21G PATAGONIA. 



One day the yawl was sent under the command 

 ofMr. Chaffers with three days' provisions to sur- 

 vey the upper part of the harbour. In the morn- 

 ing we searched for some watering-jjlaces men- 

 tioned in an old Spanish chart. We found one 

 creek, at the head of which there was a trickling 

 rill (the first we had seen) of brackish water. 

 Here the tide compelled us to wait several hours ; 

 and in the interval I walked some miles into the 

 interior. The plain, as usual, consisted of gravel, 

 mingled with soil resembling chalk in appearance, 

 but very different from it in nature. From the soft- 

 ness of these materials it was worn into many gul- 

 leys. There was not a tree, and, excepting the 

 guanaco, which stood on the hill-top a watchful 

 sentinel over its herd, scarcely an animal or a bird. 

 All was stillness and desolation. Yet in passing 

 over these scenes, without one bright object near, 

 an ill-defined but strong sense of pleasure is vivid- 

 ly excited. One asked how many ages the plain 

 had thus lasted, and how many more it was doomed 

 thus to continue. 



None can reply — all seems eternal now. 

 The wilderness has a mysterious tongue, 

 Which teaches awful doubt.* 



In the evening we sailed a few miles further up, 

 and then pitched the tents for the night. By the 

 middle of the next day the yawl was aground, and 

 from the shoalness of the water could not proceed 

 any higher. The water being found partly fresh, 

 Mr. Chaffers took the dingey and went up two or 

 three miles further, where she also grounded, but in 

 a fresh-water river. The water was muddy, and 

 though the stream was most insignificant in size, it 

 would be difficult to account for its origin, except 

 from the melting snow on the Cordillera. At the 

 * Shelley, Lines on Mt. Blano. 



