296 Dr Gairdner's Observations during a voyage from 



ing the solar eclipse of Jan. 20, in Lat. 49° 38^ S., Long. IT 

 53' W. With us the app. time of immersion was 4° 80', and of 

 emersion 6° 44' ; and the portion of sun eclipsed was 27° 30', or 

 about 7-8ths of his diameter, by my measurement with a sextant. 

 The only land of which we had a near and distinct view in the 

 long run from England to the Sandwich Islands, was Staten 

 Island, off the east entrance of the Straits of Magellan, and no- 

 thing can exceed its rugged and desolate aspect. Snow was 

 lying in small patches in the sheltered hollows, near the sum- 

 mits of the highest hills. The summit profile of the island pre- 

 sented a series of denticulated eminences, rising to the north- 

 west, to which point were generally directed all the precipices, 

 the slope of the island being to the south-east. When the extre- 

 mity of the island about Cape John was viewed with a glass, I 

 thought I could recognise in the steep precipices, at whose base 

 the sea broke, the outgoing of strata, with a direction S.SW. 

 to NNE. From the regularity and smoothness of the slope 

 of the bare rocks to the SE., and the numerous greyish white 

 masses projecting from the general black surface of rock, I 

 should think the prevaihng rock to be mica slate, widi large im- 

 bedded masses of quartz rock. Numerous vertical fissures, hol- 

 lowed out by the waves into caverns, were visible along the 

 point from Cape St. John southwards ; these rose obliquely 

 upwards to the NW., confirming the preceding idea of the po- 

 sition of the strata. I observed no columnar or strictly tabular 

 masses, leading to the idea of ancient or modern volcanic produc- 

 tions. These observations, and some others which space pre- 

 vents me detailing, were made when sailing along the coast, at 

 about 1-2 miles distant. According to a rough calculation of 

 the height of a mountain above Cape St. John, taking as a base 

 the run of the ship (4 knots) for an hour, between the times of 

 taking its angle, which I made 2580 feet, and from patches of 

 snow existing at its summit in the midsummer of the hemis- 

 phere (Dec. 29, 1832,), the Hne of perpetual snow must be be- 

 low 3000 feet ; theoretically for Lat. 55% it is 4900 feet. So 

 that we have already a proof of the inferior temperature of the 

 southern hemisphere, and yet the snow lineof Staten Island must 

 be raised, from its isolation, and its being surrounded by a vast 

 ocean. About 500 feet of the upper part was bare rock ; mosses 



