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

VALDES CREEK — TIDES. 309 communication across the continent with Chiloe, which misht be a means of diffusing Christianity, civilization, and commer- cial intercourse. On the 3d, Lieut. Wickham and his party left the Chupat. Early on the 5th they entered Valdes Creek (by the Spaniards styled ' port'), with the flood tide running nearly six knots into the narrow entrance : and on its shores found heaps of horns and bones, besides the wreck of a vessel.* These were indications of one of the temporary settlements maintained on the peninsula of San Jose for the purpose of obtaining hides. The carcases of the animals were invariably left to decay ; a few deUcate portions only being selected for food. Until the 12th our little vessels were unable to quit this singular place, for the ebb tide set so strongly against the swell outside, raised by a S.E. gale, that they could not attempt to cross the bar. Sometimes the very narrow entrance of Valdes Creek is almost stopped up for a time by shingle and sand, after a S.E. gale has been blowing for a few days, therefore at such a time no vessel ought to run for it. During the war between Brazil and Buenos Ayres (1825-9), Mr. Adams, of Carmen, was master of a merchant vessel hired by Vernet to convey settlers to the Falkland Islands. In returning thence, short of water and provisions, he thought to put into Valdes Creek, knowing that some people were there employed in collecting hides. He ran in for the land, with a fresh S.E. wand, and did not discover, until almost too late, that the bar was not passable. W^hen close in he peixeived a heavy sea breaking at the entrance, where he expected smooth water, and directly hauled off; but it was only by carrying a heavy press of sail that he cleared the land ; and at the expense of passing through ' races,' which tore off the vessel's bulwarks and otherwise damaged her materially. As our cock-boats crossed this bar, they had ten feet water, but on each side of it there were five fathoms. The Liebre, sharp built, plunged into each short swell ; while the Paz, with her bluff bow, did not * Of about two hundred tons burthen.