SAN PEDRO 299 



In the evening we reached the island of San Pedro, where 

 we found the Beagle at anchor. In doubHng the point, two of 

 the officers landed to take a round of angles with the theodolite. 

 A fox (Canis fulvipes), of a kind said to be peculiar to the island, 

 and very rare in it, and which is a new species, was sitting on 

 the rocks. He was so intently absorbed in watching the work 

 of the officers, that I was able, by quietly walking up behind, to 

 knock him on the head with my geological hammer. This fox, 

 more curious or more scientific, but less wise, than the generality 

 of his brethren, is now mounted in the museum of the Zoological 

 Society. 



We stayed three days in this harbour, on one of which 

 Captain Fitz Roy, with a part}', attempted to ascend to the 

 summit of San Pedro. The woods here had rather a different 

 appearance from those on the northern part of the island. The 

 rock, also, being micaceous slate, there was no beach, but the 

 steep sides dipped directly beneath the water. The general 

 aspect in consequence was more like that of Tierra del Fuego 

 than of Chiloe. In vain we tried to gain the summit : the 

 forest was so impenetrable that no one who has not beheld it 

 can imagine so entangled a mass of dying and dead trunks. I 

 am sure that often, for more than ten minutes together, our feet 

 never touched the ground, and we were frequently ten or fifteen 

 feet above it, so that the seamen as a joke called out the sound- 

 ings. At other times we crept one after another, on our hands 

 and knees, under the rotten trunks. In the lower part of the 

 mountain, noble trees of the Winter's Bark, and a laurel like the 

 sassafras with fragrant leaves, and others, the names of which I 

 do not know, were matted together b)' a trailing bamboo or cane. 

 Here we were more like fishes struggling in a net than any other 

 animal. On the higher parts, brushwood takes the place of larger 

 trees, with here and there a red cedar or an alerce pine. I was 

 also pleased to see, at an elevation of a little less than looo 

 feet, our old friend the southern beech. They were, however, 

 poor stunted trees ; and I should think that this must be nearly 

 their northern limit. We ultimately gave up the attempt in 

 despair. 



December \otJi. — The }'awl and whale-boat, with Mr. Sulivan, 

 proceeded on their survey, but I remained on board the Beagle, 

 which the next day left San Pedro for the southward. On the 



