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.]
On our way back we took a sharp turn leading to the sea-shore, to
which the forest extends in places, and rode along the beach towards
the town.
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