288 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



one under Mr. Hammond, to survey the western 

 parts of the Beagle Channel, and afterwards to re- 

 turn and visit the settlement. The day, to our as- 

 tonishment, was overpoweringly hot, so that our 

 skins were scorched : with this beautiful weather, 

 the view in the middle of the Beagle Channel was 

 very remarkable. Looking towards either hand, 

 no object intercepted the vanishing points of this 

 long canal between the mountains. The circum- 

 stance of its being an arm of the sea was rendered 

 very evident by several huge whales* spouting in 

 different directions. On one occasion I saw two 

 of these monsters, probably male and female, slow- 

 ly swimming one after the other, within less than 

 a stone's throw of the shore, over which the beech- 

 tree extended its branches. 



We sailed on till it was dark, and then pitched 

 our tents in a quiet creek. The greatest luxury 

 was to find for our beds a beach of pebbles, for 

 they were dry, and yielded to the body. Peaty 

 soil is damp ; rock is uneven and hard ; sand gets 

 into one's meat, when cooked and eaten boat-fash- 

 ion ; but when lying in our blanket-bags, on a good 

 bed of smooth pebbles, we passed most comforta- 

 ble nights. 



It was my watch till one o'clock. There is some- 

 thing vei-y solemn in these scenes. At no time 

 does the consciousness in what a remote corner of 

 the world you are then standing come so strongly 

 before the mind. Everything tends to this effect ; 

 the stillness of the night is interrupted only by the 

 heavy breathing of the seamen beneath the tents, 

 and sometimes by the cry of a night-bird. The oc- 



* One day, off the east coast of Tierra del Fuego, we saw a 

 grand sight in several spermaceti whales jumping upright quite 

 out of the water, with the exception of their tail-fins. As they 

 fell down sideways, they splashed the water high up, and the 

 sound reverherated like a distant broadside, 



