At eleven o’clock we went ashore.  The Governor had kindly provided horses for all the party, and while they were being saddled I took some photographs.  There are plenty of horses here, but the only saddles and bridles to be had are those used by the natives.  The saddles are very cumbrous and clumsy to look at, though rather picturesque.  They are formed of two bits of wood, covered with about a dozen sheepskins and ponchos; not at all uncomfortable to ride in, and very suitable for a night’s bivouac in the open.  ’Plenty of nice soft rugs to lie upon and cover yourself with, instead of a hard English saddle for your bed and stirrups for blankets,’ as a native once said, when asked which he preferred.  About one o’clock we started, accompanied by the officers commanding the garrison and two attendant cavaliers, equipped in Chilian style, with enormous carved modern stirrups, heavy bits and spurs much bigger than those whose size struck us so much in the Argentine Republic.  We had a pleasant ride, first across a sandy plain and through one or two small rivers, to a saw-mill, situated on the edge of an extensive forest, through which we proceeded for some miles.  The road was a difficult one, and our progress was but slow, being often impeded by a morass or by the trunk of a tree which had fallen right across the path, and was now rapidly rotting into touchwood under the influence of the damp atmosphere and incessant rain.  Lichens of every colour and shape abounded, and clothed the trunks gracefully, contrasting with the tender spring tints of the leaves, while the long hairy tillandsia, like an old man’s beard, three or four feet long, hung down from the topmost branches.  The ground was carpeted with moss, interspersed with a few early spring flowers, and the whole scene, though utterly unlike that presented by any English forest, had a strange weird beauty of its own.  Not a sound could be heard; not a bird, beast, or insect was to be seen.  The larger trees were principally a peculiar sort of beech and red cedar, but all kinds of evergreens, known to us at home as shrubs, such as laurestine, and various firs, here attain the proportions of forest-trees.  There is also a tree called Winter’s Bark (Drimys Winteri), the leaves and bark of which are hot and bitter, and form an excellent substitute for quinine.  But the most striking objects were the evergreen berberis and mahonia, and the Darwinia, the larger sort of which was covered with brilliant orange, almost scarlet, flowers, which hung down in bunches, of the shape and size of small outdoor grapes.

[Illustration:  Fuegian Bow and Arrows.]