130 Cruise of the ^' Alert. '^ 



sportsman. As we emerged from the canal, and skirted along 

 the eastern shore of Skyring Water, we noticed two men on foot, 

 walking along the beach. We after\vards learned that they had 

 a day or two previously left the coal mine where they had been 

 employed, and were now attempting the precarious task of travel- 

 ling on foot to the Chilian settlement, Punta Arenas, in the Straits 

 of Magellan, a distance of ninety miles. 



At 10.30 a.m. we reached the bay of the mines (Rada de las 

 Minas), and came to an anchor about half a-mile from the shore. 

 The settlement was larger than we had expected, and exhibited 

 fair signs of activity, several shingle-built houses, large store sheds, 

 and a steam sawmill, showing out conspicuously against the dark 

 background of forest which spreads for a few miles to either side, 

 and is seen extending inland to near the summit of Mount 

 Rogers, a hill to the northward which reaches an elevation of 

 1,000 feet. 



For information concerning Skj-ring Water, we are mainly 

 indebted to Fitzroy's account of the short survey he made in the 

 year 1829, when in command of H.M.S. Beagle (which account 

 comprises information obtained from a sealer named Low, who 

 visited these waters in pursuit of his trade), and to some papers 

 published by the Chilian G0vernme.1t in the A nuario Hydrografico, 

 detailing the results of two visits made by Chilian men-of-war. 

 In November 1877 the Chilian gun-boat Magellanes visited Sky- 

 ring Water, making a stay of three weeks, during which time her 

 boats were mainly employed in making a survey of the eastern 

 part of the basin. The results of this survey, so far as it went, 

 favoured the idea of there being a channel connecting Skyring 

 Water with Smyth's Channel to the westward. It was brought to 

 an abrupt termination by the terrible mutiny which took place at 

 Sandy Point in November 1877; however, in the months of 

 December 1 878, and January and February 1879, Captain Latorre, 

 of the corvette Magellanes, made a second incomplete examina- 

 tion of Skyring Water. One of his boat parties penetrated a 



