Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

Jan. 1827. beagle — cape fkoward. 69 direction, not force) of a trade-wind ; a current setting to the eastward, commonly at the rate of a knot and three quarters an hour, will be found in mid-channel. The tides exert scarcely any influence, except near either shore ; and some- times appear to set, up one side of the Straits, and down the other : the weather tide is generally shown by a rippling, (c) " Heavy squalls off Cape Froward repeatedly obliged us to clew all up. By day their approach is announced, in time for the necessary precautions, by their curling up and covering with foam the surface of the water, and driving the spray in clouds before them. " At last we doubled Cape Froward. This Cape (called by the Spaniards El Morro de Santa Agueda), the southern- most point of all America, is a bold promontory, composed of dark coloured slaty rock ; its outer face is nearly perpen- dicular, and whether coming from the eastward or westward, it ' makes ' as a high round-topped bluff hill (' Morro'). " Bougainville observes, that ' Cape Froward has always been much dreaded by navigators.'-f- To double it, and gain an anchorage under Cape Holland, certainly cost the Beagle as tough a sixteen hours' beat as I have ever witnessed : we made thirty-one tacks, which, with the squalls, kept us constantly on the alert, and scarcely allowed the crew to have the ropes out of their hands throughout the day. But what there is to inspire a navigator with ' dread' I cannot tell, for the coast on both sides is perfectly clear, and a vessel may work from shore to shore." From Cape Holland, the Beagle proceeded to Port Gallant, and during her stay there, Mr. Bowen ascended the Mountain de la Cruz. Upon the summit he found some remains of a glass bottle, and a roll of papers, Avhich proved to be the memorials stated to have been left by Don Antonio de Cordova, (c) ^Vhile the ' current' runs eastward for many days in mid-channel, or along one shore, it often happens that the ' stream of tide' either sets in a contrary direction, along each side of the Strait, or that it follows only the shore opposite to that washed by the ' current.' — R. F. t " Voyage autour du Monde." 1767-