They Are
Covered By A Wide Mantle Of Perpetual Snow, And Numerous
Cascades Pour Their Waters, Through The Woods, Into The Narrow
Channel Below.
In many parts, magnificent glaciers extend
from the mountain side to the water's edge.
It is
scarcely possible to imagine anything more beautiful than
the beryl-like blue of these glaciers, and especially as
contrasted with the dead white of the upper expanse of snow.
The fragments which had fallen from the glacier into the
water were floating away, and the channel with its icebergs
presented, for the space of a mile, a miniature likeness of
the Polar Sea. The boats being hauled on shore at our
dinner-hour, we were admiring from the distance of half a
mile a perpendicular cliff of ice, and were wishing that some
more fragments would fall. At last, down came a mass with
a roaring noise, and immediately we saw the smooth outline
of a wave travelling towards us. The men ran down as
quickly as they could to the boats; for the chance of their
being dashed to pieces was evident. One of the seamen just
caught hold of the bows, as the curling breaker reached it:
he was knocked over and over, but not hurt, and the boats
though thrice lifted on high and let fall again, received no
damage. This was most fortunate for us, for we were a
hundred miles distant from the ship, and we should have
been left without provisions or fire-arms. I had previously
observed that some large fragments of rock on the beach had
been lately displaced; 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
desolate 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 sea-weed
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 6th. - We arrived at Woollya. 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 everything 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 of obtaining it. It was quite melancholy
leaving the three Fuegians with their savage countrymen;
but it was a great comfort that they had no personal
fears. York, being a powerful resolute man, was pretty sure
to get on well, together with his wife Fuegia. Poor Jemmy
looked rather disconsolate, and would then, I have little
doubt, have been glad to have returned with us. His own
brother had stolen many things from him; and as he remarked,
"What fashion call that:" he abused his countrymen,
"all bad men, no sabe (know) nothing" and, though
I never heard him swear before, "damned fools." Our three
Fuegians, though they had been only three years with civilized
men, would, I am sure, have been glad to have retained
their new habits; but this was obviously impossible. I fear
it is more than doubtful, whether their visit will have been
of any use to them.
In the evening, with Matthews on board, we made sail
back to the ship, not by the Beagle Channel, but by the
southern coast. The boats were heavily laden and the sea
rough, and we had a dangerous passage. By the evening
of the 7th we were on board the Beagle after an absence of
twenty days, during which time we had gone three hundred
miles in the open boats. On the 11th, Captain Fitz Roy
paid a visit by himself to the Fuegians and found them going
on well; and that they had lost very few more things.
On the last day of February in the succeeding year (1834)
the Beagle anchored in a beautiful little cove at the eastern
entrance of the Beagle Channel. Captain Fitz Roy determined
on the bold, and as it proved successful, attempt to
beat against the westerly winds by the same route, which
we had followed in the boats to the settlement at Woollya.
We did not see many natives until we were near Ponsonby
Sound, where we were followed by ten or twelve canoes.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 92 of 205
Words from 92679 to 93719
of 208183
