246 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



and there was little to attract attention until we drew 

 near to Sandy Point, a place that was to me the more 

 interesting as I intended to make it my home until 

 the arrival of the next English steamer. The belt of 

 forest rose over low swelling hills near the sea, and in 

 the distance a loftier range, from two to three thousand 

 feet in height, showed a nearly horizontal line against 

 the cloudy sky. As we approached, several structures 

 of painted wood became visible, and for the first time 

 since we left Lota we beheld human dwellings. 

 Sandy Point, known to the natives of South America 

 by the equivalent name Punta Arenas, is certainly 

 one of the most isolated of inhabited spots to be 

 found in the world. Since the scramble for Africa 

 has set in, it is, I suppose, only on the Australian 

 coast that one would find any settlement so far 

 removed from neighbours or rivals. On the side of 

 Chili the nearest permanent habitations are in the 

 island of Chiloe, fully seven hundred miles distant in a 

 straight line, and considerably farther by the only^ 

 practicable route. On the side of Argentaria there is 

 a miserable attempt at a settlement at the mouth of 

 the river Santa Cruz, where the Argentine Govern- 

 ment has thought it expedient to hoist their flag in 

 order to assert the rights of sovereignty of the Con- 

 federation over the dreary wastes of South-eastern 

 Patagonia. This was described to me as a group of 

 half a dozen wooden sheds, where a few disconsolate 

 soldiers spend a weary time of exile from the genial 

 climate of Buenos Ay res. By the sea route it is 

 about four hundred miles from Sandy Point, but no 

 direct communication between the two places is kept 



