Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

102 MB- HAKBI3— ARGENTINA. Sept. of US (Zuraita Island) could be just distinguished; and ahead in the north-west quarter, no land could be made out, except the distant Venlana mountain, which we saw for the first time on that day. In consequence of this extent of water being intersected by- banks, and having so few marks, it is very difficult of access and no place can offer less that is agreeable to the eye, espe- cially when the tide is out, and much of the banks shows above water. A more disagreeable place to survey, or one tliat would occupy more time, we were not likely to find, I thought, as I looked around from the mast-head ; but upon questioning Mr. Harris, I learned that a succession of similar inlets indented a half-drowned coast, extending hence almost to the Negro and that, although the dangers were numerous, tides strong, banks muddy, and the shores every where low, the intervening ports were so safe, and so likely to be useful, that it was abso- lutely necessary to examine them. Sept. 7. Messrs. Darwin, Rowlett, and Harris set out with me to visit the Buenos Ayrean settlement, called Argentina. Mr. Harris undertook to be our guide, but after two hours' sailing and pulling we found ourselves near the head of a creek, between two soft mud banks, where we could neither row nor turn the boat. We could not land because the mud was too soft to bear our weight, so there we staid till the tide flowed. About two hours after this stoppage there was water enough for us to cross a large bank, and gain the right channel, from which we had deviated, and then, with a flowing tide, we made rapid progress, until the ' Guardia' was announced to us. This was a small hut near the water side, but to reach it we had to wind along a tortuous canal, between banks of soft mud and when we arrived at the landing-place seven hours had been passed among rushy mud banks, surrounded by which we were often prevented from seeing any solid land. The water was every where salt, the tide running strongly, and the boat often aground. Waiting to meet us was an assemblage of grotesque figures, which I shall not easily forget — a painter would have been