2T2 IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [chap. x. 



our party. The tallest amongst the Fuegians was evidently 

 much pleased at his height being noticed. When placed 

 back to back with the tallest of the boat's crew, he tried his 

 best to edge on higher ground, and to stand on tip-toe. He 

 opened his mouth to show his teeth, and turned his face for 

 a side view ; and all this was done with such alacrity that 

 I daresay he thought himself the handsomest man in 

 Tierradel Fuego. After our first feeling of grave astonish- 

 ment was over, nothing could be more ludicrous than the 

 odd mixture of surprise and imitation which these savages 

 every moment exhibited. 



The next day I attempted to penetrate some way into 

 the country. Tierra del Fuego may be described as a 

 mountainous land, partly submerged in the sea, so that deep 

 inlets and bays occupy the place where valleys should exist. 

 The mountain sides, except on the exposed western coast, 

 are covered from the water's edge upwards by one great 

 forest. The trees reach to an elevation of between looo 

 and 1500 feet, and are succeeded by a band of peat, with 

 minute alpine plants ; and this again is succeeded by the line 

 of perpetual snow, which, according to Captain King, in the 

 Strait of Magellan descends to between 3000 and 4000 feet. 

 To find an acre of level land in any part of the country is 

 most rare. I recollect only one little flat piece near Port 

 Famine, and another of rather larger extent near Goeree 

 Road. In both places, and everywhere else, the surface is 

 covered by a thick bed of swampy peat. Even within the 

 forest, the ground is concealed by a mass of slowly putrefy- 

 ing vegetable matter, which, from being soaked with 

 water, yields to the foot. 



Finding it nearly hopeless to push my way through the 

 wood, I followed the course of a mountain torrent. At first, 

 from the waterfalls and number of dead trees, I could hardly 

 crawl along ; but the bed of the stream soon became a little 

 more open, from the floods having swept the sides. I con- 

 tinued slowly to advance for an hour along the broken and 

 rocky banks, and was amply repaid by the grandeur of the 

 scene. The gloomy depth of the ravine well accorded with 

 the universal signs of violence. On every side were lying 

 irregular masses of rock and torn-up trees ; other trees, 

 though still erect, were decayed to the heart and ready to 

 fall. The entangled mass of the thriving and the fallen 

 reminded me of the forests within the tropics — yet there was 



