1825. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 13 



ing soundings upon a sandy bottom, from 50 to 80 chap 

 fathoms, the depth increasing with the distance ^^ 

 from the coast. The weather moderated on the dav Se Pt 

 following, and we saw the land, from S. 25° W. 

 to S. 56° W., eight or nine leagues distant : the 

 wind, at the same time, became favourable, and car- 

 ried us past the Islands during the night. The 

 eastern point of these Islands (Cape St. Vincent), 

 by such observations as we were able to make, ap- 

 pears to be correctly placed in the charts. The po- 

 sition I have assigned to it will be seen in the table 

 at the end of the work. 



From the Falkland Islands we stood to the south- 

 ward ; and .after two short gales from the westward, 

 made Cape Horn on the 16th, bearing N. 40° W. 

 six or seven leagues. This was quite an unexpect- 

 ed event, as a course had been shaped the day be- 

 fore to pass it at a distance of seventy miles. It 

 appeared, however, by the noon observation, that a 

 current had drifted the ship fifty miles to the north- 

 ward in the twenty-four hours, a circumstance 

 which might have been attended with very serious 

 consequences had the weather been thick ; and 

 ships in passing the Strait le Maire will do well to 

 be on their guard against a like occurrence.* The 

 view of this celebrated promontory, which has cost 

 navigators, from the earliest period of its discovery 

 to the present time, so much difficulty to double, 

 was highly gratifying to all on board, and especially 

 so to those who had never seen it before ; yet it was 

 a pleasure we would all willingly have exchanged 



* For remarks on the currents, and observations on the winds, 

 in the vicinity of Cape Horn, the reader is referred to the Nautical 

 Remarks in the quarto edition. 



