SCENERY OF THE MOUNTAINS. 271 



trees. These, from the effects of the elevation and 

 of the impetuous winds, were low, thick, and 

 crooked. At length we reached that which from 

 a distance appeared like a carpet of line gi'een turf, 

 but which, to our vexation, turned out to be a com- 

 pact mass of little beech-trees about four or live 

 feet high. They were as thick together as box in 

 the border of a garden, and we were obliged to 

 struggle over the flat but treacherous surface. 

 After a little more trouble we gained the peat, and 

 then the bare slate rock. 



A ridge connected this hill with another, distant 

 some miles, and more lofty, so that patches of 

 snow wei'e lying on it. As the day was not far 

 advanced, I determined to walk there and collect 

 plants along the road. It would have been very 

 hard work, had it not been for a well-beaten and 

 straight path made by the guanacos ; for these an- 

 imals, like sheep, always follow the same line. 

 When we rtiached the hill, we found it the highest 

 in the immediate neighbourhood, and the waters 

 flowed to the sea in opposite directions. We ob- 

 tained a wide view over the surrounding country : 

 to the north a swampy moorland extended, but to 

 the south wc had a scene of savage magnificence, 

 well becoming Tierra del Fuego. There was a 

 degree of mysterious gi-andeur in mountain behind 

 mountain, with the deep intervening valleys, all 

 covered by one thick, dusky mass of forest. The 

 atmosphere, likewise, in this climate, where gale 

 succeeds gale, with rain, hail, and sleet, seems 

 blacker than anywhere else. In the Strait of Ma- 

 gellan, looking due southward from Port Famine, 

 the distant channels between the mountains ap- 

 peared, fi-om their gloominess, to lead beyond the 

 confines of this world. 



Dcccvibcr 2lsf. — The Beagle got under way; 



