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

May 1830. tide — channel — devil. 441 we must either drive them away by force, or be plagued with them all night, we at once packed up our things, and wished them good evening. About three miles further westward, we again landed, and fixed our tent in a cove, which gave us good shelter through the night, without any interruption. It was high water this afternoon at four o'clock (being the day of full moon), and the tide rose three feet. The channel here, and opposite the Narrow, is about three miles wide ; on its north side is an unbroken line of high mountains, covered with snow to within about a thousand feet of the water. Southward are like- wise snow-covered heights, so that the channel is formed by the valley lying between two parallel ridges of high mountains. " 8th. This morning it froze very sharply. We started at sun-rise, with a fine breeze from the eastward, and made a long run before it. The channel preserved the same character, and nearly the same width ; on the north, the mountains continued without any opening ; but a few miles farther, we saw Avhat appeared to be one. I soon found that there was one passage leading westward, and another rather to the southward of west, which appeared to open into the sea. The easterly breeze faiUng, and squalls from the N.W. succeeding, we did not make much progress in the afternoon ; yet before dark had reached the place where the two channels commence, and stopped for the night on a small island. Soon after dark, one of the boat's crew was startled by two large eyes stai-ing at him, out of a thick bush, and he ran to his companions, saying he had seen the devil ! A hearty laugh at his expense was followed by a shot at the bush, which brought to the ground a magnificent horned owl. " Next day, we continued our westerly route. No natives were seen, though a few wigwams, of the round-topped kind, were passed. The westernmost sharp-pointed, or Yapoo wig- wam, was on the main-land, close to the island of the Devil it was made of small trees, piled up in a circle (the branches and roots having been broken off) vdth the smaller ends meet- ing at the top. The boat's crew said it had been a ' Meeting- House,' and peihaps they were not far vvrong ; for being so