THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 183 



In the evening we sailed a few miles further up, and then 

 pitched the tents for the night. By the middle of the next 

 day the yawl was aground, and from the shoalness of the 

 water could not proceed any higher. The water being found 

 partly fresh, Mr. Chaffers took the dingey and went up two 

 or three miles further, where she also grounded, but in a 

 fresh-water river. The water was muddy, and though the 

 stream was most insignificant in size, it would be difficult to 

 account for its origin, except from the melting snow on the 

 Cordillera. At the spot where we bivouacked, we were sur- 

 rounded by bold cliffs and steep pinnacles of porphyry. I do 

 not think I ever saw a spot which appeared more secluded 

 from the rest of the world, than this rocky crevice in the 

 wide plain. 



The second day after our return to the anchorage, a party 

 of officers and myself went to ransack an old Indian grave, 

 which I had found on the summit of a neighbouring hill. 

 Two immense stones, each probably weighing at least a 

 couple of tons, had been placed in front of a ledge of rock 

 about six feet high. At the bottom of the grave on the hard 

 rock there was a layer of earth about a foot deep, which 

 must have been brought up from the plain below. Above it a 

 pavement of flat stones was placed, on which others were 

 piled, so as to fill up the space between the ledge and the two 

 great blocks. To complete the grave, the Indians had con- 

 trived to detach from the ledge a huge fragment, and to 

 throw it over the pile so as to rest on the two blocks. We 

 undermined the grave on both sides, but could not find any 

 relics, or even bones. The latter probably had decayed long 

 since (in which case the grave must have been of extreme 

 antiquity), for I found in another place some smaller heaps, 

 beneath which a very few crumbling fragments could yet be 

 distinguished as having belonged to a man. Falconer states, 

 that where an Indian dies he is buried, but that subsequently 

 his bones are carefully taken up and carried, let the distance 

 be ever so great, to be deposited near the sea-coast. This 

 custom, I think, may be accounted for by recollecting, that 

 before the introduction of horses, these Indians must have 

 led nearly the same life as the Fuegians now do, and there- 

 fore generally have resided in the neighbourhood of the sea. 



