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

.1832. PAZ LIEBRE BUTTERFLIES. 117 close to US, in order to receive stores and various supplies which we had brought for them from Buenos Ayres and Monte Video. I was a little uneasy when I saw that the pilot of the Liebre, Mr. Roberts, was one of the largest of men, and that his little vessel looked, by comparison, no bigger than a coffin ; but Mr. Wickham allayed my doubts by assuring me that his moveable weight answered admirably in trimming the craft ; and that, when she got a-ground, Mr. Roberts stepped overboard, and heaved her afloat. " Certainly," said Mr. Wick- ham, " he did harm on one day, by going up to look-out, and breaking the mast." In the afternoon of this day (4th) we weighed anchor and parted company from the Paz and Liebre. They returned to San Bias, and the Beagle steered southward. Secure and capacious as is the port just mentioned, it is one of the most difficult and dangerous to enter on this coast The best, indeed only approach to it, is called by those sealers and sea- elephant fishers who have hitherto frequented it, — ' HeU-gate.'' At about four the weather was very hot, the sky cloudless, and varying flaws of wind drove quantities of gossamer, and numbers of insects off" from the land. The horizon was strangely distorted by refraction, and I anticipated some vio- lent change. Suddenly myriads of white butterflies surrounded the ship, in such multitudes, that the men exclaimed, " it is snowing butterflies." They were driven before a gust from the north-west, which soon increased to a double-reefed topsail breeze, and were as numerous as flakes of snow in the thickest shower. The space they occupied could not have been less than two hundred yards in height, a mile in width, and several miles in length. Our next object was to visit Tierra del Fuego, examine some portions of that country — yet unexplored — and restore the Fuegians to their native places ; but in our passage, strong southerly winds, severe squalls, and cold weather, though it was near midsummer in that hemisphere, caused delay and discom- fort, as they must always in a small and deeply-laden vessel, where little can be done except in fine weather.