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

May 1828. gulf of penas — kelly harbouk. 175 until midnight of the 22d, it rained in torrents, without tlie intermission of a single minute, the wind being strong and squally at W., W.N.W., and N.W. " When the weather improved, on the 23d, we weighed, and made sail along the northern side of the sound, for the pur- pose of ascertaining whether it admitted of a passage to the northward. We kept within a mile of the shore, sounding from eight to fifteen fathoms, generally on a sandy bottom ; and a run of seven miles brought us within three miles of the bottom of the inlet, the depth of water being four fathoms, on sand. The termination of this sound is continuous low land, with patches of sandy beach, over Avhich, in the distance, among mountains of great height, we were again able to make out and take the bearing of that remarkable one, named the ' Dome of St. Paurs.' The shores of this inlet are thickly wooded ; the land near them is, for the most part, low, but rises into mountains, or rather hills, from twelve to fifteen hundred feet in height, from which many streams of water descend. As soon as a ship has passed Dead Tree Island, she becomes land- locked; and as in all parts of the sound there is anchorage depth, Avith a muddy or sandy bottom, the advantages offered to shipping would be of great consequence in parts of the world more frequented than the Gulf of Penas. " Whales were numerous, and seals were seen in tliis inlet, now called the Gulf of San Estevan. " Hence we went to Kelly Harbour, at the north-eastern side of the Gulf of Penas, four miles N.E. of Xavier Island. The land around it is rocky and mountainous, but by no means bare of wood. Near the entrance it is low, as compared with the adjacent land ; but in the interior are lofty snow-capped mountains. " A large field of ice, lying on the low land near Kelly Har- bour, was remarkable. There was none on the low grounds at the other (southern) side of the port, though it was almost the winter solstice at the time of our visit. " Another day and night of incessant rain. In the morning of the 25th we had some showers of hail, and at daylight found