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

80 MAGALHAENS'' W. ENTRANCE. Feb. 1827. Narborough, 'Westminster Hall.' The coast about our unsafe anchorage was as barren and dismal-looking as any part of this country, which, as the old navigator above-mentioned said, is ' so desolate land to behold.' " Next day (March 1st) we ran down to Cape Upright, and there remained until the 3d, collecting the required data for our survey. " While standing toAvards the bay called Playa Parda (on the 3d), a boat under sail was seen making towards us from the southern coast. I fired several guns, to show our position, before we became shut in by the land, and soon after anchor- ing a whale-boat came alongside, with the second mate and five men belonging to the sealing-vessel Prince of Saxe Cobourg. " Anxious not to lose a moment in hastening to the relief of our shipwrecked countrymen, I ran down next day to Port Gallant, and thence proceeded with two ten-oared boats (on the 5th) through the Barbara Channel, and the following evening reached Fury Harbour." Having already given a short account of the Saxe Cobourg's loss, and the rescue of her crew by Captain Stokes, I will not repeat the story by extracting more from his journal. Mr. Graves I'eturned from his cruize in the Hope on the 17th, after suffering much from stormy weather and incessant rain ; but having made a survey of the openings in the land to the west of Magdalen Channel as far as the Sugar Loaf Point, at the west head of Lyell Sound, which he found to be deep inlets, affording no anchorages of value to navigation. The time having arrived for our return to Monte Video, preparations were made for sailing, and in the mean time I went to the nortliward, in the Hope, to survey the coast between Port Famine and Elizabeth Island, including Shoal Haven. At the bottom of Shoal Haven we were stopped by the water shoaling to five feet, so that we were obliged to haul out till we could anchor in more than two fathoms. During the night the wind shifted to N.E., and blew right in, obliging us to weigh, and work under the S.W. end of Elizabeth Island into a bay close to that shore. From the summit of the S.W.