1835.] BOAT-WRECKED SAILORS. 271 



wandered till they had grown old men, and at last have perished 

 on this wild coast. Their sufferings had been very great, and one 

 of their party had lost his life by falling from the cliffs. They were 

 sometimes obliged to separate in search of food, and this explained 

 the bed of the solitary man. Considering what they had undergone, 

 I think they had kept a very good reckoning of time, for they had 

 lost only four days. 



December SQth. We anchored in a snug little cove at the foot of 

 some high hills, near the northern extremity of Tres Montes. After 

 breakfast the next morning, a party ascended one of these mountains, 

 which was 2400 feet high. The scenery was remarkable. The chief 

 part of the range was composed of grand, solid, abrupt masses of 

 granite, which appeared as if they had been coeval with the begin- 

 ning of the world. The granite was capped with mica-slate, and 

 this in the lapse of ages had been worn into strange finger-shaped 

 points. These two formations, thus differing in their outlines, agree 

 in being almost destitute of vegetation. This barrenness had to 

 our eyes a strange appearance, from having been so long accustomed 

 to the sight of an almost universal forest of dark-green trees. I 

 took much delight in examining the structure of these mountains. 

 The complicated and lofty ranges bore a noble aspect of durability 

 equally profitless, however, to man and to all other animals. 

 Granite to the geologist is classic ground: from its widespread 

 limits, and its beautiful and compact texture, few rocks have been 

 more anciently recognised. Granite has given rise, perhaps, to more 

 discussion concerning its origin than any other formation. We 

 generally see it constituting the fundamental rock, and, however 

 formed, we know it is the deepest layer in the crust of this globe 

 to which man has penetrated. The limit of man's knowledge in 

 any subject possesses a high interest, which is perhaps increased 

 by its close neighbourhood to the realms of imagination. 



January 1st, 1835. The new year is ushered in with the 

 ceremonies proper to it in these regions. She lays out no false 

 hopes : a heavy north-western gale, with steady rain, bespeaks 

 the rising year. Thank God, we are not destined here to see the 

 end of it, but hope then to be in the Pacific Ocean, where a blue 

 sky tells one there is a heaven, a something beyond the clouds 

 above our heads. 



The north-west winds prevailing for the next four days, we only 

 managed to cross a great bay, and then anchored in another secure 



