DRAKE'S CHANNEL. 301 



a lesser sound' wliicli Sir Francis in his barge discovered 

 the night before ; and ankored in 13 fadomes, having hie 

 steepe hiles on either side, some league distant from our 

 first ridiniT. 



" The 12 in the morning we weied and set sayle into the 

 Sea due south throuoh a small streit but without danoer," 

 possibly the very gap in which the Ehone's wreck now 

 lies " and then stode west and by north for S. Juan de 

 Puerto Rico." 



This northerly course is, plainly, the most advantageous for 

 a homeward-bound ship, as it strikes the gulf-stream soonest, 

 and keeps in it longest. Conversely, the southerly route 

 by the Azores is best for outward-bound ships ; as it escapes 

 most of the gulf-stream, and traverses the still Sargasso 

 Sea, and even the extremity of the westward equatorial 

 current. 



Strange as these Virgin Isles had looked w^hen seen from 

 the south, outside, and at the distance of a few miles, thev 

 looked still more strange when we were fairly threading our 

 way between them, sometimes not a rifle-shot from the cliffs, 

 with the white coral banks gleaming under our keel. Had 

 they ever carried a Tropic vegetation? Had the hills of 

 Tortola and Virgin Gorda, in shape and size much like those 

 which surround a sea-loch in the Western Islands, ever been 

 furred with forests like those of Guadaloupe or St. Lucia? 



