262 



NATIVES CHANNELS. 



Aug. 1829. 



were insufficient to enable them to decide with any degree of 

 certainty. After looking round this bay, they continued to 

 the eastward, and passed a point beyond which there was appa- 

 rently a wide channel ; having run about six tniles down it 

 without discovering any termination, they hauled their boat np 

 bn the beach for the night. 



On the 8th, two canoes Were noticed on tlie west shore | 

 but seeing strangers the natives, apparently much frightened^ 

 all landed, except an old man ; and taking with them what 

 they most valued, hid themselves among the brush-wood, leav- 

 ing their canoes fastened to the sea- weed. By some Fuegiari 

 words of invitation, the men were, however, induced to approach 

 and traffic, receiving for their otter skins whatever could be? 

 spared. In appearance and manner these Indians were exactly 

 similar to the Fuegians ; and by their canoes only, which were 

 built of planks, could they be distinguished as belonging to 

 another tribe. 



After leaving the natives, the boat passed Cape Earnest, 

 and Lieutenant Skyring observed a wide channel leading north 

 and then N.N.W. ;* also, another opening to the eastward. 

 The wind being easterly, he ran some distance to the north- 

 ward, to gain more knowledge of the first inlet ; and having 

 gone ten or twelve miles from Cape Earnest, and observing 

 the opening for eight miles beyond to be as wide as where they 

 then were, he concluded it to be a channel, or else a deep sound 

 terminated by low land, for there was evidently a division in 



* Here is certainly the Ancon sin salida of Sarmiento, whose journal 

 describes the inlet as terminating in a cote to the north, p. 142. The 

 mountain of Ano Nuevo cannot be mistaken ; indeed the whole of the 

 coast is so well described by the ancient mariner, that we have little diffi- 

 culty in determining the greater number of places he visited. In all cases 

 we have, of course, preserved his names. The chart compiled by Admiral 

 Burney is a remarkable instance of the care which that author took in 

 arranging it, and how ingeniously and correctly he has displayed his 

 judgment; it is also a proof that our favourite old voyager, Sarmiento, 

 was at least correct in his descriptions, although he appears to have been 

 quite ignorant of the variation of the compass. — See Burney Coll. 

 Voyages, p. 31 ; and Sarmiento, p. 162. 



