Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836

On the south side of the passage the land is low, but wooded: the banks are from five to forty feet high, sloping to the water, and covered with grass. In the entrance the tide ran five or six knots at the neaps, but inside with only half that rapidity. On the north side, at the distance of a mile and a-half, there is a ridge of hills, to the summit of which Captain Fitz-Roy made an excursion, which is described in the Narrative.

In consequence of the supposed communication of the Skyring Water with some part of the western coast, a careful examination was made of every opening trending into the interior behind the islands and archipelagoes that line the western coast; the result of which has proved that the hypothesis so naturally formed was not confirmed by fact. A reference to the chart will show how carefully the search was carried on, and with what want of success it was concluded. The deep opening discovered by Sarmiento, and named by him, 'Ancon sin salida,' was found, upon examination, to extend so far into the interior, and in the direction of the Skyring Water, that the most strict investigation of the numerous sounds and canals was made, in the perfect conviction of finding the desired communication. But after a patient, laborious, and minute examination, particularly of those openings which led to the southward, among which Obstruction Sound held the most flattering appearance, Lieutenant Skyring, who performed this service, was obliged to give up the search and return. At one part, near the south-eastern end of the sound, he entered an opening, which at first had an appearance that was favourable to the desired communication, but it terminated in low, woody land. There was, however, a hill near the shore, which he ascended with the hope of obtaining a view of the country; but the sides and summit of the hill were so thickly wooded as to obstruct his view, and with the exception of some distant high land in the south-east quarter, and a sheet of water about six miles off in the same bearing, nothing was discerned to repay him for the fatigue and trouble of the ascent. Whether the water is a lagoon, or a part of the Skyring Water, or whether it communicates with the opening trending round the north side of Dynevor Castle, yet remains to be ascertained.

Being foiled in this attempt, Lieutenant Skyring proceeded onward in a S.S.W. direction, and after a pull often miles came to the bottom of the sound, which was terminated by high, precipitous land encircling every part. Neither wigwams nor traces of Indians were seen, another proof, were one required, of the sound not communicating with the Skyring Water; for the Indians very rarely visit these deep inlets, but are always to be found in narrow straits or communicating channels, where, from the strength of the tide, seals and porpoises, which constitute the principal food of the Fuegian Indians, abound. Sarmiento's name, therefore, of 'Ancon sin salida,' which we had hoped to have expunged from the chart, must now remain, a lasting memorial of his enterprising character, and of a voyage deservedly one of the most celebrated, as well as most useful, of the age in which it was performed.

The termination of Obstruction Sound is one of the most remarkable features in the geography of this part of South America.

In this examination the southern extremity of the Cordillera was ascertained. The eastern shores of the interior channels were found to be low plains, with no hills or mountains visible in the distance; and such being characteristic also of the northern shores of the Otway and Skyring Waters, it is probable that all the country to the east of the sounds is a continued plain.

Recent traces of Indians were seen in some places; but at the time our party was there, they were either absent or had concealed themselves. I should not think that these interior sounds are much frequented by them; a family was, however, met in the passage between the Otway and the Skyring Water, clothed with guanaco skins, like the Patagonian tribes, but in manners and disposition resembling the wandering inhabitants of the Strait and Tierra del Fuego; and they had canoes, which the Patagonians do not use. They had probably come thus far for the purpose of communicating with the latter tribes, with whom they frequently have friendly intercourse. No guanacoes were seen either on the shores of the inland waters or of the sounds within the 'Ancon sin salida,' although the country, being open and covered with luxuriant grass, was peculiarly suited to their habits; but as several large herds of deer were observed feeding near the sea-shore of Obstruction Sound, and the neighbouring country, the presence of these latter animals may probably be the cause; for on the eastern coast, where the guanacoes are every where abundant, the deer do not make their appearance. Sea-otters were the only other animals that we met with; but they were only occasionally noticed, swimming about the kelp. The shores of the sounds were in many places crowded with the black-necked swan (Anas nigricollis, Linn.), and there were a few seen, but only one captured, whose plumage, excepting the tips of the wings, which were black, was of a dazzling white colour. I have described it in the first part of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society as a new species (Cygnus anatoïdes.)

