164* cook's second voyage dec 



position we were shut in from the sea by the point 

 above mentioned, which was in one with the extre- 

 mity of the inlet to the east. Some islets, off' the 

 next point above us, covered us from the N. W., from 

 which quarter the wind had the greatest fetch ; and 

 our distance from the shore was about one-third of a 

 mile. 



Thus situated, we went to work, to clear a place 

 to fill water, to cut wood, and to set up a tent for the 

 reception of a guard, which was thought necessary ; 

 as we had already discovered, that, barren as this 

 country is, it was not without people, though we had 

 not yet seen any. Mr. Wales also got his observatory 

 and instruments on shore; but it was with the greatest 

 difficulty he could find a place of sufficient stability, 

 and clear of the mountains, which every where sur- 

 rounded us, to set them up in ; and at last he was 

 obliged to content himself with the top of a rock, 

 not more than nine feet over. 



Next day I sent lieutenants Clerke and Pickers- 

 gill, accompanied by some of the other officers, to 

 examine and draw a sketch of the channel on the 

 other side of the island ; and I went myself in ano- 

 ther boat, accompanied by the botanists, to survey 

 the northern parts of the sound. In my way, I 

 landed on the point of a low isle covered with her- 

 bage, part of which had been lately burnt ; we like- 

 wise saw a hut ; signs sufficient that people were in 

 the neighbourhood. After I had taken the necessary 

 bearings, we proceeded round the east end of Burnt 

 Island, and over to what we judged to be the main 

 of Terra del Fuego, where we found a very line har- 

 bour encompassed by steep rocks of vast height, 

 down which ran many limpid streams of water ; and 

 at the foot of the rocks, some tufts of trees, fit for 

 little else but fuel. 



This harbour, which I shall distinguish by the name 

 of the Devil's Bason, is divided, as it were, into two, 

 an inner and an outer one j and the communication 



