228 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



of the smaller islets and rocks worn down and rounded 

 by floating ice. On this and the following days I 

 frequently looked out for evidences of ice-action on 

 the rocky flanks of the mountains. These were at 

 some points very perceptible up to a considerable 

 height; but all that I could clearly make out ap- 

 peared to be directed from south to north, and nearly 

 or quite horizontal. I failed to trace any indication 

 on the present surface of the descent in a westerly 

 direction of great glaciers flowing from the interior 

 towards the coast. 



Before midday we passed opposite the opening of 

 Eyre Sound, one of the most considerable of the 

 numerous inlets that penetrate the mountains on the 

 side of the mainland. This is said to extend for forty 

 or fifty miles into the heart of the Cordillera, and it 

 seems certain that one, or perhaps several, glaciers 

 descend into the sound, as at all seasons masses of 

 floating ice are drifted into the main channel. We 

 did not see them at first, as the northerly breeze had 

 carried them towards the southern side of the inlet ; 

 but before long we found ourselves in the thick of 

 them, and for about a mile steamed slowly amongst 

 floating masses of tolerably uniform dimensions, four 

 or five feet in height out of the water, and from ten 

 to fifteen feet in length. At a little distance they 

 looked somewhat like a herd of animals grazing. 

 Seen near at hand, the ice looked much weathered, 

 and it may be inferred that the parent glacier reaches 

 the sea somewhere near the head of the sound, and 

 they had been exposed for a considerable time before 

 reaching its mouth. 



