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

Feb.1835. osoRKo san carlos — chiloe. 379 from the sea, at a distance of ninety or a hundred miles, the whole of the cone, 6,000 feet in height* at least, and covered with snow, stands out in the boldest relief from anion 2: ranges of inferior mountains. The apex of this cone being very acute, and the cone itself regularly formed, it bears a resemblance to a gigantic glass-house ; which similitude is increased not a little by the column of smoke so freqviently seen ascending. We remained till the 4th of February in the port of San Carlos. Mr. Darwin profited by the opportunity afforded to make an excursion into the interior of the island, while the surveying party were occupied in arranging data, in laying down chart-work, and in taking and calculating observations. I paid Douglas for his services and for a variety of informa- tion collected for me, from which — from Lieut. Sulivan's journal — and from my own notes — I shall now add such few notices of Chiloe as I think may be interesting, and which have not been already introduced in the first volume, (pp. 269—301.) Various accounts have been given of the characters and dispositions of the Chilotes. Some have said that they are a noble, industrious, and docile race ; others that they ate dis- honest, idle, and ill-disposed : to reconcile these contradictory accounts is, therefore, at first sight, rather perplexing. There are four distinct classes of inhabitants in Chiloe and the adja- cent islands ;-f- the aboriginal Huyhuen-che, or Chonos ; the Huilli-che, who came from southern Chile ; the foreigners, those neither born in Chiloe nor descended from Chilotes; and the Creoles. Of these the Chonos are now nearly lost : in con- sequence of disease and emigration they have by degrees aban- doned not only Chiloe but the adjacent Chonos islands, and are only found southward. Some Indians to the south-west of Castro, in the interior of the island near the lake Cucao, * The volcano of Osorno, or Purraraque, or Huenauca, is 7,5^0 feet above the sea level. t The smaller islands of the Archipelago of Chiloe, those in the gulf between Chil6e and the main-land, called the Gulf of Ancoed or Ancud.