210 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [chap, x 



but the bed of the stream soon became a little more open, from 

 the floods having swept the sides. I continued slowly to advance 

 for an hour along the broken and rocky banks, and was amply 

 repaid by the grandeur of the scene. The gloomy depth of the 

 ravine well accorded with the universal signs of violence. On 

 every side were lying irregular masses of rock and torn-up trees ; 

 other trees, though still erect, were decayed to the heart and 

 ready to fall. The entangled mass of the thriving and the fallen 

 reminded me of the forests within the tropics — yet there was a 

 difference : for in these still solitudes, Death, instead of Life, 

 seemed the predominant spirit. I followed the watercourse till 

 I came to a spot, where a great slip had cleared a straight space 

 down the mountain side. By this road I ascended to a consider- 

 able elevation, and obtained a good view of the surrounding 

 woods. The trees all belong to one kind, the Fagus betuloides ; 

 for the number of the other species of Fagus and of the Win- 

 ter's Bark, is quite inconsiderable. This beech keeps its leaves 

 throughout the year ; but its foliage is of a peculiar brownish- 

 green colour, with a tinge of yellow. As the whole landscape is 

 thus coloured, it has a sombre, dull appearance ; nor is it often 

 enlivened by the rays of the sun. 



December 20th. — One side of the harbour is formed by a hill 

 about 1500 feet high, which Captain Fitz Roy has called after 

 Sir J. Banks, in commemoration of his disastrous excursion, 

 which proved fatal to two men of his party, and nearly so to 

 Dr. Solander. The snow-storm, which was the cause of their 

 misfortune, happened in the middle of January, corresponding to 

 our July, and in the latitude of Durham ! I was anxious to 

 reach the summit of this mountain to collect alpine plants ; for 

 flowers of any kind in the lower parts are few in number. We 

 followed the same watercourse as on the previous day, till it dwin- 

 dled away, and we were then compelled to crawl blindly among 

 the trees. These, from the effects of the elevation and of the 

 impetuous winds, were low, thick, and crooked. At length we 

 reached that which from a distance appeared like a carpet of fine 

 green turf, but which, to our vexation, turned out to be a com- 

 pact mass of little beech-trees about four or five feet high. They 

 were as thick together as box in the border of a garden, and we 

 were obliged to struggle over the flat but treacherous surface, 



