d them has a cold, clammy feel, and
the light is no better than shadowy twilight. A weird, unearthly
silence pervades it, only broken by the harsh twitter of a diminutive
bird--a species of creeper--that keeps them company on the way, the
dismal _woo-woo-a_ of an owl, and, at intervals, the rattling call-note
of the Fuegian woodpecker. The last, though laugh-like in itself, is
anything but provocative of mirth in those who listen to it, knowing
that it is a sound peculiar to the loneliest, gloomiest recesses of the
forests.

After toiling up the steep acclivity for nearly two hours, they arrive
at a point where the tall timber abruptly ends. There are trees
beyond--beeches, like the others, but so dwarfed and stunted as to
better deserve the name of bushes. Bushes of low growth, but of ample
spread; for in height, less than twenty inches, while their branches
extend horizontally to more than that number of feet! They are as
thickly branched as the box-edging of a garden walk, and so interwoven
with several species of shrubs--arbutus, berberis, chamatis, donaria,
and escalonia--as to present a smooth matted surface, seemingly that of
the ground itself, under a close-cropped sward.

Mistaking it for this, the two young men, who are in the lead, glad at
having escaped from the gloom of the forest with its many obstructions,
gleefully strike out into what they believe to be open ground, only to
find their belief a delusion, and the path as difficult as ever. For
now it is over the tops of growing trees instead of the trunks of fallen
ones, both alike impracticable. Every now and then their feet break
through and become entangled, their trousers are torn and their shins
scratched by the thorns of the berberries.

The others, following, fare a little better, from being forewarned, and
proceeding with greater caution. But for all it is a troublesome march,
calling for agility. Now a quick rush, as if over thin ice or a
treacherous quagmire; anon, a trip-up and tumble, with a spell of
floundering before feet can be recovered.

Fortunately, the belt of Lilliputian forest is of no great breadth, and
beyond it, higher up, they come upon firmer ground, nearly bare of
vegetation, which continues to the summit of the ridge.

Reaching this at length, they get a scenic view of "Fireland," grander
than any yet revealed to them. Mountains to the north, mountains to the
south, east, and west; mountains piled on mountains al