1834.] ASPECT OF CHILOE. 261 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Chiloe General Aspect Boat Excursion Native Indians Castro 

 Tame Fox Ascend San Pedro Chouos Archipelago Peninsula of 

 Tres Montes Granitic Kange Boat-wrecked Sailors Low's Harbour 

 Wild Potato Formation of Peat Myopotamus, Otter and Mice 

 Cheucau and Barking-bird Opetiorhyuchus Singular Character of 

 Ornithology Petrels. 



CHILOE AND CHONOS ISLANDS. 



Novemler 10th. THE Beagle sailed from Valparaiso to the south, 

 for the purpose of surveying the southern part of Chile, the island 

 of Chiloe, and the broken land called the Chonos Archipelago, as far 

 south as the Peninsula of Tres Montes. On the 21st we anchored 

 in the bay of S. Carlos, the capital of Chiloe. 



This island is about ninety miles long, with a breadth of rather 

 less than thirty. The land is hilly, but not mountainous, and is 

 covered by one great forest, except where a few green patches have 

 been cleared round the thatched cottages. From a distance the 

 view somewhat resembles that of Tierra del Fuego ; but the woods, 

 when seen nearer, are incomparably more beautiful. Many kinds 

 of fine evergreen trees, and plants with a tropical character, here 

 take the place of the gloomy beech of the southern shores. In 

 winter the climate is. detestable, and in summer it is only a little 

 better. I should think there are few parts of the world, within 

 the temperate regions, where so much rain falls. The winds are 

 very boisterous, and the sky almost always clouded : to have a 

 week of fine weather is something wonderful. It is even difficult 

 to get a single glimpse of the Cordillera: during our first visit, 

 once only the volcano of Osorno stood out in bold relief, and that 

 was before sunrise ; it was curious to watch, as the sun rose, the 

 outline gradually fading away in the glare of the eastern sky. 



The inhabitants, from their complexion and low stature, appear 

 to have three-fourths of Indian blood in their veins. They are an 



