In The Evening We Reached The Island Of San Pedro, Where
We Found The Beagle At Anchor.
In doubling the point, two
of the officers landed to take a round of angles with the
theodolite.
A fox (Canis fulvipes), of a kind said to be
peculiar to the island, and very rare in it, and which is a new
species, was sitting on the rocks. He was so intently absorbed
in watching the work of the officers, that I was able,
by quietly walking up behind, to knock him on the head
with my geological hammer. This fox, more curious or
more scientific, but less wise, than the generality of his
brethren, is now mounted in the museum of the Zoological
Society.
We stayed three days in this harbour, on one of which
Captain Fitz Roy, with a party, attempted to ascend to the
summit of San Pedro. The woods here had rather a different
appearance from those on the northern part of the island.
The rock, also, being micaceous slate, there was no beach,
but the steep sides dipped directly beneath the water. The
general aspect in consequence was more like that of Tierra
del Fuego than of Chiloe. In vain we tried to gain the
summit: the forest was so impenetrable, that no one who
has not beheld it can imagine so entangled a mass of dying
and dead trunks. I am sure that often, for more than ten
minutes together, our feet never touched the ground, and
we were frequently ten or fifteen feet above it, so that the
seamen as a joke called out the soundings.
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