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

384 PROVISIONS — LOCAL ATTRACTION. Jail. 1830. diet, for we shot much wild fowl (geese, shags, and ducks), and caught fish in the kelp, which were excellent eating. All that could be procured was regularly and equally- distributed to the different messes in turn, and an account kept in a ' game book.' (Appendix.) " 22d. Mr. Stokes went to examine Fury Harbour, and returned late at night. In consequence of his account of the remains of the Saxe Cobourg sealing schooner, lost in thathar- bour, I sent a boat with the carpenter to collect from it some wood and bolts which might be useful to our ship, and remained at anchor for a day longer than I had intended. " This day all hands were put upon two-thirds' allowance, but as it was a measure which affected the crew much and myself not at all, I was reluctant to give the necessary order, without first pro- posing the measui'e openly, and giving the following reasons : " Having succeeded beyond expectation in the examination of the coast thus far, and hoping to be able to continue the survey in the same manner, while our provisions lasted, I thought it better to shorten the allowance while all hands were well and hearty, and could obtain supplies of fish and wild fowl, rather than at a later period, when we might be otherwise situated. An extent of coast lay before us, and the parts par- ticularly pointed out by Captain King, were yet unexamined. " 24th. A tolerably fine day ; I tried all the compasses on shore, in three different places, placing them in a line to a dis- tant mark ; because in taking bearings, for the variation of the compass, during previous days, I had found very wide differences between the results of the same, as well as different compasses ; and they were also very sluggish ; the light cards being more so than the heavy ones. I found it impossible to reconcile their results by change of place or position, therefore it is probable that all the rock affected the needle ; and I sus- pect that not only this island and the one on which Mount Skyring is situated, but most of the islands near are mag- netic : particularly a cluster lying about a mile to seaward of the Magill Islands, on Avhich, I believe, Lieutenant Skyring, or some of his party, took bearings. A boat was sent to