1832. 



VENTANA — DELIBERATIONS. 



109 



possible that those substances might have been thrown out of a 

 volcano in the Galapagos Islands, and drifted on the surface 

 of the sea by currents, which near there run from twenty to 

 eighty miles in twenty-four hours, towards the north-west, one 

 cannot, with certainty, rely upon that fact as evidence of a 

 distance to which pumice has been carried by wind. 



Captain Eden informed me, that the Conway was sur- 

 rounded by ashes and pumice-stone for a day and a half (on 

 the 5th and 6th of May 1835), and that they were supposed 

 to have been ejected from a volcano near Realejo, at the time 

 of the great earthquake ; and an eruption which darkened the 

 air during three days. 



The aborigines of these regions attach considerable impor- 

 tance to the Ventana,* chiefly on account of its use as a land- 

 mark ; for, rising abruptly to the height of 3,340 feet in a flat 

 country, where there is not another hill of consequence, it is 

 of no small use to them in their wanderings. I was told by 

 Mr. Darwin, that he found it to be chiefl}^ of quartz forma- 

 tion ; but I need not risk causing a mistake, by repeating here 

 the information which he gave me, when it is given fully in 

 his own words in the accompanying volume. 



After a few days'* examination of Port Belgrano, and 

 making inquiries of Harris, as well as those persons at 

 Argentina who knew something of the neighbouring waters 

 and shores, I was convinced that the Beagle alone could not 

 explore them, so far as to make her survey of any real use, 

 unless she were to sacrifice a great deal more time than would 

 be admissible, considering the other objects of her expedition. 

 What then was to be done ? Open boats could not explore 

 the seaward limits of those numerous shoals which lie between 

 Blanco Bay and the river Negro, because there are dange- 

 rous ' racesj'-h and often heavy seas. The Beagle herself, no 

 doubt, could do so, and her boats might explore the inlets ; 

 but, the time that such a proceeding would occupy was 



* The Fuel Indians called the Ventana Casu-hati (hig-h hill); and the 

 Molu-che, Vuta-calel (great bulk.) — Falkner, p. 74. 

 t Tide-races, or ripples. 



