RIVERS—INDIANS—GRAVES. 58] 
high water, may be easily entered, but at low water the banks are 
dry to a great extent ; a channel, however, is left on its south side, 
of sufficient depth for a small vessel: the tide rises forty-six feet, 
and the stream is very strong. 
Port Desire, in 47° 45’ south latitude, has a narrow entrance 
with strong tides ; but affords in the offing very good anchorage 
as well as shelter from the prevailing winds, which are off shore, 
or westerly. The inlet extends up the country, nearly in a west 
direction, for eighteen miles; but the land is dry and parched, 
and very unsuitable for the establishment which the Spanish 
government formed there not many years since, and of which 
evident traces remain to this day. 
St. George’s Gulf, called in the old charts ‘ Bahia sin Fondo,’ 
or Deep-Sea Gulf, was formerly considered to be a deep sinuosity 
of the coast, into which a river emptied its waters after winding 
through a large tract of country ; for, until the Descubierta and 
Atrevida’s voyage of discovery, very vague accounts had been given 
of this, or indeed of any other part of the coast. The Gulf, upon 
that examination, was found to possess no river or creek in any 
part excepting on the north side, where there are several deep 
bays and coves, which are, and have been frequented by our seal- 
ing vessels. The country about is dry and parched, although 
partially covered with small shrubs, and a wiry grass on which 
large herds of guanacoes feed. 
According to Falkner (the Jesuit missionary, who resided many 
years among the Indian tribes inhabiting the country about Buenos 
Ayres), the eastern coast between the latitudes of 41° and 51° is 
frequented by the natives for the purpose only of burying the 
dead: they have, however, been occasionally met with travelling 
along the coast, apparently without any particular object in view. 
Near Port Desire I have seen the graves of the Indians on the 
summit of the hills, but the bodies had been removed, probably 
by the Indians themselves ; for we are informed by Falkner, that, 
after the dead have been interred twelve months, the graves are 
visited by the tribe, for the purpose of collecting the bones and 
conveying them to their family sepulchres, where they are set up 
and adorned with all the beads and ornaments the friends and 
family of the deceased can collect for the occasion. The ceremony 
