CHAPTER V. 



OUR SECOXD SEASON IN PATAGONFAN WATERS. 



ON the evening of the 4th October, our small-pox patients 

 being then sufficiently well to return on board, we sailed 

 from Talcahuano, and proceeded to the southward in order to 

 resume our surveying work in the Trinidad and Concepcion 

 channels. 



We entered the Gulf of Peiias on the afternoon of the 9th 

 October, and as it was a clear, bright, sunshiny day, we had a 

 good view of Cape Tres Montes, which forms the northern horn 

 of the gulf, while ahead of us, and towards the S.E. bight, lay the 

 Sombrero, Wager, and B}'ron Islands, the first of which marks 

 the entrance of the Messier Channel. When we had got fairly 

 inside this channel, a Fuegian canoe of the customary pattern 

 was seen approaching from the w^estern shore. We stopped to 

 allow her to communicate with us, and, of course, the usual barter- 

 ing of skins for knives and tobacco took place between the natives 

 and our seamen. There were about twelve persons in the canoe, 

 all of whom looked more than usually plump in regard to their 

 bodies, but had the characteristically stunted legs of this wandering 

 race. On leaving us they appeared to be quite sold out, and were 

 almost entirely naked, some of them completely so; however, they 

 seemed Avell pleased with the bit of traffic which they had ac- 

 complished. 



