302 CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO chap. 



that the solitary man who had made his bed on this wild spot, 

 must have been some poor shipwrecked sailor, who, in trying 

 to travel up the coast, had here laid himself down for his 

 dreary night. 



December zZth. — The weather continued very bad, but it 

 at last permitted us to proceed with the survey. The time 

 hung heavy on our hands, as it always did when we were 

 delayed from day to day by successive gales of wind. In the 

 evening another harbour was discovered, where we anchored. 

 Directly afterwards a man was seen waving his shirt, and a 

 boat was sent which brought back two seamen. A party of 

 six had run away from an American whaling vessel, and had 

 landed a little to the southward in a boat, which was shortly 

 afterwards knocked to pieces by the surf They had now 

 been wandering up and down the coast for fifteen months, 

 without knowing which way to go, or where they were. What 

 a singular piece of good fortune it was that this harbour was 

 now discovered ! Had it not been for this one chance, they 

 might have wandered till they had grown old men, and at last 

 have perished on this wild coast. Their sufferings had been 

 very great, and one of their party had lost his life by falling 

 from the cliffs. They were sometimes obliged to separate in 

 search of food, and this explained the bed of the solitary man. 

 Considering what they had undergone, I think they had kept 

 a very good reckoning of time, for they had lost only four 

 days. 



December ^oth. — We anchored in a snug little cove at the 

 foot of some high hills, near the northern extremity of Tres 

 Montes. After breakfast the next morning a party ascended 

 one of these mountains, which was 2400 feet high. The 

 scenery was remarkable. The chief part of the range was 

 composed of grand, solid, abrupt masses of granite, which 

 appeared as if they had been coeval with the beginning of the 

 world. The granite was capped with mica-slate, and this in 

 the lapse of ages had been worn into strange finger-shaped 

 points. These two formations, thus differing in their outlines, 

 agree in being almost destitute of vegetation. This barrenness 

 had to our eyes a strange appearance, from having been so 

 long accustomed to the sight of an almost universal forest of 

 dark green trees. I took much delight in examining the 



