92 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : NARRATIVE. 



del Mar the trail winds in and out among low, rounded hills, separated by 

 small ponds and broad stretches of meadow lands. The general aspect 

 of the whole is not unlike that of the sand-hills of western Nebraska. 

 Cabeza del Mar (head of the sea) is the name given to the land-locked 

 body of water which extends some fifteen miles inland from Peckett Har- 

 bor in the Magellan Strait. At the entrance it is quite narrow and easily 

 forded at low tide, while inland it expands into a broad sheet of water 

 several miles in diameter and of considerable depth. To the westward it 

 approaches to within eight miles of Otway Water, a similar though larger 

 body of water which extends inland from the Pacific. The narrow penin- 

 sula which separates these two bodies of water is but slightly elevated 

 above the sea, so that on the following morning, shortly after leaving the 

 hostelry at Cabeza del Mar, I gained a point of vantage where it was pos- 

 sible to see the waters of both oceans at the same time. After leaving 

 Cabeza del Mar, the road leads for ten miles across a low level pampa to 

 the mouth of a very small and unimportant stream rejoicing in the name 

 of Fish River, though I am confident no fish ever ventured farther up this 

 stream than the limits of the tide. From Fish River to Cape Negro is 

 but a short distance, and here one gets the first glimpse of the wooded 

 region of the lower Andes. Here, as elsewhere along these mountains, 

 on the outskirts of the forests, the trees are small, scrubby, and irregularly 

 formed. From Cape Negro to Sandy Point the road leads alternately 

 along the beach of the strait, across a bit of meadow land, or through 

 small forest-covered tracts, finally emerging, some two or three miles north- 

 east of the town, upon the surface of the low, level valley which has been 

 gradually extended farther and farther into the strait through the addition 

 of material brought down from the adjacent mountains by the Rio de las 

 Minas. I arrived at Sandy Point about noon of the tenth day of Novem- 

 ber, suffering with a very bad cold and with the wound on my head much 

 inflamed and suppurating freely. Having found a hotel, which, like all 

 others in this miserable place, as I discovered later, was extremely bad 

 and uncomfortable, after seeing that my horse was properly cared for, I 

 repaired to a physician to obtain such medical attendance as my case 

 might need, in order that I might be able the earlier to start on my return 

 journey. There were two physicians in Sandy Point, one of whom had 

 been recommended to me. ^ -J. confess that the impression made upon me 

 by this gentleman at first sight was not a favorable one, and when a 



