As we proceeded along the Beagle Channel, the scenery assumed a peculiar and very magnificent character; but the effect was much lessened from the lowness of the point of view in a boat, and from looking along the valley, and thus losing all the beauty of a succession of ridges.

The mountains were here about three thousand feet high, and terminated in sharp and jagged points.

They rose in one unbroken sweep from the water's edge, and were covered to the height of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet by the dusky-coloured forest.

It was most curious to observe, as far as the eye could range, how level and truly horizontal the line on the mountain side was, at which trees ceased to grow: it precisely resembled the high-water mark of driftweed on a sea-beach.
At night we slept close to the junction of Ponsonby Sound with the Beagle Channel.

A small family of Fuegians, who were living in the cove, were quiet and inoffensive, and soon joined our party round a blazing fire.