The Strait of Magalhaens, being a transverse section of the continent, exhibits a view of its geological structure. The Strait may be divided into three portions; the western, the central, and the eastern. The western and central are of primitive character, rugged and very mountainous; but the eastern portion is of recent formation and low. The western tract is composed of a succession of stratified rocks, a difference at once distinguishable by the form and nature of the ranges, and the direction of the shores: the hills are irregularly heaped together; the sounds are intricate and tortuous in their course, and the shores are formed by deep sinuosities and prominently projecting headlands: the channels, also, are studded with innumerable islands and rocks extremely dangerous for navigation. In this portion the rock is, for the most part, granite and greenstone.

Near the centre of the Strait, the rock being clay-slate, the mountains are higher, and more precipitous and rugged in their outline; and consequently not easily to be ascended. They are in general three thousand feet, but some are found to be four thousand feet, in height; and one, Mount Sarmiento, is upwards of six thousand feet high, and is covered throughout the year with snow. The line of perpetual snow in the Strait seems to be about three thousand five hundred feet above the sea: the mountains, whose height does not exceed three thousand, are, during the summer, frequently free from any, excepting in holes, where a large quantity is accumulated by drifting, and protected from the sun. The Strait here is quite free from islands, and it is a remarkable fact, that where the greenstone formation terminates, there the islands cease to appear.

The slate formation continues as far as Freshwater Bay, where the stratified rocks leave the coast and extend in a north-west direction. The soil then becomes apparently a mixture of decomposed slate and clay; the slate gradually disappearing on approaching to Cape Negro, where the rock partakes of the character of the east coast. Here again we observe, along with the change of geological character, the re-appearance of islands, the soil of which is clayey, but with masses of granite, hornblende rock and clay slate protruding in many places through the superficial soil, which, although it yields a poor grass, is entirely destitute of trees.

In that portion of the Strait to the eastward of Cape Negro the hills are remarkable for the regularity and parallelism of their direction, and their general resemblance to each other. On the north shore, near Cape Gregory, a range of high land commences suddenly, with rather a precipitous ascent, and extends for forty miles to the north-east, where it terminates in detached rocky hills. The south-western end of the range is a ridge of flat-topped land covered with soil, but with here and there a protruding mass of primitive rock: one of these appeared to be of sienite or granite. The north-eastern end of this range is perhaps more bare of soil, and, therefore, exposes the rock, which shows itself in detached hills. Precisely similar in appearance and direction is a range on the south shore, about fifty miles in length, commencing at Cape Monmouth and terminating in detached hills in the vicinity of the south side of the First Narrow. The courses, also, of both the First and Second Narrow, which are just within the eastern entrance of the Strait, are nearly parallel with these hills; and the smaller ranges of eminences, Elizabeth Island and the cliffy land of Cape Negro, where the clay formation commences, all trend to the N.N.E., preserving a general resemblance of form and character to the two ranges above mentioned.

The irregularity of the topographic features of the western portion of the Strait, combined with its confused assemblage and immense number of islands and rocks; – the regularity of the strata – the coinciding parallelism of all the bays, channels, and sounds, – and the total absence of islands in the central portion or slate formation; – together with the remarkable similarity of the direction of the hills and coast line, and the stratification of the north-eastern tract, which is very different from that of the centre; – are very striking facts, and, geologically considered, are of great interest.

No less remarkable, however, and equally interesting, is the character of the vegetation; not so much in the variety of plants, as in their stunted growth to the westward, their luxuriance in the centre, and the total absence of trees to the eastward. For this modification the following reasons seem to me to account sufficiently. To the westward the decomposition of granite, and the other primitive rocks which are found there, forms but a poor, unproductive soil; so that, although the land is thickly covered with shrubs, they are all small and stunted: the torrents of water also that pour down the steep sides of the hills, wash away the partial accumulations of soil that are occasionally deposited; consequently, few trees are to be found, excepting in clefts and recesses of the rock, where decomposed vegetable matter collects and nourishes their growth; but even there they are low and stunted, for the most luxuriant seldom attain a larger diameter than nine or ten inches.

