Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

282 PECULIARITIES OK ALE USE. 1899. which it splits, is brought in boards also, four feet long, half an inch thick, and six inches broad, which, as I have before remarked, are the principal articles of barter. The Alerse is found in great quantities near Calbuco ; but at so great a distance from the beach that it cannot easily be conveyed thither for embarkation, except in the above form. The tree is cut down and squared, then hewn by the axe into as many logs of seven or eight feet long as it will afford ; and these, with the assistance of iron wedges, are split into planks and boards, in which state, without being further trimmed, they are tied together in bundles, and carried on men's backs, or dragged over the ground to the beach. The extraordinary straightness of the grain of this tree enables the natives to split it, so as to make it appear as if it had been dressed with an adze, or even with a plane ; but, as I have said, the axe is the only instrument used. So great is the difficulty of obtaining a spar of this wood, that when I wished to procvu-e a new mast for the Adelaide, I offered four times the value of an alerse spar to the natives, besides the assistance of twenty men, and tackles, &c. to assist in convey- ing it to the beach. The temptation was almost too great to be withstood ; but the man to whom I applied, who had before been employed to get masts for a schooner in the Chilian ser- vice, and a flag-staff for the town, said that it would take his own party two months to bring one to the beach : with the assistance of our people, however, it might be done in a month. The trees were distant, and there were two or three ridges of heights to cross, that would cause much delay. The facility with which these people usually handle timber was a sufficient proof to me that such a task, if refused by them, must be very difficult indeed, and I gave it up, as the Yntendente was so obliging as to give me the flag- staff, which had taken the same party two months to procure. The Hoxsley, a national schooner, built at Childe, for the government, was masted with alerse spars, which proved to be very strong. Alerse is used principally for the floors, partitions, and