X GLACIERS ENTERING THE SEA 237 



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 very 

 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 

 breathing of the seamen beneath the tents, and sometimes by the 

 cry of a night-bird. The occasional barking of a dog, heard 

 in the distance, reminds one that it is the land of the savage. 



January 2gth. — Early in the morning we arrived at the point 

 where the Beagle Channel divides into two arms ; and we 

 entered 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 glaciers extend from the mountain side to 

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

 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 mile 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 ; he was knocked over and over, but not hurt ; and 

 the boats, though thrice lifted on high and let fall again, received 

 no damage. This was most fortunate for us, for we were a hundred 

 miles distant from the ship, and we should have been left without 

 provisions or firearms. I had previously observed that some 

 large fragments of rock on the beach had been lately displaced ; 



