared from their gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this 

 world. 



December 1\st. 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 weather-beaten 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 such 

 extreme violence, that the Captain determined to run into Wig- 

 wam 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 



p 2 



