214 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [CHAP. x. 



seamen just caught hold of the bows, as the curling breaker 

 reached it : he was knocked over and over, but not hurt ; and the 

 boats, though thrice lifted on high and let fall again, received no 

 damage. 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 largo 

 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 desolate 

 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 farthest 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 pro- 

 ceeded, 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 Eoy 

 determined to take him back to the Beagle; and ultimately he was 

 left at New Zealand, where his brother was a missionary. 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 everything which had not been 

 concealed underground. Every article seemed to have been torn 

 up and divided by the natives. Matthews described the watch he 

 was obliged always to kec p 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 old man, whom 

 Matthews asked to leave his wigwam, immediately returned with 

 a large stone in his hand : another day a whole party came armed 



