1(30 PATAGONIA. [CHAP. via. 



occurrence of a number of uninjured bones in a cave, or buried 

 under alluvial accumulations ; and likewise the cause why certain 

 animals are more commonly embedded than others in sedimentary 



deposits. 



One day the yawl was sent under the command of Mr. Chaffers 

 with three days' provisions to survey the upper part of the harbour. 

 In the morning we searched for some watering-places mentioned in 

 an old Spanish chart. We found one creek, at the head of which 

 there was a trickling rill (the first we had seen) of brackish water. 

 Here the tide compelled us to wait several hours ; and in the in- 

 terval I walked some miles into the interior. The plain as usual 

 consisted of gravel, mingled witli soil resembling chalk in appear- 

 ance, but very different from it in nature. From the softness of 

 these materials it was worn into many gulleys. There was not a 

 tree, and, excepting the guanaco, which stood on the hill-top a 

 watchful sentinel over its herd, scarcely an animal or a bird. All 

 was stillness and desolation. Yet in passing over these scenes, 

 without one bright object near, an ill-defined but strong sense of 

 pleasure is vividly excited. One asked how many ages the plain 

 had thus lasted, and how many more it was doomed thus to 

 continue. 



" None can reply all seems eternal now. 

 The wilderness has a mysterious tongue, 

 Which teaches awful doubt." * 



In the evening we sailed a few miles further up, and then pitche 

 the tents for the night. By the middle of the next day the yawl 

 was aground, and from the shoalness of the water could not proceed 

 any higher. The water being found partly fresh, Mr. Chaffers took 

 the dingey and went up two or three miles further, where she also 

 grounded, but in a fresh-water river. The water was muddy, and 

 though the stream was most insignificant in size, it would be difficult 

 to account for its origin, except from the melting snow on the Cor- 

 dillera. At the spot where we bivouacked, we were surrounded by 

 bold cliffs and steep pinnacles of porphyry. I do not think I ever 

 saw a spot which appeared more secluded from the rest of the 

 world, than this rocky crevice in the wide plain. 



The second day after our return to the anchorage, a party of 

 officers and myself went to ransack an old Indian grave, which I 

 had found on the summit of a neighbouring hill. Two immense, 

 * Shelley, Lines on M. Blanc. 



