47B Magellan's straits. 



seen in troops alongside the ship progressing through the water 

 by series of bounds, just hke porpoises.* 



The anchor was dropped every night, it being impossible to 

 proceed without daylight, because of the intricacy of the channel. 

 Every evening I went on shore at some wild harbour, to wade 

 through swamps and crawl through the dense undergrowth, in 

 pursuit of wild geese, ducks, snipes, and woodcocks. In some 

 of the harbours it was impossible to get away from the sea- 

 shore, so dense was the barrier of forest everywhere. The 

 ground is encumbered with prostrate trees and logs, which are 

 overgrown with the most delicate and beautiful ferns, mostly 

 Hy^nenophylliDiis, which thrive in the constantly moist atmo- 

 sphere. 



At one place we fired the forest. The fire spread rapidly for 

 miles, covering the mountains with clouds of smoke, and some- 

 what endangering Mr. J. J. Wild, one of the members of the 

 scientific staff, who was on shore alone. After an anxious hue- 

 and-cry he was found safe on a rocky promontory, and brought 

 back to the ship in one of the boats in triumph. 



About Sandy Point there is more open country, and wide 

 stretches of grass-land, on which we found abundance of mush- 

 rooms. A curious accident happened at Port Churruca, in 

 Desolation Island. The ship's anchor was let go in a glassy 

 calm, and apparently the ship was safely anchored. A short 

 time later, however, a slight breeze sprang up, and the ofificer 

 of the watch found that the ship was drifting freely before it. 

 He had just time to let go another anchor and save the ship 

 from drifting on shore, which was a very short distance off in 

 the narrow fjord. It was found that the anchor, falling heavily 

 on the rocks when let go, had broken in two short off, so that 

 the remnant did not hold at all — a fact which had not been 

 apparent during the calm. 



Many deserted huts of the Fuegians were seen at the various 

 harbours ; but to my great disappointment we met with no 

 natives. Only one day, as we steamed along the middle of the 

 main Strait of Magellan, near the southernmost point of America, 

 Cape Froward, in a bitterly cold blast, we saw on the shore, in 

 the distance, three fires, with their smoke streaming out before 

 the gale, and we could make out through the rain the forms of 

 the natives around them. 



At Sandy Point there were two Fuegian girls and a boy, who 

 had been picked up in a canoe by a Chilian war-vessel. I was 

 struck by the ruddy colour of the cheeks of the girls, which 

 closely resembles that of Japanese women, especially of many 

 of the older ones. Two Fuegian men who belonged to a 

 * See p. 229. 



