224 TIERRA DEL FTJEGO. [CHAP. x. 



We sailed on till it was dark, and then pitched our tents in a 

 quiet creek. The greatest luxury was to find for our beds a 

 beach of pebbles, for they were dry and yielded to the body. 

 Peaty soil is damp ; rock is uneven and hard ; sand gets into 

 one's meat, when cooked and eaten boat-fashion ; but when lying 

 in our blanket- bags, on a good bed of smooth pebbles, we passed 

 most comfortable nights. 



It was my watch till one o'clock. There is something verj 

 solemn in these scenes. At no time does the consciousness in 

 what a remote corner of the world you are then standing, come 

 so strongly before the mind. Everything tends to this effect ; 

 the stillness of the night is interrupted only by the heavy breath- 

 ing of the seamen beneath the tents, and sometimes by the cry of 

 a night-bird. The occasional barking of a dog, heard in the dis- 

 tance, reminds one that it is the land of the savage. 



January 29th. Early in the morning we arrived at the point 

 where the Beagle Channel divides into two arms ; and we en- 

 tered the northern one. The scenery here becomes even grander 

 than before. The lofty mountains on the north side compose the 

 granitic axis, or backbone of the country, and boldly rise to a 

 height of between three and four thousand feet, with one peak 

 above six thousand feet. They are covered by a wide mantle 

 of perpetual snow, and numerous cascades pour their waters, 

 through the woods, into the narrow channel below. In many 

 parts, magnificent gluciers extend from the mountain side to 

 the water's edge. It is scarcely possible to imagine any thing 

 more beautiful than the beryl-like blue of these glaciers, and 

 especially as contrasted with the dead white of the upper expanse 

 of snow. The fragments which had fallen from the glacier into 

 the water, were floating away, and the channel with its icebergs 

 presented, for the space of a mile, a miniature likeness of the Polar 

 Sea. The boats being hauled on shore at our dinner-hour, we 

 were admiring from the distance of half a rnile a perpendicular 

 cliff of ice, and were wishing that some more fragments would fall. 

 At last, down came a mass with a roaring noise, and immediately 

 we saw the smooth outline of a wave travelling towards us. The 

 men ran down as quickly as they could to the boats ; for the chance 

 of their being dashed to pieces was evident. One of the seamen 

 just caught hold of the bows, as the curling breaker reached it : 



