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

March 1830. scarcity of inhabitants. 345 " The other family seen in the Mesier Channel we did not communicate with, and it may be remarked that in this passage, although between four and five hundred miles in extent, we did not meet twenty human beings ; a strong evidence that these regions are very thinly inhabited, pai'ticularly when it is considered that we made no rapid progress, and that our boats traversed, through different channels, at least twice the distance run by the vessel."