CHAP. X.] GLACIERS ENTERING THE SEA. 225 



he was knocked over and over, but not hurt ; and the boats, 

 thouo-h thrice lifted on high and let fall again, received no dam- 

 age. This was most fortunate for us, for we were a hundred 

 miles distant from the ship, and we should have been left without 

 provisions or fire-arms. I had previously observed that some 

 large fragments of rock on the beach had been lately displaced ; 

 but until seeing this wave, I did not understand the cause. One 

 side of the creek was formed by a spur of mica-slate ; the head 

 by a cliff of ice about forty feet high ; and the other side by a 

 promontory fifty feet high, built up of huge rounded fragments of 

 granite and mica-slate, out of which old trees were growing. 

 This promontory was evidently a moraine, heaped up at a period 

 when the glacier had greater dimensions. 



When we reached the western mouth of this northern branch 

 of the Beagle Channel, we sailed amongst many unknown deso- 

 late islands, and the weather was wretchedly bad. We met with 

 no natives. The coast was almost everywhere so steep, that we 

 had several times to pull many miles before we could find space 

 enough to pitch our two tents : one night we slept on large round 

 boulders, with putrefying sea-weed between them ; and when the 

 tide rose, we had to get up and move our blanket-bags. The far- 

 thest point westward which we reached was Stewart Island, a 

 distance of about one hundred and fifty miles from our ship. We 

 returned into the Beagle Channel by the southern arm, and 

 thence proceeded, with no adventure, back to Ponsonby Sound. 



February 6th. — We arrived at Woollya. Matthews gave so 

 bad an account of the conduct of the Fuegians, that Captain 

 Fitz Roy determined to take him back to the Beagle ; and ulti- 

 mately he was left at New Zealand, where his brother was a mis- 

 sionary. From the time of our leaving, a regular system of 

 plunder commenced ; fresh parties of the natives kept arriving : 

 York and Jemmy lost many things, and Matthews almost every 

 thing which had not been concealed underground. Every article 

 «=ieemed to have been torn up and divided by the natives. Mat- 

 thews described the watch he was obliged always to keep as most 

 harassing ; night and day he was surrounded by the natives, who 

 tried to tire him out by making an incessant noise close to his 

 head. One day an olcl man, whom Matthews asked to leave his 

 wigwam, immediately returned with a large stone in his hand : 



Q 



