238 
TIERRA DEL DUE GO 
CHAP. 
but until seeing this wave I did not understand the cause. One 
side of the creek was formed by a spur of mica-slate ; the head 
by a cliff of ice about forty feet high ; and the other side by a 
promontory fifty feet high, built up of huge rounded fragments 
of granite and mica-slate, out of which old trees were growing. 
This promontory was evidently a moraine, heaped up at a period 
when the glacier had greater dimensions. 
When we reached the western mouth of this northern branch 
of the Beagle Channel, we sailed amongst many unknown deso¬ 
late islands, and the weather was wretchedly bad. We met with 
no natives. The coast was almost everywhere so steep that we 
had several times to pull many miles before we could find space 
enough to pitch our two tents : one night we slept on large round 
boulders, with putrefying seaweed between them ; and when the 
tide rose, we had to get up and move our blanket-bags. The 
farthest point westward which we reached was Stewart Island, 
a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles from our ship. 
We returned into the Beagle Channel by the southern arm, and 
thence proceeded, with no adventure, back to Ponsonby Sound. 
February 6 th .—We arrived at Woolly a. Matthews gave so 
bad an account of the conduct of the Fuegians, that Captain 
Fitz Roy determined to take him back to the Beagle; and 
ultimately he was left at New Zealand, where his brother was a 
missionary. From the time of our leaving, a regular system of 
plunder commenced ; fresh parties of the natives kept arriving : 
York and Jemmy lost many things, and Matthews almost every¬ 
thing which had not been concealed underground. Every article 
seemed to have been torn up and divided by the natives. 
Matthews described the watch he was obliged always to keep as 
most harassing ; night and day he was surrounded by the natives, 
who tried to tire him out by making an incessant noise close to 
his head. One day an old man, whom Matthews asked to leave 
his wigwam, immediately returned with a large stone in his hand ; 
another day a whole party came armed with stones and stakes, 
and some of the younger men and Jemmy’s brother were crying : 
Matthews met them with presents. Another party showed by 
signs that they wished to strip him naked and pluck all the hairs 
out of his face and body. I think we arrived just in time to save 
his life. Jemmy’s relatives had been so vain and foolish, that 
they had showed to strangers their plunder, and their manner 
