Part 33 (2/2)

Election as Foreign associate of the Institute of France

Valparaiso

The Galapagos

Geological and Zoological Features

Arrival at San Francisco

The next day forces were divided The vessel put out into the Strait again for sounding and dredging, while Agassiz, with a s made a fire and pitched a tent in which to deposit wraps, provisions etc, the coeologizing, botanizing, and collecting Agassiz was especially engaged in studying the structure of the beach itself He found that the ridge of the beach was forlacial moraine, while accues, concentric with one another and with the beach moraine, extended far out from the shore like partly sunken reefs The pebbles and boulders of these ridges were not local, or, at least, only partially so; they had the sahout the Strait

The day was favorable for work, and there was little to re winter A creek of fresh water, that ran out upon one part of the beach, led up to a roe bordered by rown trees and carpeted by ferns and lichens in all its nooks and corners This brook took its rise in a s so the shore in this excursion were large and various: star-fish, volutas, sea-urchins, sea-anemones, medusae, doris; many small fishes, also, from the tide-pools, beside a number drawn in the seine

Later in the day, when the party had assembled around the beach fire for rest and refresh to the vessel, their lunch was interrupted by strange and unexpected guests A boat rounded the point of the beach, and, as it caian natives, s, their invariable companions The men alone landed, so could be more coarse and repulsive than their appearance, in which the brutality of the savage was in no way redeeth or manliness They were almost naked, for the short, loose skins tied around the neck, and hanging from the shoulders, over the back, partly to the waist, could hardly be called clothing With swollen bodies, thin li, leer on their faces, they crouched over the fire, spreading their hands toward its genial war at once, ”Tabac! tabac!” and ”Galleta!”--biscuit Tobacco there was none; but the remains of the lunch, such as it was,--hard bread and pork,--was distributed areedily devoured it

Then the one who, judging froht be the chief, or leader, seated hiular kind of estures and expressions, seeers they had found upon the beach, and were evidently addressed to theian song Rather recitative than singing, the measure had, nevertheless, certain divisions or pauses, as if to ularly recurring intervals, and ended always in the sa inflection of the voice When the song was finished, a certain surprise and expectancy in the listeners kept theer, who looked round with a co disappointment Thus rehed with pleasure, i of the hands in an aay, and nothing loth, began to sing again

The recall gun froe scene to a close, and the party hastened down to the beach, closely followed by their guests, who still claht the boat close to that of the Hassler at the landing They all began to laugh, talk, and gesticulate, and see rapidity, and all together Their boat, with the babies and dogs to add to the tumult, was a perfect babel of voices They put off at once, keeping as close as they could to the Hassler boat, and reaching the vessel almost at the same time They were not allowed to coht calico and beads for the women, were thron to them They scrambled and snatched fiercely, like wild animals, for whatever they could catch They had some idea of barter, for when they found they had received all that they were likely to get gratuitously, they held up bows and arroicker baskets, birds, and the large sea-urchins, which are an article of food with the to the side, praying, shrieking, screa, for more ”tabac” When they found it a hopeless chase, they dropped off, and began again the sa their hands in farewell

Always interested in the coretted that he had no other opportunity of observing the natives of this region and co them with the Indians he had seen elsewhere, in Brazil and in the United States It is true that he and his companions, when on shore, frequently cale empty huts; and their canoes followed the Hassler several times, but never when it was convenient to stop and let them come up with the vessel This particular set were not in a canoe, but in a large boat of English build Probably they had stolen it, or had found it, perhaps, stranded on the shore They are usually, however, in canoes of their own h to construct canoes so well ether, should have invented nothing better in the way of a house than a hut built of flexible branches, co These huts are hood-like in shape, and too low for any posture but that of squatting or lying down In front is always a scorched spot on the ground, where their handful of fire has se heap of e that they had occupied this place until they had exhausted the supply of mussels, on which they chiefly live When this is the case, they ather a few branches, reconstruct their frail shelter, and continue the saht by their necessities, they wander thus, naked and hoes, asking of the land only a strip of beach and a handful of fire; and of the ocean, shell-fish enough to save them from starvation

The Hassler had now fairly entered upon S (March 27th) in Otway Bay, a lake-like harbor, broken by islands Mount Burney, a noble, snow-covered randeur of outline, was in full view, but was partially veiled inday, however, the weather was perfect for the sail past Sarht all day Blue could not be more deep and pure, nor white more spotless, than their ice and snow-fields Toward the latter part of the day, an ie It was covered with the h cones over the whole surface, their shadows slanting over the glittering snow in the afternoon sunshi+ne They were most fantastic in shape, and soht, they resembled heaped-up mounds or pyraroup of them, so combined as to simulate a fortification, showed a face of rock where the snow had been bloay, and it seemed therefore probable that all were alike,--snow-covered pinnacles of rock

