2(58 CHILOE. [CHAP! xni. 



poor, aucl, under the plea of their situation, begged for some to- 

 bacco. As a proof of the poverty of these Indians, I may mention 

 that shortly before this, we had met a man, who had travelled three 

 days and a half on foot, and had as many to return, for the sake 

 of recovering the value of a small axe and a few fish. How very 

 difficult it must be to buy the smallest article, when such trouble 

 is taken to recover so small a debt ! 



In the evening we reached the island of San Pedro, where we 

 found the Beagle at anchor. In doubling the point, two of the 

 officers landed to take a round of angles with the theodolite. A 

 fox (Cam's fulvipes), of a kind said to be peculiar to the island, 

 and very rare in it, and which is a new species, was sitting on 

 the rocks. He was so intently absorbed in watching the work of 

 the officers, that I was able, by quietly walking up behind, to 

 knock him on the head with my geological hammer. This fox, 

 more curious or more scientific, but less wise, than the generality 

 of his brethren, is now mounted in the museum of the Zoological 

 Society. 



We stayed three days in this harbour, on one of which Captain 

 Fitz Eoy, with a party, attempted to ascend to the summit of San 

 Pedro. The woods here had rather a different appearance from 

 those on the northern part of the island. The rock, also, being 

 micaceous slate, there was no beach, but the steep sides dipped 

 directly beneath the water. The general aspect in consequence 

 was more like that of Tierra del Fuego than of Chiloe. In vain 

 we tried to gain the summit : the forest was so impenetrable, that 

 no one who has not beheld it can imagine so entangled a mass of 

 dying and dead trunks. I am sure that often, for more than ten 

 minutes together, our feet never touched the ground, and we were 

 frequently ten or fifteen feet above it, so that the seamen as a joke 

 called out the soundings. At other times we crept one after 

 another on our hands and knees, under the rotten trunks. In the 

 lower part of the mountain, noble trees of the Winter's Bark, and 

 a laurel like the sassafras with fragrant leaves, and others, the 

 names of which I do not know, were matted together by a trailing 

 bamboo or cane. Here we were more like fishes struggling in a 

 net than any other animal. On the higher parts, brushwood takes 

 the place of larger trees, with here and there a red cedar or an 

 alcrco pine. I was also pleased to see, at an elevation of a little 

 less than 1000 feet, our old friend the southern beech. They were, 



