826 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
settlement was literally covered and washed away, when the sea again receded. This 
phenomenon occurred four times, causing much destruction, uprooting trees and drowning 
cattle. Shortly after the explosion, a large column somewhat resembling a water-spout 
was seen ascending from the sea off Point Bacalao, which proved to be smoke, but at 
7 p.m. volcanic flames were visible through the smoke, which lasted until 2 a.m. on the 
21st. The depth of water on the spot where these eruptions took place was from 50 to 
80 fathoms, and no alteration in the depth was detected the day after the eruption had 
subsided.” 
In this year there appear to have been 200 persons on the island altogether, including 
a detachment of sixty-eight soldiers. In August of the same year an insurrection amongst 
the convicts took place, and the Governor was deposed by the Commandant of troops. 
At this time there were again both cattle and pigs on the island, and portions of land 
were distributed amongst the convicts for cultivation. In November 1835 a Captain 
Masters called in at Cumberland Bay on a voyage to Mazatlan, and purchased sheep 
for four dollars each, and bullocks for fourteen dollars. In this month there were seventy 
soldiers and 319 prisoners on the island, a small number of the latter being women. 
Shortly after 1835 Juan Fernandez was abandoned as a convict settlement, and since 
that time has been rented by the Chilian Government to such persons as cared to occupy 
it for the benefit of fishing and supplying the whalers (about twenty-five annually) that 
call in with fresh provisions. 
In 1866, when H.M.S. “Topaze” called at the island, there were only ten inhabitants, 
and the Challenger found about forty or fifty under the control of a Chilian who paid 
£200 a year rent to the Chilian Government, and who had a few men also at Mas-a-fuera 
Island; he was engaged principally with the hunting of the Fur Seals. 
The island of Juan Fernandez is thirteen miles in length and four in breadth, 
with a total area of 28 square miles, and has off its southwest point an islet named 
“ Santa Clara,” or “ Goat,” one mile and a half in length by one mile in breadth, between 
which and Juan Fernandez is a channel one mile across, with a depth of 19 fathoms in 
its centre. It is rugged and mountainous, the highest mountain, named “ El Yunque,” 
or “the Anvil,” being 3000 feet above the level of the sea. This mountain is almost if 
not quite inaccessible, and appears never to have been ascended, although a reward was at 
one time offered to the convict who should succeed in arriving at its summit, but the steep 
nature of the narrow spurs that descend from it has hitherto rendered them impassable, 
notwithstanding the trees that abound. The trees in Juan Fernandez are in fact no aid 
to the explorer, for the soil is so light and shallow, that large trees soon perish for want 
of root and are easily overturned, several people having lost their lives by trusting to 
them for support ; it should therefore be impressed on all explorers that they should here 
carefully abstain from trusting to the foliage in dangerous places. There is a beaten path 
