202 CHARLES DARWIN 



which would soon disable an unshod horse from taking part 

 in the chase. Nevertheless, in two places in this very central 

 region, I found small heaps of stones, which I do not think 

 could have been accidentally thrown together. They were 

 placed on points, projecting over the edge of the highest lava 

 cliff, and they resembled, but on a small scale, those near 

 Port Desire. 



May 4th. Captain Fitz Roy determined to take the boats 

 no higher. The river had a winding course, and was very 

 rapid; and the appearance of the country offered no tempta- 

 tion to proceed any further. Everywhere we met with the 

 same productions, and the same dreary landscape. We were 

 now one hundred and forty miles distant from the Atlantic, 

 and about sixty from the nearest arm of the Pacific. The 

 valley in this upper part expanded into a wide basin, bounded 

 on the north and south by the basaltic platforms, and fronted 

 by the long range of the snow-clad Cordillera. But we 

 viewed these grand mountains with regret, for we were 

 obliged to imagine their nature and productions, instead of 

 standing, as we had hoped, on their summits. Besides the 

 useless loss of time which an attempt to ascend the river any 

 higher would have cost us, we had already been for some 

 days on half allowance of bread. This, although really 

 enough for reasonable men, was, after a hard day's march, 

 rather scanty food: a light stomach and an easy digestion 

 are good things to talk about, but very unpleasant in practice. 



$th. Before sunrise we commenced our descent. We 

 shot down the stream with great rapidity, generally at the 

 rate of ten knots an hour. In this one day we effected what 

 had cost us five-and-a-half hard days' labour in ascending. 

 On the 8th, we reached the Beagle after our twenty-one days' 

 expedition. Every one, excepting myself, had cause to be 

 dissatisfied; but to me the ascent afforded a most interesting 

 section of the great tertiary formation of Patagonia. 



On March ist, 1833," and again on March i6th, 1834, the 

 Beagle anchored in Berkeley Sound, in East Falkland Island. 

 This archipelago is situated in nearly the same latitude with 

 the mouth of the Strait of Magellan; it covers a space of 

 one hundred and twenty by sixty geographical miles, and is a 



