Vi ORIGIN AND OPERATIONS 



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

 Meridionally, the island of Campafia is hetter suited, and is also some 400 miles farther to the 

 south ; but if Chiloe really has the climate described by voyagers and others, you will probably 

 agree with me, that even this island is too far south for our purpose, Capt. King, K. N., having 

 found it only one third as subject to rain as St. Martin's cove, near Cape Horn. But to the 

 extracts from the volumes that I have examined. 



" El padre P. G. de Agiieros, who resided six years on the island, and in 1T91 published a 

 ' Description Historial de la Provincia y Archipielago de Chiloe,' in Chap. XI, says: ' The sum- 

 mer is the most pleasant season, for though in the month of January it is excessively hot, from 

 ten in the morning until three in the afternoon there is a refreshing sea-breeze which is called 

 virazon. At this time the day is from seventeen to eighteen hours long, and conversely in the 

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

 as in Europe. I have never seen ice even in the small streams, nor does snow lie any length of 

 time on the ground. Greater cold is experienced in Chiloe than at Santiago and Concepcion ; 

 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 frequently 

 occurs that rains fall without ceasing through an entire lunation, and are sometimes accompa- 

 nied by hurricanes so furious that one is not secure within the house, and the largest trees are 

 torn up by the roots. Nor can the weather be depended on when it is fine, even in sum- 

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

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

 hoped for.' 



"Capt. King, K. N., in the narrative of the surveying voyage of H. B. M. ships Adventure 

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

 unless I should be able to obtain data extending through a longer period from the Chilean am- 

 bassador. Says Capt. King : ' Capt. Fitzroy (commanding the Beagle) arrived there (at San 

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

 very wet, with some heavy gales from the northwest ; but in bis meteorological journal for these 

 months there is no record of the thermometer falling below 38; and it 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 fine and dry, and the winds were moderate. The 

 month of November was generally fine, 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 



November did not exceed 2.G inches. At St. Martin's cove, near Cape Horn, after thirty days 

 of observation, the rain gauge contained 8 inches ; so that, although Chiloe bears the character 

 of being a very wet place, it is not one third so bad as Cape Horn. The time of our visit to 

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

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

 means so bad as has been represented. 



" ' There is a marked difference of climate between the east and west sides of Chil6e, as to 

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

 ward side of the heights, so that the neighborhood of Castro, and the islands in the gulf of 

 Ancud, enjoy much finer weather than is met with about San Carlos. But even here, the in- 

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

 as they had formerly. They attribute this to the wood being cleared away, &c.' 



"Mr. Darwin, who was naturalist to the expedition, and accompanied it on board the Beadle 

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



