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

304 SALINAS LIGHTNING. Jan. 1833. from Cape Blanco, to trace the coast, and look out for shoals in the offing ; in doing which, they found numerous ' Sali- nas' (extensive hollow places filled with salt), where the soHd mass of very white and good salt was several feet in thickness. Guanacoes were numerous, hut shy. On the rocks some fur- seal were seen ; too few, however, to be worth a sealer's notice. The following week was passed in examining St. George Bay. Scarcely any stream of tide was found in its western part, though the rise amounted to nearly twenty feet. About Tilly road, where they landed, the mass or principal part of the soil, where visible in cliffs or ravines, is loose sandy clay (diluvium), with immense quantities of large fossil oyster shells imbedded in it. These shells were found every where, even on summits seven or eight hundred feet above the sea, and some of them weighed eight pounds, A place honoured by the Spaniards with the name of Malas- pina, and described as a port, was found to be a wretched cove, fuU of rocks, hardly safe even for the Liebre. While moored there, our party witnessed lightning set fire to bushes and grass. The flames spread rapidly, and for two days, the face of the country continued to blaze. Near Port Arredondo, Mr. Wickham went to the tops of several hills ; he found the coun- try unproductive, except of a few bushes, and yellow wiry grass. There were no traces of natives. Very heavy rain fell during the night of the 28th. I mention it thus particularly, because some persons have said that rain never falls on the east coast of Patagonia, in any quantity. The cove called ' Oven' is a singular place, being a parting (as it were) in the solid rock, nearly a mile in length, but very narrow, with four fathoms water in it at low tide. Surrounded on all sides by precipitous hills, it is, indeed, an oven ; and would injure a ship seriously, even more than other ports on this arid coast, if she were to lie long in it ; as her seams would all be opened, and her planks split by the heat and drought. The water found here was so strongly impregnated with salt-petre, that it was not drinkable ; but probably better