226 



CHARLES DARWIN 



to collect alpine plants ; for flowers of any kind in the lower 

 parts are few in number. We followed the same water- 

 course as on the previous day, till it dwindled away, and we 

 were then 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. They were as thick together as box in the border of 

 a 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 plants along the road. It would have 

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

 straight path made by the guanacos ; 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 wide view over the surrounding country : to the 

 north a swampy moorland extended, but to the south we 

 had a scene of savage magnificence, well becoming Tierra 

 del Fuego. There was a degree of mysterious grandeur 

 in mountain behind mountain, with the deep intervening 

 valleys, all covered by one thick, dusky mass of forest. • The 

 atmosphere, likewise, in this climate, where gale succeeds 

 gale, with rain, hail, and sleet, seems blacker than anywhere 

 else. In the Strait of Magellan looking due southward from 

 Port Famine, the distant channels between the mountains 

 appeared from their gloominess to lead beyond the confines 

 of this world. 



December 21st.— -The Beagle got under way: and on the 

 succeeding day, favoured to an uncommon degree by a fine 

 easterly breeze, we closed in with the Barnevelts, and run- 

 ning past Cape Deceit with its stony peaks, about three 

 o'clock doubled the weather-beaten Cape Horn. The evening 

 was calm and bright, and we enjoyed a fine view of the sur- 



