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

470 TUCAPEL HEAD — DELAYS. July I should have mentioned that we spoke the schooner at eight in the morning, when Mr. Usborne said they had seen nothing in their run along-shore on the 26th, the only clear day they had had. After speaking us, he kept to the northward, intend- ing, as we concluded, to close the land about Tucapel Head, and again run along-shore to the southward. In the haze we quickly lost sight of the schooner ; but thinking that we should soon meet again in clearer weather, little notice was taken of this circumstance, which was afterwards so much regretted. Continual thick weather prevented any observations being taken, as well as the land from being seen, until the 2d of July, whea Tucapel Head was indistinctly made out in the distance. But strong wind and a high swell were reasons suffi- cient to keep the Blonde far in the offing, while thick hazy weather lasted ; and after making the land we actually stood to sea again, without even attempting to show the ship to the poor fellows on shore. In the course of this night a few stars were seen ; and their altitudes were the only observations that could have been obtained at any moment since we left Concep- cion Bay, during six days of constantly clouded and hazy weather, in which neither sun, moon, nor stars, nor even the horizon could be seen ! On the 3d, Tucapel Head was again made out indistinctly ; but nothing was done, a wide offing being still preserved. On the 4th, the weather had improved enough to allow of a partial view of the coast between the supposed place of the Leiibu and Cape Tirua ; but no signal-fire, nor any thing like a flag, could be perceived on any of the heights. Land appears so different when viewed from an offing at sea and when seen closely, especially from the land side, that it is less surprising that Vogelberg, who had visited the Leiibu dozens of times by land, and also by sea in a boat, should be as much at a loss as myself to recognise the height which we had both ascended with Captain Seymour. How it happened that I, who had surveyed this coast, should be ignorant of the real place of the Leiibu, as I then certainly was, is another affair entirely, and one which I feel bound to