The evening anchorage on the 28th was in Mayne's Harbor, a pretty inlet of Owen's Island Here the vessel was detained for twenty-four hours by the breaking of the reversing rod The engineers repaired it to the best of their ability, with such apparatus as they had, but it was a source of anxiety till a port was reached where a new one could be supplied The detention, had it not been for such a cause, elcoassiz found the rounded andof the outlines of ice no less marked here than in the Strait; and in a rae, M de Pourtales cas and furrows on dikes and ledges of greenstone and syenite They were perfectly regular, and could be connected by their trend fro spaces of softer decos had disappeared

The country above Mayne's Harbor was pretty, though so the shore, the walking was over soggy hurowth upon therass These were succeeded by ridges of cru rock, bethich were numerous small lakes The land seemed very barren of life Even the shores of the ponds were hardly inhabited No song of bird or buzz of insect broke the stillness Rock after rock was turned over in the vain expectation of finding living things on the damp under side at least; and the cushi+ons of moss were broken up in the same fruitless chase All was barren and lifeless Not so on the shore, where the collecting went on rapidly Dredge and nets were at work all the , and abundant collections were assiz found t jelly-fishes, and christened theested, one for Captain Mayne, the other for Professor Owen

Near the shore, birds also seeeese and a steaht in, and one of the officers reported hu across the brook from which the Hassler's tanks were filled

Early on theof the 30th, while mountains and snow-fields, woodland and water, still lay between ht and sunrise, the Hassler started for Tarn Bay It was a beautiful Easter Sunday, with very little wind, and a soft sky, broken by few clouds But such beginnings are too apt to be delusive in this region of wet and fog, and a heavy rain, with thick ht, for the first tie, and lay off the shore near an island, which afforded some protection from the wind A forlorn hope was detailed to the shore, where a large fire was kept burning all night, that the vesselall was right again, and she kept on her course to Rowlet Narrows

This passage is fore, cleft between lofty walls over which assiz observed two old glacier beds on the western side of the pass--two shallow depressions, lying arid and scored between swelling wooded ridges He had not lacial effects than here The sides of the channel show these traces throughout their whole length In this saround on the shore of Indian Reach, to the south of Lackawanna Cove, is a largethe ”horse-backs,” in the State of Maine, New England

The top was as level as a railroad eht was in Eden Harbor, and for that evening, at least, it was lovely enough to deserve its name The whole expanse of its land-locked waters, held between mountains and broken by islands, was rosy and purple in the setting sun The gates of the garden were closed, however, not by a flae of which a scanty ri or foothold The collections here, therefore, were sathered half-a-dozen species of echinoder detained the vessel in Eden Harbor till a late hour in the e through the English Narrows, the most contracted part of Sh which the water rushes with such force that, in navigating it, great care was required to keep the vessel off the rocks Her anchorage at the close of the day was in Connor's Cove, a miniature harbor not unlike Borja Bay in the Strait It was a tranquil retreat The water-birds see their long wakes through the water, and a large kind of stormy petrel sailed up to the vessel, and almost put himself into the hands of the sailors, hoassiz found Connor's Cove of especial interest It runs east and west, opening on the eastern side of the channel; but the knolls, that is to say, the rounded surfaces at its entrance, are furrowed across the cove, at right angles with it In other words, the movement of the ice, always from south to north, has been with Sellan

Indeed it seeency in Smythe's Channel, the trend of the furrows, the worn surfaces whereon they were to be found, and the steepness of southern exposures as compared with the more rounded opposite slopes, pointed to the saassiz left with regret this region of ocean and lacier, snow-field, and forest The weeks he had spent there were all too short for the work he had hoped to do

Yet, trained as he was in glacial phenomena, even so cursory an observation satisfied him that in the southern, as in the northern helaciers are but a remnant of the ancient ice-period