From the regularity of the direction of the strata in the slate districts the vallies are very extensive, and, being bounded on either side by precipitous mountains much intersected by deep ravines, receive large streams of water, which, uniting together in their course to the sea, form no inconsiderable rivers. During the winter months these rivers become swollen and overflow their banks, and deposit a quantity of alluvium, which, blending with the fallen leaves and other putrescent substances, produces a good superficial soil, in which trees grow to a large size, and the shrubs and smaller plants become particularly luxuriant and productive.

At Port Famine, and in its neighbourhood, the evergreen beech (Fagus betuloides) grows in the greatest abundance, and reaches a very large size. Trees of this species, of three feet in diameter, are abundant; of four feet, there are many; and there is one tree (perhaps the very same noticed by Commodore Byron253), which measures seven feet in diameter for seventeen feet above the roots, and then divides into three large branches, each of which is three feet through. This venerable tree seemed to be sound, but from our experience of several others that were cut down, might be expected to prove rotten in the centre. This tendency to decaying in the heart may be attributed to the coldness of the schistose sub-soil upon which the trees are rooted, as well as to the perpetual moisture of the climate above alluded to.

The slate formation ceases at Port St. Mary, but there is no decided change in the vegetation until we come to Cape Negro, where the clay commences; and from thence onwards there is not a tree to be found. The nature of the soil is not favourable to plants which take a deep root, and, therefore, only shrubs and grasses are found: the former are thinly scattered over the extensive plains which characterise this country; but the grasses are abundant, and although of a harsh and dry appearance, must be nourishing, for they form the chosen food of numerous and large herds of guanacoes.

Besides the evergreen beech above-mentioned, there are but few other trees in the Strait that can be considered as timber trees. Such an appellation only belongs to two other species of beech and the Winter's bark. The last, which is also an evergreen, is to be found mixed with the first, in all parts of the Strait; so that the country and hills, from the height of two thousand feet above the sea, to the very verge of the high-water mark, are covered with a perpetual verdure which is remarkably striking, particularly in those places where the glaciers descend into the sea; the sudden contrast in such cases presenting to the view a scene as agreeable as it seems to be anomalous. I have myself seen vegetation thriving most luxuriantly, and large woody-stemmed trees of Fuchsia and Veronica254 (in England considered and treated as tender plants), in full flower, within a very short distance of the base of a mountain, covered for two-thirds down with snow, and with the temperature at 36°. The Fuchsia certainly was rarely found except in sheltered spots, but not so the Veronica; for the beaches of the bays on the west side of San Juan Island at Port San Antonio are lined with trees of the latter, growing even in the very wash of the sea. There is no part of the Strait more exposed to the wind than this, for it faces the reach to the west of Cape Froward, down which the wind constantly blows, and brings with it a succession of rain, sleet, or snow; and in the winter months, from April to August, the ground is covered with a layer of snow, from six inches to two or three feet in depth.

There must be, therefore, some peculiar quality in the atmosphere of this otherwise rigorous climate which favours vegetation; for if not, these comparatively delicate plants could not live and flourish through the long and severe winters of this region.

In the summer, the temperature at night was frequently as low as 29° of Fahrenheit, and yet I never noticed the following morning any blight or injury sustained by these plants, even in the slightest degree.

I have occasionally, during the summer, been up the greater part of the night at my observatory, with the internal as well as the external thermometers as low as freezing point, without being particularly warmly clad, and yet not feeling the least cold; and in the winter, the thermometer, on similar occasions, has been at 24° and 26°, without my suffering the slightest inconvenience. This I attributed at the time to the peculiar stillness of the air, although, within a short distance in the offing and overhead, the wind was high.

