CHAPTER XV. 



Extracts from the Journals of Lieutenants Skyring and Graves — Mag- 

 dalen Channel — Keats Sound — Mount Sarmiento — Barrow Head 

 — Cockburn Channel — Prevalence of south-west winds — Melville 

 Sound — Ascent of Mount Skyring — Memorial — Cockburn and 

 Barbara Channels — Mass of Islets and Rocks — Hewett Bay — 

 Cypress trees useful — Adelaide rejoins Beagle in Port Gallant — Captain 

 King's narrative resumed — Plan of future proceedings — Adelaide 

 arrives at Chiloe— Abstract of Lieutenant Skyring's account of her 

 proceedings—Smyth Channel — Mount Burney — ' Ancon sin Salida' — 

 Natives — Kirke Narrows — Guia Narrows — Peculiar tides — Indians in 

 plank canoes — Passage to Chiloe. 



The extracts from Captain Fitz Roy's first journal being 

 ended, I shall now give some passages from the journals of 

 Lieutenants Skyring and Graves, while employed in the Ade- 

 laide, exploring and surveying the Magdalen and Barbara 

 Channels. 



The reader will remember, that the Adelaide parted company 

 with the Beagle, at the entrance of the Magdalen Channel, on 

 the 19th of April ; and steered to the southward under the 

 direction of Lieutenant Skyring. 



Lieutenant Graves says : — 



" The east and west shores of the Magdalen Channel run 

 nearly parallel to each other : but the east side is broken by 

 a large opening, named Keats Sound, which runs into the land 

 for eight miles, and appears very like a channel. f 



" At the S.W. angle of the Magdalen Channel stands Mount 

 Sarmiento : the most conspicuous, and the most splendid object 

 in these regions. Rising abruptly from the sea, to a height of 

 about 7,000 feet, it terminates in two sharp peaks, which seem 

 absolutely in the sky : so lofty does the mountain appear, when 

 you are close to its base. 



{^sj I do not think that there is any opening at the bottom of Keats 

 Sound; which lies at the base of a chain of snow-covered mountains, whose 

 southern side I have closely traced. — R, F. 



