CHAP, x.] SCENERY OF THE MOUNTAINS. 199 



beards, for the ladies of our party. The tallest amongst the Fucgians 

 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 tiptoe. 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 dare say he thought 

 himself the handsomest man in Tierra del Fuego. After our first 

 feeling of grave astonishment 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 gome 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 1000 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 nmss 

 of slowly putrefying 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 continued 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 a difference : 



