238 TIERRA DEL FUEGO chap. 



but until seeing- this wave I did not understand the cause. One 

 side of the creek was formed by a spur of mica-slate ; the head 

 by a cliff of ice about forty feet high ; and the other side by a 

 promontory fifty feet high, built up of huge rounded fragments 

 of granite and mica-slate, out of which old trees were growing. 

 This promontory was evidently a moraine, heaped up at a period 

 when the glacier had greater dimensions. 



When we reached the western mouth of this northern branch 

 of the Beagle Channel, we sailed amongst many unknown deso- 

 late islands, and the weather was wretchedly bad. We met with 

 no natives. The coast was almost everywhere so steep that we 

 had several times to pull many miles before we could find space 

 enough to pitch our two tents : one night we slept on large round 

 boulders, with putrefying seaweed between them ; and when the 

 tide rose, we had to get up and move our blanket-bags. The 

 farthest point westward which we reached was Stewart Island, 

 a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles from our ship. 

 We returned into the Beagle Channel by the southern arm, and 

 thence proceeded, with no adventure, back to Ponsonby Sound. 



February 6th. — We arrived at Woollya. Matthews gave so 

 bad an account of the conduct of the Fuegians, that Captain 

 Fitz Roy determined to take him back to the Beagle ; and 

 ultimately he was left at New Zealand, where his brother was a 

 missionary. From the time of our leaving, a regular system of 

 plunder commenced ; fresh parties of the natives kept arriving : 

 York and Jemmy lost many things, and Matthews almost every- 

 thing which had not been concealed underground. Every article 

 seemed to have been torn up and divided by the natives. 

 Matthews described the watch he was obliged always to keep as 

 most harassing ; night and day he was surrounded by the natives, 

 who tried to tire him out by making an incessant noise close to 

 his head. One day an old man, whom Matthews asked to leave 

 his wigwam, immediately returned with a large stone in his hand ; 

 another day a whole party came armed with stones and stakes, 

 and some of the younger men and Jemmy's brother were crying : 

 Matthews met them with presents. Another party showed by 

 signs that they wished to strip him naked and pluck all the hairs 

 out of his face and body. I think we arrived just in time to save 

 his life. Jemmy's relatives had been so vain and foolish, that 

 they had showed to strangers their plunder, and their manner 



