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

WESTERN PATAGONIA. 567 over the isthmus ; the particulars of which are fully detailed in their journals.* The river San Tadeo, although of small size, being navigable only for eleven miles, is the largest river of the coast south of the archipelago of Childe, and therefore merits a particular description. At seven miles from the mouth it is fed by two streams or torrents, the currents of which are so strong that a fast-pulling boat can hardly make way against it. One of these streams takes its rise in a mountainous range, over which perhaps the communicating road passes j and the other is the drain of an extensive glacier or plain of ice of fifteen miles in extent. The river falls into the Gulf of St. Estevan over a shallow bar, upon which there is scarcely two feet water, and at low tide is probably dry. At the head of St. Estevan Gulf is St, Quintin Sound ; both were examined and found to afford excellent anchorage, and they are both of easy access should a ship, passing up the coast, find herself upon a lee shore and not able to weather the land, as was the case with the ill-fated Wager, t The Guaianeco islands form the southern head of the Gulf of Penas ; then follows Wellington Island, separated from the main by the Mesier Channel, which had not been previously explored, its mouth only being laid down in the charts, compiled from the information of Machado, a pilot who was sent in 1769 by the Viceroy of Peru to examine the coast from Childe to the Strait * Agueros, Descripcion Historial de la Provincia y Archipielago de Childe, 1791, p. 229. + The precise situation of the wi'eck of this vessel had hitherto been very vaguely marked on our charts : a careful perusal, however, of Byron's narrative, and of Agiieros' account of the Missionary Voyages in 1779; sufficiently points out the place within a few miles. It is on the north side, near the west end of the easternmost of the Guaianeco islands, which, we named, in consequence, Wager Island. At Port Santa Barbara, seven- teen miles to the southward of this group, a very old worm-eaten beam of a vessel was found, which there is reason to think may be a relic of that unfortunate ship. It was of English oak, and was found thrown up above the high-water mark upon the rocks at the entrance of the port. No other vestige was detected by us ; — the missionaries, however, found broken glass bottles, and other evident traces of the wreck. At Chil6e I saw a man who had formed one of this enterprising party, and obtained from him a curious and interesting account of those voj'agcs.