l832o PAZ— LIEBRE BUTTERFLIES. 117 



close to US, in order to receive stores and various supplies 

 which we had brought for them from Buenos Ayres and Monte 

 Video. I was a little uneasy when I saw that the pilot of the 

 Liebre, Mr. Roberts, was one of the largest of men, and that 

 his little vessel looked, by comparison, no bigger than a coffin ; 

 but Mr. Wickham allayed my doubts by assuring me that 

 his moveable weight answered admirably in trimming the 

 craft ; and that, when she got a-ground, Mr. Roberts stepped 

 overboard, and heaved her afloat. " Certainly,'' said Mr. Wick- 

 ham, " he did harm on one day, by going up to look-out, and 

 breaking the mast." 



In the afternoon of this day (4th) we weighed anchor and 

 parted company from the Paz and Liebre. They returned 

 to San Bias, and the Beagle steered southward. Secure and 

 capacious as is the port just mentioned, it is one of the most 

 difficult and dangerous to enter on this coast. The best, 

 indeed only approach to it, is called by those sealers and sea- 

 elephant fishers who have hitherto frequented it, — ' Hell-gate.' 



At about four the weather was very hot, the sky cloudless, 

 and varying flaws of wind drove quantities of gossamer, and 

 numbers of insects off from the land. The horizon was 

 strangely distorted by refraction, and T anticipated some vio- 

 lent change. Suddenly myriads of white butterflies surrounded 

 the ship, in such multitudes, that the men exclaimed, " it is 

 snowing butterflies." They were driven before a gust from the 

 north-west, which soon increased to a double-reefed topsail 

 breeze, and were as numerous as flakes of snow in the thickest 

 shower. The space they occupied could not have been less 

 than two hundred yards in height, a mile in width, and several 

 miles in length. 



Our next object was to visit Tierra del Fuego, examine 

 some portions of that country — yet unexplored — and restore 

 the Fuegians to their native places ; but in our passage, strong 

 southerly winds, severe squalls, and cold weather, though it was 

 near midsummer in that hemisphere, caused delay and discom- 

 fort, as they must always in a small and deeply-laden vessel, 

 where little can be done except in fine weather. 



