302 
CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO 
CHAP. 
that the solitary man who had made his bed on this wild spot, 
must have been some poor shipwrecked sailor, who, in trying 
to travel up the coast, had here laid himself down for his 
dreary night. 
December 2 8tk .—The weather continued very bad, but it 
at last permitted us to proceed with the survey. The time 
hung heavy on our hands, as it always did when we were 
delayed from day to day by successive gales of wind. In the 
evening another harbour was discovered, where we anchored. 
Directly afterwards a man was seen waving his shirt, and a 
boat was sent which brought back two seamen. A party of 
six had run away from an American whaling vessel, and had 
landed a little to the southward in a boat, which was shortly 
afterwards knocked to pieces by the surf. They had now 
been wandering up and down the coast for fifteen months, 
without knowing which way to go, or where they were. What 
a singular piece of good fortune it was that this harbour was 
now discovered ! Had it not been for this one chance, they 
might have wandered till they had grown old men, and at last 
have perished on this wild coast. Their sufferings had been 
very great, and one of their party had lost his life by falling 
from the cliffs. They were sometimes obliged to separate in 
search of food, and this explained the bed of the solitary man. 
Considering what they had undergone, I think they had kept 
a very good reckoning of time, for they had lost only four 
days. 
December 30 th .—We anchored in a snug little cove at the 
foot of some high hills, near the northern extremity of Tres 
Montes. After breakfast the next morning a party ascended 
one of these mountains, which was 2400 feet high. The 
scenery was remarkable. The chief part of the range was 
composed of grand, solid, abrupt masses of granite, which 
appeared as if they had been coeval with the beginning of the 
world. The granite was capped with mica-slate, and this in 
the lapse of ages had been worn into strange finger-shaped 
points. These two formations, thus differing in their outlines, 
agree in being almost destitute of vegetation. This barrenness 
had to our eyes a strange appearance, from having been so 
long accustomed to the sight of an almost universal forest of 
dark green trees. I took much delight in examining the 
