170 T1ERRA DEL FUEGO. [CHAP. xl. 



the deep ravines, the death-like scene of desolation exceeded all de- 

 scription ; outside it was blowing a gale, but in these hollows, not even 

 a breath of wind stirred the leaves of the tallest trees. So gloomy, 

 cold, and wet was every part, that not even the fungi, mosses, or ferns 

 could flourish. In the valleys it was scarcely possible .to crawl along, 

 they were so completely barricaded by great mouldering trunks, which 

 had fallen down in every direction. When passing over these natural 

 bridges, one's course was often arrested by sinking knee deep into the 

 rotten wood ; at other times, when attempting to lean against a firm 

 tree, one was startled by finding a mass of decayed matter ready to. fall at 

 the slightest touch. We at last found ourselves among the stunted 

 trees, and then soon reached the bare ridge, which conducted us to the 

 summit. Here was a view characteristic of Tierra del Fuego ; irregular 

 chains of hills, mottled with patches of snow, deep yellowish-green 

 valleys, and arms of the sea intersecting the land in many directions. 

 The strong wind was piercingly cold, and the atmosphere rather hazy, 

 so that we did not stay long on the top of the mountain. Our descent 

 was not quite so laborious as our ascent ; for the weight of the body 

 forced a passage, and all the slips and falls were in the right direction. 



I have already mentioned the sombre and dull character of the ever- 

 green forests, * in which two or three species of trees grow, to the 

 exclusion of all others. Above the forest land, there are many dwarf 

 alpine plants, which all spring from the mass of peat, and help to 

 compose it ; these plants are very remarkable from their close alliance 

 with the species growing on the mountains of Europe, though so many 

 thousand miles distant. The central part of Tierra del Fuego, where 

 the clay-slate formation occurs, is most favourable to the growth of 

 trees ; on the outer coast the poorer granitic soil, and a situation more 

 exposed to the violent winds, do not allow of their attaining any great 

 size. Near Port Famine I have seen more large trees than anywhere 

 else: I measured a Winter's Bark which was four feet six inches in 

 girth, and several of the beech were as much as thirteen feet. Captain 

 King also mentions a beech which was seven feet in diameter seventeen 

 feet above the roots. 



There is one vegetable production deserving notice from its import- 

 ance as an article of food to the Fuegians. It is a globular, bright-yellow 

 fungus, which grows in vast numbers on the beech-trees. When young 

 it is elastic and turgid, with a smooth surface ; but when mature it 

 shrinks, becomes tougher, and has its entire surface deeply pitted or 

 honeycombed, as represented in the accompanying woodcut. This 



* Captain Fitz Roy informs me that in April (our October), the leaves of 

 those trees which grow near the base of the mountains, change colour, but 

 not those on the more elevated parts. I remember haying read some obser- 

 vations, showing that in England the leaves fall earlier in a warm and fine 

 autumn, than in a late and cold one. The change in the colour being here 

 retarded in the more elevated, and therefore colder situations, must be 

 owing to the same general law of vegetation. The trees of Tierra del Fuego 

 during no part of the year entirely shed their leaves. 