Whilst upon this subject, there are two facts which may be mentioned as illustrative of the mildness of the climate, notwithstanding the lowness of the temperature. One is the comparative warmth of the sea near its surface, between which and the air, I have in the month of June, the middle of the winter season, observed a difference of 30°, upon which occasion the sea was covered with a cloud of steam. The other is, that parrots and humming-birds, generally the inhabitants of warm regions, are very numerous in the southern and western parts of the Strait – the former feeding upon the seeds of the Winter's bark, and the latter having been seen by us chirping and sipping the sweets of the Fuchsia and other flowers, after two or three days of constant rain, snow, and sleet, during which the thermometer had been at freezing point. We saw them also in the month of May upon the wing, during a snow shower: and they are found in all parts of the south-west and west coasts as far as Valparaiso. I have since been informed that this species is also an inhabitant of Peru; so that it has a range of more than 41° of latitude, the southern limit being 53½° south.255

Tierra del Fuego is divided by several channels; a principal one of which is opposite to Cape Froward, and another fronts Port Gallant. The easternmost, called Magdalen, trends in a due south direction for nineteen miles, and separates the clay slate from the more crystalline rocks, which seem to predominate in Clarence Island, and are chiefly of greenstone; though, at the eastern end, there is much mica slate. At the bottom of Magdalen Sound the channel turns sharply to the westward; and, after a course of about forty miles, meets the Barbara Channel, which, as above-mentioned, communicates with the Strait opposite to Port Gallant, and both fall into the sea together. Magdalen Sound and its continuation, Cockburn Channel, are almost free from islands and rocks; but the Barbara Channel, which separates the granite from the greenstone and mica slate districts, is throughout thickly strewed with islands, which reduce the channel in some parts to a mile, and, in one place, to not more than fifty yards in width. Here, of course, the tide sets with great strength. Several vessels, however, have passed through it under sail; and one ship, a whaler belonging to Messrs. Enderby, working through the Strait, and finding much difficulty in passing to the westward, bore up, and, the wind being fair and the distance to sea only fifty miles, ran through it without accident. The land to the westward of the Barbara Channel is high and rugged; and although in the vallies, ravines, and sheltered nooks, there is no want of vegetation, yet, in comparison with the eastern part of the Strait, it has a very dismal and uninviting appearance. It was called by Sarmiento, 'Santa Ines Island';256 but Narborough called it, 'South Desolation; it being,' as he says, 'so desolate land to behold.'257

Clarence Island, which is fifty-two miles long and twenty-three broad, although equally rocky, is much more verdant in appearance. The uniform direction of the headlands of the north shore of the island is remarkable. Upon taking a set of angles with the theodolite placed upon the extremity of the west end of Bell Bay, opposite to Cape Holland, the most prominent points to the south-east, as far as could be seen, were all visible in the field of the telescope at the same bearing. The same thing occurred on the opposite shore of the Strait, where the projections of Cape Gallant, Cape Holland, and Cape Froward, are in the same line of bearing; so that a parallel ruler placed on the map upon the projecting points of the south shore, extended across, will also touch the headlands of the opposite coast.

The eastern island, which had been previously called, and of course retains on our chart the name of King Charles South Land, extends from the entrance of the Strait to the outlet of the Barbara and Cockburn Channels, at Cape Schomberg. The northern part partakes of the geological character of the eastern portion of the Strait. The centre is a continuation of the slate formation, which is evident at a glance, from the uniformity of the direction of the shores of Admiralty Sound, the Gabriel Channel, and all the bays and mountain ranges of Dawson Island. The south shore, or seaward coast line, is principally of greenstone, excepting the shores of the Beagle Channel, which extends from Christmas Sound to Cape San Pio, a distance of a hundred and twenty miles, with a course so direct that no points of the opposite shores cross and intercept a free view through; although its average breadth, which also is very parallel, is not much above a mile, and in some places is but a third of a mile across. The south shores of Hoste and Navarin Islands are of horn-blende rock, which is also the principal component of the islands in the neighbourhood, as well as of the island itself of Cape Horn. The eastern part of King Charles South Land is low, with plains like the Patagonian coast; but the range of high land interrupted at Port Famine extends down the north side of Admiralty Sound, and perhaps, with some few intervals, continues to the south-east extremity of the land, near Cape Good Success, which is the south cape of the west side of Strait Le Maire, and there terminates in lofty mountains covered with snow, one of which, called in the charts 'The Sugar Loaf,' is probably four thousand feet high.

The eastern shore of King Charles South Land, towards the south part, is lofty, but near the northern part is very low. The interior is also low, with extensive plains, abounding with guanacoes, some of which also were found, and shot by the officers of the Beagle, within fifty miles of Cape Horn.

