SAN PEDRO. 17 



Pedi'o, where we found the Beagle at anchor. In 

 doubling 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 in- 

 tently' absorbed in watching the work of the offi- 

 cers, that I was able, by quietly walking up behind, 

 to knock him on the head with my geological ham- 

 mer. 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 party, 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 im- 

 penetrable, 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 

 soundings. At other times we crept one after an- 

 other 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 by 

 a trailing bamboo or cane. Here we were more 

 like fishes struggling in a net than any other ani- 



