We
Shot Down The Stream With Great Rapidity, Generally At The
Rate Of Ten Knots An Hour.
In this one day we effected what
had cost us five-and-a-half hard days' labour in ascending.
On the 8th, we reached the Beagle after our twenty-one days'
expedition.
Every one, excepting myself, had cause to be
dissatisfied; but to me the ascent afforded a most interesting
section of the great tertiary formation of Patagonia.
On March 1st, 1833, and again on March 16th, 1834, the
Beagle anchored in Berkeley Sound, in East Falkland Island.
This archipelago is situated in nearly the same latitude with
the mouth of the Strait of Magellan; it covers a space of
one hundred and twenty by sixty geographical miles, and is
little more than half the size of Ireland. After the possession
of these miserable islands had been contested by France,
Spain, and England, they were left uninhabited. The government
of Buenos Ayres then sold them to a private individual,
but likewise used them, as old Spain had done before,
for a penal settlement. England claimed her right and
seized them. The Englishman who was left in charge of
the flag was consequently murdered. A British officer was
next sent, unsupported by any power: and when we arrived,
we found him in charge of a population, of which rather
more than half were runaway rebels and murderers.
The theatre is worthy of the scenes acted on it. An undulating
land, with a desolate and wretched aspect, is everywhere
covered by a peaty soil and wiry grass, of one monotonous
brown colour.
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