272 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



very well during the daylight, but to anchor the launch snugly 

 and then to be waked by her bumping and straining at her cable 

 perhaps ten times in the night, and to have to turn out in just 

 what you happened to have on in the way of sleeping apparel 

 supplemented only by " the mantle of the night," — for there never 

 was a moment to be lost at these junctures — was an experience 

 which quickly became monotonous and wearing to strength and 

 temper. During this South Fjord trip the launch certainly did 

 herself proud in this direction ; she seldom gave us a couple of 

 hours' quiet rest, often forcing us to face the biting cold a dozen 

 times between dark and dawn. 



The forests about this part of the lake were immense, and 

 contained trees and plants unknown in the outer Cordillera or, 

 rather, I should say, the foothills.* A bush resembling holly was 

 conspicuous, fuchsias also abounded. 



I quote a short description of this region from my diary : 

 "The mountains go in and out of the mist, now seen, now lost. 

 The mist shrouds them at one moment, and the greyness reaches 

 up to heaven and down to earth — into a man's soul it often 

 seems ; the next instant there may be gleams of a sad blue sky 

 shining through the torn banners of the haze, and glaciers assume 

 a wonderful goblin hue, a pallid violet." There was some same- 

 ness in our days, but the launch kept us alive with anticipation. 

 She seldom lacked the chance of giving us some surprise. 

 Often we asked each other, " Will she drown us after all? And 

 when and where ? " A cold death and a deep grave she had it 

 in her power to give. The one good side to the situation was 

 that when we landed, as we often did, in a sleety drizzle on a 

 swampy camp, we forbore to grumble, but were, on the contrary, 

 filled with a strong thankfulness to have escaped from her even 

 for a little time. 



We had one particularly bad night, when a series of squalls 

 came down on us, and we spent the greater part of our sleeping 

 hours in poling the launch off the shore, but at last the wind got 

 the better of us and literally hurled her on the beach. 



* I hope in a future volume to publish a list of the plants we collected. At the 

 moment of writing all have not reached England. 



