262 NATIVES—CHANNELS. Aug. 1829. 
were insufficient to enable them to decide with any degree of 
certainty. After looking round this bay, they continued to 
the eastward, and passed a point beyond which there was appa- 
rently a wide channel; having run about six. miles down it 
without discovering any termination, they hauled their boat up 
on the beach for the night. 
On the 8th, two canoes were noticed on the west shore ; 
but seeing strangers the natives, apparently much frightened, 
all landed, except an old man; and taking with them what 
they most valued, hid themselves among the brush-wood, leav- 
ing their canoes fastened to the sea-weed. By some Fuegian 
words of invitation, the men were, however, induced to approach 
and traffic, receiving for their otter skins whatever could be 
spared. In appearance and manner these Indians were exactly 
similar to the Fuegians; and by their canoes only, which were 
built of planks, could they be distinguished as belonging to 
another tribe. 
After leaving the natives, the boat passed Cape Earnest, 
and Lieutenant Skyring observed a wide channel leading north 
and then N.N.W.;* also, another opening to the eastward. 
The wind being easterly, he ran some distance to the north- 
ward, to gain more knowledge of the first inlet ; and having 
gone ten or twelve miles from Cape Earnest, and observing 
the opening for eight miles beyond to be as wide as where they 
then were, he concluded it to be a channel, or else a deep sound 
terminated by low land, for there was evidently a division in 
* Here is certainly the Ancon sin salida of Sarmiento, whose journal 
describes the inlet as terminating in a cove to the north, p.142. The 
mountain of Afio Nuevo cannot be mistaken; indeed the whole of the 
coast is so well described by the ancient mariner, that we have little diffi- 
culty in determining the greater number of places he visited. In all cases 
we have, of course; preserved his names. The chart compiled by Admiral 
Burney is a remarkable instance of the care which that author took in 
arranging it, and how ingeniously and correctly he has displayed his 
judgment; it is also a proof that our favourite old voyager, Sarmiento, 
was at least correct in his descriptions, although he appears to have been 
quite ignorant of the variation of the compass. —See Burney Coll, 
Voyages, p. 31; and Sarmiento, p. 162. 
