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

568 WESTERN PATAGOXIA. of Magalhaens.* This channel is also noticed in one of the two missionary voyages above mentioned ; but the object of these expeditions being for the purpose of converting the Indians to Christianity, f and not for the extension of geographical know- ledge, little information of that nature could be obtained from their journal : the entrance of the Mesier, however, is described by them ; and on one occasion they were obliged to take refuge in it for fifteen days.;}: With this exception I cannot find that it had ever been entered before our visit. The length of the channel is one hundred and sixty miles, and it joins the Concepcion Strait behind the Madre de Dios archipe- lago, at the Brazo Ancho of Sarraiento. Lieutenant Skyring, who superintended this particular part of the survey, called the land which it insulates, Wellington Island ; the seaward coast of which is fronted by several islands. Fallos Channel, which sepa- rates the Campana and Wellington Islands, was examined, from its northern entrance, for thirty-three miles, and was conjectured, after communicating with the sea at Dynely Sound, to extend to the southward, and fall into the Gulf of Trinidad by one of the deep sounds which were noticed on the north shore. About thirty miles within the IMesier Channel, from the northern extremity, the west side appears to be formed by a succession of large islands, many of which are separated by wide channels lead- ing to the south-west, and probably communicating with the Fallos Channel. On the eastern shore the openings were found to be either narrow inlets or abruptly terminating sounds. On both sides of the channel the coast is hilly, but not very high, and in many places there is much low and generally thickly wooded land. This character distinguishes the Mesier from other channels in these regions. The trees here are nearly of the same description as those whicli are found in all parts between Cape Tres Montes and the Strait of Magalhaens. Of these the most common are an evergreen beech {Fagus betuloides), a birch-like beech (Fagus antarctica), the Winter's bark {IVinterana aromatica^), and a tree with all the appearance and habit of a cypress, of which the Indians make their • Agueros, p. 205, et seq. t Ibid. p. 181, et seq. J Ibid. p. 237. § Living- plants of the above trees, and other vegetable productions from the Strait of Magalhaens, were introduced into England upon the return of the expedition, and have since thriven exceedingly well.