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

570 WEST AND SOUTH PATAGONIA. Of the archipelago of Madre de Dies we know very little. It has probably many deep openings on its seaward face, and is fronted by islands- and rocks. Its character is rocky and moun- tainous, and by no means agreeable. The wide and safe channel of Concepcion Strait separates it from the main land, which in this part is much intersected by deep sounds, the principal of which, the Canal of San Andres, extends to the base of the snowy range of the Cordillera, and there Lieutenant Skyring describes it to be suddenly closed by immense glaciers. Behind Hanover Island, which is separated from Madre de Dios by the Concepcion Strait, the main-land is very much inter- sected by sounds like the San Andres Chamiel, extending to the base of the Andes. South of Hanover Island is Queen Adelaide Archipelago, through which are several channels that communicate with the Strait of Magalhaens ; of which the principal, Smyth Channel, falls into the Strait at Cape Taraar. In the winter of 1829, Captain Robert Fitz-Roy, then command- ing the Beagle, in examining the Jerome Channel, which com- municates with the Strait in that part called Crooked Reach, discovered ' Otway Water,' an inland sea fifty miles long, trending to the N.E., and separated from the eastern entrance of the Strait by a narrow isthmus ; the actual width of which was not ascer- tained, for in the attempt the boats were nearly lost. The south- eastern shore is high and rocky, and generally precipitous, but the northern is formed by low undulating grassy plains, free from trees, and precisely like the country about the eastern entrance of the Strait. At the north-west corner of the water a passage was found leading in a north-west direction for twelve miles, when it opened into another extent of water, about thirty-four miles long and twenty wide. This he called the Skyring Water. Its southern and western sides are bounded by mountainous land, but the northern shore is low, apparently formed of undulating downs and grassy plains, and in some places watered by rivulets. At the western extremity of the water two openings were observed, separated by a remarkable castellated mountain which was called Dynevor Castle. Beyond the southernmost opening there was no land visible, not even a distant mountain, which induced Captain Fitz-Roy to suppose that it was a channel communicating with the