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

122 GUANACOES — CAPE HORN. DeC. he could not resist telling us was, that the old man said he was dirty, and ought to pull out his beard. Now, if their language differed much from that of York Minster, or was indeed other than a dialect of the same original, it is not probable that York could have understood the old man's meaning so readily when he spoke quietly, without signs. Richard Matthews was with us, but did not appear to be at all discouraged by a close inspection of these natives. He remarked to me, that " they were no worse than he had sup- posed them to be." 20th. Soon after day-light this morning, some very large guanacoes were seen near the top of Banks Hill.* They walked slowly and heavily, and their tails hung down to their hocks. To me their size seemed double that of the guanacoes about Port Desire. Mr. Darwin and a party set off to ascend the heights, anxious to get a shot at the guanacoes and obtain an extended view, besides making observations. They reached the summit, and saw several large animals, whose long woolly coats and tails added to their real bulk, and gave them an appearance quite distinct from that of the Patagonian animal but they could not succeed in shooting one. 21st. Sailed from Good Success Bay. On the 22d we saw Cape Horn, and being favoured with northerly winds, passed close to the southward of it before three o'clock. The wind then shifted to north-west, and began to blow strong. Squalls came over the heights of Hermite Island, and a very violent one, with thick weather, decided my standing out to sea for the night under close-reefed topsails. The weather continued bad and very cold during that night and next day. On the morning of the 24th, being off Cape Spencer, with threatening weather, a high sea, the barometer low, and great heavy-looking white clouds rising in the south-west, indicative ' of a gale from that quarter, I determined to seek for an an- chorage, and stood into (the so-calledt) St. Francis Bay. In * So named in remembrance of Sir Joseph Banks's excursion, t In the first volume doubts are expressed (in a note to page 199) respecting the place named by D'Arquistade, St. Francis Bay; or rather» I said'