17^ PATAGONIA chap. 



at the time exclaimed that it was the burial-ground of all the 

 goats in the island. I mention these trifling circumstances, 

 because in certain cases they might explain the occurrence of a 

 number of uninjured bones in a cave, or buried under alluvial 

 accumulations ; and likewise the cause why certain animals are 

 more commonly embedded than others in sedimentary deposits. 

 One day the yawl was sent under the command of Mr. 

 Chaffers with three days' provisions to survey the upper part of 

 the harbour. In the morning we searched for some watering- 

 places mentioned in an old Spanish chart. We found one creek, 

 at the head of which there was a trickling rill (the first we had 

 seen) of brackish water. Here the tide compelled us to wait 

 several hours ; and in the interval I walked some miles into 

 the interior. The plain as usual consisted of gravel, mingled 

 with soil resembling chalk in appearance, but very different 

 from it in nature. From the softness of these materials it was 

 worn into many gulleys. There was not a tree, and, excepting 

 the guanaco, which stood on the hilltop a watchful sentinel 

 over its herd, scarcely an animal or a bird. All was stillness 

 and desolation. Yet in passing over these scenes, without one 

 bright object near, an ill-defined but strong sense of pleasure is 

 vividly excited. One asked how many ages the plain had thus 

 lasted, and how many more it was doomed thus to continue. 



None can reply — all seems eternal now. 

 The wilderness has a mysterious tongue, 

 Which teaches awful doubt.' 



In the evening we sailed a few miles farther up, and then 

 pitched the tents for the night. By the middle of the next day 

 the yawl was aground, and from the shoalness of the water could 

 not proceed any higher. The water being found partly fresh, 

 Mr. Chaffers took the dingey and went up two or three miles 

 farther, where she also grounded, but in a fresh-water river. 

 The water was muddy, and though the stream was most insigni- 

 ficant in size, it would be difficult to account for its origin, 

 except from the melting snow on the Cordillera. At the spot 

 where we bivouacked, we were surrounded by bold cliffs and 

 steep pinnacles of porphyry. I do not think I ever saw a spot 

 which appeared more secluded from the rest of the world than 

 this rocky crevice in the wide plain. 



' Shelley, Lines on HI. Blanc. 



