1833. 



HAZARD DARWIN SOUND. 



which came so rapidly that there was scarcely time for the most 

 active of our party to run and seize the boats before they were 

 tossed along the beach like empty calabashes. By the exer- 

 tions of those who grappled them or seized their ropes, they 

 were hauled up again out of reach of a second and third roller ; 

 and indeed we had good reason to rejoice that they were just 

 saved in time ; for had not Mr. Darwin, and two or three of 

 the men, run to them instantly, they would have been swept 

 away from us irrecoverably. Wind and tide would soon have 

 drifted them beyond the distance a man could swim ; and then, 

 what prizes they would have been for the Fuegians, even if we 

 had escaped by possessing ourselves of canoes. At the extre- 

 mity of the sandy point on which we stood, there were many 

 large blocks of stone, which seemed to have been transported 

 from the adjacent mountains, either upon masses of ice, or by 

 the force of waves such as those which we witnessed. Had our 

 boats struck those blocks, instead of soft sand, our dilemma 

 would not have been much less than if they had been at once 

 swept away. 



Embarking, we proceeded along a narrow passage, more like 

 a river than an arm of the sea, till the setting sun warned us to 

 seek a resting-place for the night ; when, selecting a beach 

 very far from any glacier, we again hauled our boats on shore. 

 Long after the sun had disappeared from our view, his setting 

 rays shone so brightly upon the gilded icy sides of the summits 

 above us, that twilight lasted an unusual time, and a fine clear 

 evening enabled us to watch every varying tint till even the 

 highest peak became like a dark shadow, whose outline only 

 could be distinguished. No doubt such scenes are familiar to 

 many, but to us, surrounded even as we so often were by their 

 materials, they were rare ; because clouds continually hang 

 over the heights, or obscure the little sunshine which falls to 

 the lot of Tierra del Fuego. 



The following day (30th) we passed into a large expanse of 

 water, which I named Darwin Sound — after my messmate, 

 who so willingly encountered the discomfort and risk of a long 

 cruise in a small loaded boat. Desirous of finding an opening 