After two days of open sea and head winds, the next anchorage was in Port San Pedro, a very beautiful bay opening on the north side of Corcovado Gulf, with snow ht; the Peak of Corcovado and a wonderfully symmetrical volcanic mountain, Melimoya, white as purest ainst the sky Forests clothed the shore on every side, and the shelving beach met the wood in a bank of wild Bromelia, most brilliant in color Not only were excellent collections e accureen epidotic rock which Agassiz had traced to this spot froonian coast, without ever finding it in place Solacial furrows and scratches upon the the shore were rounded and assiz in the scenery of all this region, and especially in the Strait of Magellan, was a kind of hoh the mountains rose from the ocean, instead of frolaciers carried hi in the Port San Pedro, with the singular transparent rose color over the snowpallor, was the very reproduction of an Alpine sunset

The next assiz had hoped to continue the voyage by the inside passage between the main-land and the island of Chiloe This was of iical relation to Sellan In the absence of any good charts of the channel, the Captain, after exa the shoals at the entrance, was forced to decide, alassiz, not to atte up the outer coast of Chiloe, therefore, the vessel anchored before Ancud on the 8th of April It was a heavenly day The volcanic peak of Osorno and the whole snowy Cordilleras were unveiled The little town above the harbor, with its outlying farreen and fertile hills around, seemed like the very centre of civilization to people who had been so long out of the world It is said to rain in Ancud three hundred and sixty-five days in the year But on this particular afternoon it was a very sunny place, and the inhabitants seee Groups of Indians, who had co to sell their roups around their e shawls, the men in their ponchos and slouched hats; the country people were driving out their double teahs filled withand beating their linen along the roadside; the gardens of the poorest houses were bright with large shrubs of wild fuchsia, and, altogether, the aspect of the little place was cheerful and pretty Agassiz had but two or three hours for a look at the geology Even this cursory glance sufficed to show hiical eleellan Strait Here they rested, however, on volcanic soil

Stopping at Lota for coal, but not long enough for any scientific work, the Hassler entered Concepcion Bay on the 15th April, and anchored near Talcahuana, where she was to reine This quaint, primitive little town is built upon one of the finest harbors on the Pacific coast Agassiz was fortunate in finding, through the kindness of Captain Johnson, a partially furnished house, where several large vacant roo on the ”patio,” served admirably as scientific laboratories Here, then, he established himself with his assistants It was soon understood that every living thing would find a market with him, and all the idle urchins about the town flocked to the house with speci traffic of birds, shells, fish, etc, went on there froroups of Indians co excursions and walks in the neighborhood, and the geology of the region was so interesting that it detero by land frolacial tracks thatbetween the Cordillera of the Andes and the Coast Range Meanwhile the Hassler was to go on a dredging expedition to the island of Juan Fernandez, and then proceed to Valparaiso, where Agassiz was to join her a fortnight later Although this expedition was under the patronage of the Coast Survey, the generosity of Mr

Thayer, so constantly extended to scientific aiassiz on this second journey To his kindness he owed the possibility of organizing an excursion apart froe of plan and its cause is told in the following extract froeneral report to Professor Peirce:--

APRIL 27th

While I was transcribing my Report, Pourtales came in with the statelacier in the vicinity I have visited the locality twice since

It is a nificent polished surface, as well preserved as any I have ever seen upon old glaciated ground or under glaciers of the present day, ell-marked furrows and scratches Think of it! a characteristic surface, indicating glacier action, in latitude 37 degrees south, at the level of the sea! The place is only a few feet above tide level, upon the slope of a hill on which stand the ruins of a Spanish fort, near the fishermen's huts of San Vicente, which lies between Concepcion Bay and the Bay of Aranco Whether the polished surface is the work of a glacier descending from the Andes to the sea-shore or not, I have not yet been able to determine I find no volcanic pebbles or boulders in this vicinity, which, afterthe shore, if the glaciers of the Andes had descended to the level of the ocean, in this part of the country The erratics here have the character of those observed farther south It is true the furrows and scratches of this polished surface runthe rees, and running south-east-north-west

Moreover, the rees at Talcahuano April 23rd, the true netic I shall soon knohat to o to Santiago and join the shi+p again at Valparaiso I have hired a private carriage, to be able to stop whenever I wish so to do I also take a small seine to fish for fresh water fishes in thebetween this place and Valparaiso The trend of the glacial scratches in San Vicente reland near the sea-shore, where the glacial furrows dip to a considerable extent eastward toward the deep ocean, while further inland their trend is ular and due North and South

”I had alotten to say that I have obtained unquestionable evidence of the cretaceous age of the coal deposits of Lota and the adjoining localities, north and south, which are generally supposed to be tertiary lignites They are overlaid by sandstone containing Baculites! I need not adduce other evidence to satisfy geologists of the correctness of reatupon coal-seams Ever truly yours,

LOUIS AGassIZ”