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

1835. AI.AU— CALBUCO— DOCKS. 387 On the little uninhabited island, Chiut, in the middle of Ancud Gulf, Mr. Sulivan found a great number of wild straw- berries : they were not very good, being unripe. Near the islands beyond Chiut (called Desertas), on the shore of the main-land, he saw several piraguas stranded, evidently during a late gale, as their crews were engaged in repairing them on the beach. In the island Alau, Lieut. Sulivan met an old native, about 112 years of age ; who had great-grandchildren about him, from twelve to fourteen years old. His eyesight and intel- lectual faculties were still good, and he walked firmly. From the inhabitants of Alau, Mr. Sulivan heard that an English armed brig, accompanied by a Spanish vessel of war, had an- chored at that island about seventy years before 1835 (1765). Our boats visited Calbuco, and happening to arrive during the time of Mass, found nobody stirring. At last one man came out of church — ran back instantly — as if to tell the news, and immediately hundreds came pouring out to see the strangers. Calbuco, called also El Fuerte, is much superior to Castro in appearance as well as size. It ranks next to San Carlos, in consequence to the Chilotes. Near here it was that friendly Indians helping the distressed inhabitants of Osorno to escape from the Araucanians (1599-1605), raised a cry of Calbu-co (blue water), when, emerging from the woodland, they caught a glimpse of the sea. Our party examined places on the east coast of Chiloe, where docks might be constructed, or vessels laid ashore with much facility, as the tide rises from fifteen to twenty-five feet in several land-locked coves where the swell of the ocean never penetrates. Round Chiloe the flood tide-streams run both ways, from the south-west ; and meet in the north-west part of Ancud Gulf; the times of syzygial high water, in all the archipelago, vary only from noon to an hour and half after noon. In December and January our boat expedition found that the night tides were always higher than those of the day, and the inhabitants said that was always the case in summer. In the months of July and VOL. n. 2 < 2