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

424 LEAVE MARCH HARBOUR — iLDEFoNsos. March 1830. ing early — but as the sun rose higher the weather improved, and we tried to weigh, — yet were provokingly delayed, for the chain was so fast round a rock, that for nearly an hour we could not move it. At last we succeeded, without injury to any- thing — left the harbour, and stood away for the Ildefonsos with a strong W.S.W. mnd .and a confused high swell. " March Harbour (so called from our having passed the month of March in it) is not so good as I at first thought. The bottom is certainly excellent in some parts ; it is well shel- tered, and easy of access, but there are many rocky places which would injure a hemp cable. Besides, there is a danger- ous rock under Avatcr in the wide part of the harbour, hidden by a large patch of kelp. " We passed along the S.W. side of the Ildefonsos, at the distance of half a mile. They appeared like the higher parts of a mountain almost under water, lying N.W. and S.E., nearly broken through by the sea in several places, so as to form several islets, of which the highest and largest is about two hundred feet above the sea, and one-third of a mile in length ; another is about one-quarter of a mile long ; the rest are mere rocks. The two larger ai'e covered with tussac,* among which we saw numerous seal which had scrambled up to the very summits. Having seen enough of these islets, we hauled our wind, and shortened sail, to prepare for the night : for it blew a fresh gale, with every appearance of its increasing and drawing to the south wai'd. I wished to make the Dieo-o Ramirez Islands the next morning, and thence run to the north-eastward ; and, had the wind been moderate, could have done so without difficulty ; but after car- rying a press of sail during the night, and making southing, with as little easting as possible, I fovmd myself, at daylight next morning, five miles to leeward of the above-mentioned islands, with the wind sti'ong from the N.W., and too much sea to allow me to hope to see moi-e of them without remaining under sail until the weather moderated. This would not have • A rushy kind of coarse "rass.