DESCENT OF THE SANTA CIIUZ. 241 



May Ath. — Captain Fitz Roy deteiinined to take 

 the boats no higher. The river had a winding 

 course, and was very rapid ; and the appearance 

 of" the country offered no temptation to proceed 

 any further. Everywhere we met with the same 

 productions, and the same dreary landscape. We 

 were now one hundred and forty iniles distant 

 from the Atlantic, and about sixty from the near- 

 est arm of the Pacific. The valley in this upper 

 part expanded into a wide basin, bounded on the 

 north and south by the basaltic platforms, and 

 fronted by the long range of the snow-clad Cordil- 

 lera. But we viewed these grand mountains with 

 regret, for we were obliged to imagine their nature 

 and productions, instead of standing, as we had 

 hoped, on their summits. Besides the useless loss 

 of time which an attempt to ascend the river any 

 higher would have cost us, we had already been 

 for some days on half allowance of bread. This, 

 although really enough for reasonable men, was, 

 after a hard day's march, rather scanty food : a 

 light stomach and an easy digestion are good things 

 to talk about, but very unpleasant in practice. 



5th. — Before sunrise we commenced our de- 

 scent. We shot down the stream with great ra- 

 pidity, generally at the rate of ten knots an hour. 

 In this one day we effected what had cost us five 

 and a half hard days' labour in ascending. On the 

 Sth we reached the Beagle, after our twenty-one 

 days' expedition. Every one, excepting myself, 

 had cause to be dissatisfied ; but to me the ascent 

 afforded a most interesting section of the great ter- 

 tiary formation of Patagonia. 



On March 1st, 1833, and again on March l&th^ 

 1834, the Beagle anchored in Berkeley Sound, in 

 East Falkland Island. This archipelago is situ- 

 VoL. 1—16 X 



