THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



239 



that he should like to cut up and eat our man. Captain 

 Fitz Roy, to avoid the chance of an encounter, which would 

 have been fatal to so many of the Fuegians, thought it ad- 

 visable for us to sleep at a cove a few miles distant. Mat- 

 thews, with his usual quiet fortitude (remarkable in a man 

 apparently possessing little energy of character), determined 

 to stay with the Fuegians, who evinced no alarm for them- 

 selves ; and so we left them to pass their first awful night. 



On our return in the morning (28th) we were delighted 

 to find all quiet, and the men employed in their canoes 

 spearing fish. Captain Fitz Roy determined to send the 

 yawl and one whale-boat back to the ship; and to proceed 

 with the two other boats, one under his own command (in 

 which he most kindly allowed me to accompany him), and 

 one under Mr. Hammond, to survey the western parts of 

 the Beagle Channel, and afterwards to return and visit the 

 settlement. The day to our astonishment was overpower- 

 ingly hot, so that our skins were scorched: with this beau- 

 tiful weather, the view in the middle of the Beagle Channel 

 was very remarkable. Looking towards either hand, no ob- 

 ject intercepted the vanishing points of this long canal be- 

 tween the mountains. The circumstance of its being an arm 

 of the sea was rendered very evident by several huge whales" 

 spouting in different directions. On one occasion I saw two 

 of these monsters, probably male and female, slowly swim- 

 ming one after the other, within less than a stone's throw 

 of the shore, over which the beech-tree extended its branches. 



We sailed on till it was dark, and then pitched our tents 

 in a quiet creek. The greatest luxury was to find for our 

 beds a beach of pebbles, for they were dry and yielded to 

 the body. Peaty soil is damp; rock is uneven and hard; 

 sand gets into one's meat, when cooked and eaten boat-fash- 

 ion; but when lying in our blanket-bags, on a good bed of 

 smooth pebbles, we passed most comfortable nights. 



It was my watch till one o'clock. There is something 

 very solemn in these scenes. At no time does the conscious- 

 ness in what a remote corner of the world you are then 



8 One day, off the East coast of Tierra del Fuego, we saw a grand sight 

 in several spermaceti whales jumping upright quite out of the water, with 

 th« exception of their tail-fins. As they fell down sideways, they splashed 

 the water high up, and the sound reverberated like a distant broadside. 



