THE VOYAGE OF THE HASSLER = 133 
cliff; he reached the top utterly exhausted and falling 
down was obliged to lie there for a little while before 
he could gather strength enough to return. When a 
giant like Pourtalés acknowledges such failure as this, 
he must have had pretty hard work, and you know 
he always makes light of his own doings. 
I cannot tell you how impressive the loneliness of 
this gulf and shore seems to me. When you reach the 
top of the bluff behind the beach, you see only a 
stretch of sandy plains as far as the eye can follow 
with no growth upon it except dry looking shrubs 
and coarse grass and low thorny cactus like prickly 
pear. If it were in civilized regions you would only 
say it was monotonous and uninteresting; but here 
where anything human so rarely comes — for I sup- 
pose in years no vessel enters this gulf, — it all seems 
in harmony with the intense solitude. There is noth- 
ing to bring men here, neither wood nor water, so 
that I suppose it will remain deserted for many a year 
to come. 
March 7 
WE have said good-bye to our peaceful sheltered bay 
and are out at sea again. We left our anchorage in 
faultless weather, so still, that we could hardly say 
the vessel was moving; the whole gulf was like a mir- 
ror and the sun went down without a cloud in bur- 
nished gold. We had had such a pleasant visit in the 
Gulf of San Mathias that we all left it with regret. As 
long as the shore was in sight we could see our beach 
fires still burning. We wondered who would light the 
