232 



TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



Dec. 1832. 



the Fagus betuloides, for the number of the other species of 

 beech^ and of the Winter^s bark, is quite inconsiderable. 

 This tree keeps its leaves throughout the year ; but its 

 foUage is of a peculiar brownish-green colour, with a tinge of 

 yellow. As the whole landscape is thus coloured, it has a 

 sombre, dull appearance ; nor is it often enlivened by the 

 rays of the sun. 



December 20th. — One side of the harbour is formed by 

 a hill about 1500 feet high, which Captain FitzRoy has called 

 after Sir J. Banks, in commemoration of his disastrous ex- 

 cursion, which proved fatal to two of his party, and nearly so 

 to Dr. Solander. The snowstorm, which was the cause of 

 their misfortune, happened in the middle of January, cor- 

 responding to our July, and in the latitude of Durham ! I 

 was anxious to reach the summit of this mountain to collect 

 alpine plants ; for flowers of any kind, in the lower part, were 

 few in number. We followed the same watercourse as on the 

 previous day, till it dwindled away, and then were compelled to 

 crawl blindly among the trees. These, from the effects of the 

 elevation, and of the impetuous winds, were low, thick, and 

 crooked. At length we reached that which from a distance 

 appeared like a carpet of fine green turf, but which, to our 

 vexation, turned out to be a compact mass of little beech-trees 

 about four or five feet high. These were as thick together 

 as box in the border of a flower-garden, and we were obliged 

 to struggle over the flat but treacherous surface. After a 

 little more trouble we gained the peat, and then the bare 

 slate rock. 



. A ridge connected this hill with another, distant some 

 miles, and more lofty, so that patches of snow were lying on 

 it. As the day was not far advanced, I determined to walk 

 there and collect along the road. It would have been very 

 hard work, had it not been for a well-beaten and straight path 

 made by the guanacoes ; for these animals, like sheep, always 

 follow the same line. When we reached the hill we found it 

 the highest in the immediate neighbourhood, and the waters 

 flowed to the sea in opposite directions. We obtained a 



