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

1830. FUEGIANS — PASSAGES. 3 huge fish, a land animal, or the devil (of whom they have a notion in their country), they could not decide ; neither could they understand the attempted explanations of our sailor?, who tried to make them comprehend its nature : but, indeed, I think that no one who remembers standing, for the first time, near a railway, and witnessing the rapid approach of a steam- engine, with its attached train of carriages, as it dashed along, smoking and snorting, will be surprised at the effect which a large steam-ship, passing at full speed near the Beagle, in a dark night, must have had on these ignorant, though rather intelligent barbarians. Before relating occurrences subsequent to our arrival in England, I must ask permission to make the first of a few nautical remarks that will be found in this volume, some of which, I hope, may be useful to young sailors. Our passage across the Atlantic, from Rio de Janeiro to Falmouth, was unusually long. In order to sail within sight of the Cape Verd Islands, for a particular purpose, we steered eastward from the coast of Brazil, and crossed the equator far east. This course, unavoidable in our case, carried us into that tract of ocean, between the trade-winds, which in August and September is subject to westerly winds — sometimes extremely strong — and we encountered a very heavy gale, although so near the equator. Afterwards, when close to our own shores, we were unfortunate enough to be delayed by what seamen call a hard-hearted easterly wind ; and not until the middle of October were we moored in a British port. As a remarkable contrast, a Falmouth packet, which sailed from Rio de Janeiro some time after our departure, steered northward, as soon as she had cleared the coast of Brazil, crossed the line far to the west, and arrived in England a fort- night before us. My own humble opinion, with respect to crossing the equa- tor, is, that an outward-bound ship ought to cross near twenty- five— and that one homeward-bound may go even beyond thirty degrees of west longitude — but should not attempt to pass eastward of twenty-five. Ships crossing the line between B 2