1884.] SAN PEDRO. 281 
for more than ten minutes together, our feet never touched the 
ground, and we were frequently ten or fifteen feet above it, so 
that the seamen as a joke called out the soundings. At other 
times we crept one after another on our hands and knees, under 
the rotten trunks. In the lower part of the mountain, noble 
trees of the Winter’s Bark, and a laurel like the sassafras with 
fragrant leaves, and others, the names of which I do not know, 
were matted together by a trailing bamboo or cane. Here we 
were more like fishes struggling in a net than any other animal. 
On the higher parts, brushwood takes the place of larger trees, 
with here and there a red cedar or an alerce pine. J was also 
pleased to see, at an elevation of a little less than 1000 feet, our 
old friend the southern beech. ‘They were, however, poor stunted 
trees; and I should think that this must be nearly their northern 
limit. We ultimately gave up the attempt in despair. 
December 10th.—The yawl and whale-boat, with Mr. Sulivan, 
proceeded on their survey, but I remained on board the Beagle, 
which the next day left San Pedro for the southward. On the 
13th we ran into an opening in the southern part of Guayatecas, 
or the Chonos: Archipelago; and it was fortunate we did so, for 
on the following day a storm, worthy of Tierra del Fuego, raged 
with great fury. White massive clouds were piled up against a 
dark blue sky, and across them black ragged sheets of vapour 
were rapidly driven. The successive mountain ranges appeared 
like dim shadows; and the setting sun cast on the woodland a 
yellow gleam, much like that produced by the fame of spirits of 
wine. The water was white with the flying spray, and the wind 
lulled and roared again through the rigging: it was an ominous, 
sublime scene. During a few minutes there was a bright rain- 
bow, and it was curious to observe the effect of the spray, which, 
being carried along the surface of the water, changed the ordi- 
nary semicircle into a cirele—a band of prismatic colours being 
continued, from both feet of the common arch across the bay, 
close to the vessel’s side: thus forming a distorted, but very 
nearly entire ring. 
We stayed here three days. The weather continued bad; but 
this did not much signify, for the surface of the land in all these 
islands is all but impassable. The coast is so very rugged that 
to attempt to walk in that direction requires continued scrambling 
