210 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [cHaP. x. 
but the bed of the stream soon became a. little more open, from 
the floods having swept the sides. I continued slowly to advance 
for an hour along the broken and rocky banks, and was amply 
repaid by the grandeur of the scene. The gloomy depth of the 
ravine well accorded with the universal signs of violence. On 
every side were lying irregular masses of rock and torn-up trees ; 
other trees, though still erect, were decayed to the heart and 
ready to fall. The entangled mass of the thriving and the fallen 
reminded me of the forests within the tropics—yet there was a 
difference: for in these still solitudes, Death, instead of Life, 
seemed the predominant spirit. I followed the watercourse till 
I came to a spot, where a great slip had cleared a straight space 
down the mountain side. By this road I ascended to a consider- 
able elevation, and obtained a good view of the surrounding 
woods. The trees all belong to one kind, the Fagus betuloides ; 
for the number of the other species of Fagus and of the Win- 
ter’s Bark, is quite inconsiderable. ‘[his becch keeps its leaves 
throughout the year; but its foliage is of a peculiar brownish- 
green colour, witha tinge of yellow. As the whole landscape is 
thus coloured, it has a sombre, dull appearance; nor is it often 
enlivened by the rays of the sun. 
December 20th.—One side of the harbour is formed by a hill 
about 1500 feet high, which Captain Fitz Roy has called after 
Sir J. Banks, in commemoration of his disastrous excursion, 
which proved fatal to two men of his party, and nearly so to 
Dr. Solander. The snow-storm, which was the cause of their 
misfortune, happened in the middle of January, corresponding to 
our July, and in the latitude of Durham! I was anxious to 
reach the summit of this mountain to collect alpine plants; for 
flowers of any kind in the lower parts are few in number. We 
followed the saine watercourse as on the previous day, till it dwin- 
dled away, and we were then compelled to crawl blindly among 
the trees. These, from the effects of the elevation and of the 
impetuous winds, were low, thick, and crooked. At length we 
reached that which from a distance appeared like a carpet of fine 
green turf, but which, to our vexation, turned out to be a com- 
pact mass of little beech-trees about four or five feet high. They 
were as thick together as box in the border of a garden, and we 
were obliged to struggle over the flat but treacherous surface. 
