Dec. 1834. 



SAN PEDRO. 



341 



sends out four or five of these enormous leaves — presenting 

 together a very noble appearance. 



December 6th. — We reached Caylen^ called "el fin del 

 Cristiandad.^' In the morning we stopped for a few minutes 

 at a house on the northern end of Laylec^ which was the 

 extreme point of South American Christendom, and a mise- 

 rable hovel it was. The latitude is 43° 10', which is two 

 degrees further south than the Rio Negro on the Atlantic 

 coast. These extreme Christians were very poor, and, under 

 the plea of their situation, begged some tobacco. As a proof 

 of the poverty of these Indians, I may mention that, shortly 

 before this, we had met a man who had travelled three days 

 and a half on foot, and had as many to return, for the sake of 

 recovering the value of a small axe, and a few fish. How 

 very difficult it must be to buy the smallest article, when 

 such trouble is taken to recover so small a debt ! 



In the evening we reached the island of S. Pedro, where 

 we found the Beagle at anchor. In doubling the point, two 

 of the officers landed to take a round of angles with the 

 theodolite. A fox, of a kind said to be peculiar to the 

 island, and very rare in it, and which is an undescribed 

 species, was sitting on the rocks. He was so intently ab- 

 sorbed in watching their manoeuvres, that I was able, by 

 quietly walking up behind, to knock him on the head with 

 my geological hammer. This fox, more curious or more 

 scientific, but less wise, than the generality of his brethren, 

 is now mounted in the museum of the Zoological Society. 



We staid three days in this harbour ; on one of which 

 Captain FitzRoy, with a party, attempted to ascend to the 

 summit of San Pedro. The woods here had rather a diifer- 

 ent aspect from those on the northern parts of the island. 

 The rock also being micaceous slate, there was no beach, but 

 the steep sides dipped directly beneath the water. The gene- 

 ral aspect in consequence was more hke that of Tierra del 

 Fuego than of Chiloe. In vain we tried to gain the summit : 

 he forest was so impenetrable that no one, who has not be- 

 held it, can imagine so entangled a mass of dying and dead 