The eastern coast of Patagonia, from the entrance of the Strait of Magalhaens to the River Plata, is comparatively low. From Cape Virgins to Port St. Julian, where porphyritic claystone commences, the coast is formed of clay cliffs, horizontally stratified, and the country is undulating, with extensive plains, or pampas, covered with grass, but without trees. At Port St. Julian, the country becomes hilly, and continues so as far to the northward as latitude 44°, the rock being porphyritic. The clay formation to the southward has been likened to the appearance of the coast of Kent, and at a short distance it bears certainly a very great resemblance to it; but the cliffs, instead of being of chalk, are composed of a soft marly clay, without any gravel or impressions of organic remains, excepting at Port St. Julian, where fossil shells, both bivalves and univalves, are found imbedded in clay cliffs; and on the surface are lying, strewed about, large oyster-shells.

In the clay formation there are two rivers: the Gallegos, in lat. 51° 38′; and Port Santa Cruz, in lat. 50° 7′. The Gallegos, at high water, may be easily entered, but at low water the banks are dry to a great extent; a channel, however, is left on its south side, of sufficient depth for a small vessel: the tide rises forty-six feet, and the stream is very strong.

Port Desire, in 47° 45′ south latitude, has a narrow entrance with strong tides; but affords in the offing very good anchorage as well as shelter from the prevailing winds, which are offshore, or westerly. The inlet extends up the country, nearly in a west direction, for eighteen miles; but the land is dry and parched, and very unsuitable for the establishment which the Spanish government formed there not many years since, and of which evident traces remain to this day.

St. George's Gulf, called in the old charts 'Bahia sin Fondo,' or Deep-Sea Gulf, was formerly considered to be a deep sinuosity of the coast, into which a river emptied its waters after winding through a large tract of country; for, until the Descubierta and Atrevida's voyage of discovery, very vague accounts had been given of this, or indeed of any other part of the coast. The Gulf, upon that examination, was found to possess no river or creek in any part excepting on the north side, where there are several deep bays and coves, which are, and have been frequented by our sealing vessels. The country about is dry and parched, although partially covered with small shrubs, and a wiry grass on which large herds of guanacoes feed.

According to Falkner (the Jesuit missionary, who resided many years among the Indian tribes inhabiting the country about Buenos Ayres), the eastern coast between the latitudes of 41° and 51° is frequented by the natives for the purpose only of burying the dead: they have, however, been occasionally met with travelling along the coast, apparently without any particular object in view. Near Port Desire I have seen the graves of the Indians on the summit of the hills, but the bodies had been removed, probably by the Indians themselves; for we are informed by Falkner, that, after the dead have been interred twelve months, the graves are visited by the tribe, for the purpose of collecting the bones and conveying them to their family sepulchres, where they are set up and adorned with all the beads and ornaments the friends and family of the deceased can collect for the occasion. The ceremony is performed by certain women of the tribe whose peculiar office it is to attend to these rites.

In the year 1828, from the commencement of January to the middle of August, the Adventure (the ship I commanded) was at anchor at Port Famine, in the Strait of Magalhaens, in latitude 53° 38¼′ south, and longitude 70° 54′ west of Greenwich; and during the whole of that time a careful meteorological journal was kept. The temperature was registered from a very good thermometer of Fahrenheit's scale, suspended within a copper cylindrical case of nine inches diameter, and perforated above and below with holes, to admit a free current of air. The cylinder was fixed to the roof of a shed, thatched with dried leaves to shelter it from the sun, while the sides were open. The barometer (a mountain barometer made by Newman, with an iron cylinder) was hung up in the observatory, five feet above the high-water mark, and both instruments were examined carefully and regularly at the following hours, namely: six and nine o'clock in the morning, at noon, and at three and six o'clock in the evening. The state of the atmosphere was observed daily, by Daniel's hygrometer, at three o'clock in the afternoon. The maximum and minimum temperatures were also observed twice in twenty-four hours, from a Six's thermometer, namely: at nine o'clock in the morning, and at nine in the evening. From this journal the following abstract has been drawn up: —