ORIGIN AND OPERATIONS 



be manifestly improper to rely for 8upport during so long a period on the Indians of Patagonia. 



Meridional I. v, tin- island "t" Campana is letter suited, ami is also some 400 miles farther to the 



01: t rhil.V really has the climate deserit>ed liy voyagers and others, you will probably 



agnv with in.', that even tliis island is t.. > tin south for our purpose, ('apt. King, R. N., having 



\ one third a tii rain at* St. Martin's cove, near (.'apt- Horn. But to the 



'acts from the volumes that I have examined. 



padre 1'. <J. d< . who resided .-.ix years on the island, and in 17'.*! published a 



' Descripcio* Hutoriul </> In I />i<lu<jo de CltUn< ,' in ( 'hap. X I . MJ: ' The MIUI- 



IHfrr is the most pleasant eon, for though in the month of January it is excessively hot, from 

 t-u in the morning until three in the afternoon there is a refreshing sca-bree/c which is called 

 riraam. At thin time the day is from seventeen to eighteen hours long, and conversely in tin- 

 winter. During the latter season the temperature is low, but frosts are by no means so severe 

 an in Europe. 1 have never .-eeii ice even in the small streams, nor does snow lie any length of 

 time on the ground. Greater o-ld is experienced in Chiloe than at Santiago and Concept-ion ; 

 but we must remember that it is nearer to the pole, and to the rigorous climate of Cape Horn. 

 That which renders the winter, as well as some months of the other seasons, most disagreeable, 

 are the continued rains, with violent storms from the north, northwest, and west. It fret|uently 

 occurs that ruins fall without cea>in^ through an entire lunation, and are sometimes accompa- 

 nied b\ hurricanes so furious that one i~ ii"t .-iruie within the house, and the largest trees are 

 up hv the PHI'- ' can the weather be depended on when it is fine, even in sum- 

 mer, for I have frequently expi riemvd as heavy rains and gales as violent in January as in 

 the winter. It is only during the pie.;ilent south wind of summer that fair weather can be 



hop 



;it. Kin-.'. II. N.. in the narrative of the surveying voyage of H. B. M. ships Adventure 

 and Beagle. ;lie following account ; and this is the most recent information accessible, 



unless I should be able ; iata extending through a longer period fioin the Chilean am- 



bassador. Says C'apt. King: '(.'apt. Filzroy (commanding the Mca^lc) arrived there (at San 

 lo*) in July, during the latter part of which, and the month of August, the weather was 

 i . with some heavy gales from the northwest ; but in bis meteorological journal for these 

 months there is no record of the thermometer tailing below 38; and ii is recorded to have 

 fallen to that point only on one occasion, the general height being from 45 to 50. The first 

 part and middle of September were boisterous and wet; but towards the end of the month the 

 wind was chiefly from the southward, and the weather dry and exceedingly fine. In October it 

 was rather changeable; but for the last ten days, with the exception of one, on which there was 

 a fresh gale, with a heavy fall of rain, it was line and dry, and the winds were moderate. The 

 month of Novemlx-T was generally tine, but the first half of December continued tempestuous 

 and wet. * * The greatest quantity of rain in the gauge at the end of the month of 

 i-r did not exceed 2.C, inches. At St. Martin's cove, near Cape Horn, after thirty days 

 buemition, the rain gauge contained S inches ; so that, although Chiloe bears the character 

 of l*-itiK a \ is not one third so bail as Cape Horn. The time of our visit to 



Carlos was certainly tin- finest part of the year, and I believe that the weather we expe- 

 rienced aH unusually dry, even for the season. I do not, however, think that it is by any 

 means so bad as haa been rcpi 



'There in a marked difference of dimat .- the east and west sides of Chiloe, as to 



quantity of wind and rain. A portion of both appears to be arrested, as it were, on the wind- 

 ' 'I" 1 heights, so that the neighborhood of Castro, and the islands in the gulf of 



An- > much finer weather than in met with about San Carlos. i:,,t even hero, the in- 



habitants say a change has taken place gradually, and they have not now nearly so much rain 

 M they had formerly. They attribute tins to the wood bein- ch-ared away, &c.' 



"Mr. Darwin, who was naturalist to the expedition, ami accompanied it on board the Beagle, 

 states in his account: -The island is about ninety miles long, with a breadth of rather less 



