File:The cruise of Her Majesty's ship "Challenger" - voyages over many seas, scenes in many lands (1877) (14780397351).jpg

Identifier: cruiseofhermaj00spry (find matches)
Title: The cruise of Her Majesty's ship "Challenger" : voyages over many seas, scenes in many lands
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Spry, W. J. J. (William James Joseph), d. 1906 Burrows, C. Acton (Charles Acton), 1853-1948 (bookplate)
Subjects: Challenger (Ship) Voyages around the world
Publisher: Toronto : Belford Bros.
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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k )may say I have never seen a more remarkable andpicturesque view than the approach to the anchoragepresented. Great mountains appear, torn and brokeninto every conceivable fantastic shape, with deepravines, through which the torrents at times sweepdown from the precipitous cliffs, which rise oneabove the other, finally culminating in a greatmass 3000 feet high, known as the Yunque, orAnvil (from its resemblance to the iron block usedby blacksmiths). This is wooded nearly from thesummit to the base, where are indications of itshaving been at one time cleared for cultivation (atthe time probably when the Spaniards made theattempt to colonise it), for the stone walls whichserved to divide the inclosures still remain. There arealso the remains of a fort, named San Juan Bautista,and a few tumble-down shanties, in which some fortyor fifty people are existing, seeking a precariousliving by supplying vessels that occasionally call herewith fresh provisions, &c. It is certainly a strange
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JUAN FEBNANDEZ. 330 fact that people can be found to isolate themselves insuch out-of-the-way places as this. Doubtless, in theabstract, it is a fine thing to be monarch of all onesurveys; but those who have realised it are generallyfound to reverse their early aspirations, and own thatsolitude is not good for mankind. It was on this islandthat Alexander Selkirk was landed in 1704, froma ship he was serving in at the time as master;and here he remained in solitude for more thanfour years. Eventually, on being rescued, and re-turning to/ England, he gave the narrative of hissojourn here to the great romancer of his day, DanielDefoe, in order to prepare it for publication ; and itwas from the ideas so furnished that the excellentand well-known story of Eobinson Crusoe wasformed. Anchoring in Cumberland Bay, in 40 fathoms, notfar from the shore, we found it quite safe andpleasant. The bay has much the appearance of ahuge crater of an old volcano, surrounded on allsides, except one (the e

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