Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

1832. CAPE CORRIENTES TOSCA COAST. 99 of this peculiarity, it was far easier to avoid shoals, as they all lay in a similar direction. On a round-topped hill, near Mar-chiquito, we saw an im- mense herd of cattle, collected together in one dark-coloured mass, which covered many acres of ground. A few men, on horseback, were watching them, who, seeing us anchor, drove the whole multitude away at a gallop, and in a few minutes not one was left behind. Probably they suspected us of ma- rauding inclinations. Cape Corrientes is a bold, cliffy promontory ; off which, notwithstanding the name, I could not distinguish any remark- able current. It is said to be hazardous for a boat to go along- shore, near the high cliffs of that cape, because there are rocks under water which sometimes cause sudden and extremely dangerous ' blind breakers."* More than one boat's crew has been lost there, in pursuit of seals, which are numerous among the rocks and caves at the foot of those cliffs. Hence to Bahia Blanco is a long and dreary line of coast, withovit an opening fit to receive the smallest sailing vessel, without a remarkable feature, and without a river whose mouth is not fordable. Even the plan of it, on paper, has such a regular figure, that an eye accustomed to charts may doubt its accuracy ; so rarely does the outline of an exposed sea-coast extend so far without a break. A heavy swell always sets upon it; there is no safe anchorage near the shore ; and, as if to complete its uninviting qualities, in the interior, but verging on this shore, is a desert tract, avoided even by the Indians, and called, in their lan- guage, Huecuvu-mapu (country of the Devil). In explor- ing this exposed coast, southerly winds sometimes obliged us to struggle for an offing ; and we lost several anchors in conse- quence of letting them go upon ground which we thought was hard sand lying over clay, but which turned out to be tosca, slightly covered with sand, and full of holes. The lead indi- cated a sandy, though hard bottom ; but we found it ever}* where so perforated and so tough, that, drop an anchor where we might, it was sure to hook a rock-like lump of tosca, which sometimes was torn away, but at others broke the anchor. H ii