177«5« ROUND THE WORLD. 185 



navigators might depend on, would require a multi- 

 tude of observations, and in different places, the 

 making of which would be a work of time. I con- 

 fess myself unprovided with materials for such a task ; 

 and believe that the less I say on this subject the 

 fewer mistakes I shall make. But I think I have been 

 able to observe, that in Strait Le Maire, the southerly 

 tide or current, be it flood or ebb, begins to act on 

 the days of new and full moon about four o'clock, 

 which remark may be of use to ships who pass the 

 strait. 



Were I bound round Cape Horn to the west, and 

 not in want of wood or water, or any thing that might 

 make it necessary to put into port, I would not come 

 near the land at all. For by keeping out at sea, you 

 avoid the currents, which, I am satisfied, lose their 

 force at ten or twelve leagues from land ; and at a 

 greater distance there is non£. 



During the time we were upon the coast, we had 

 more calms than storms, and the winds so variable 

 that I question if a passage might not have been made 

 from east to west in as short a time as from west to 

 east ; nor did we experience any cold weather. The 

 mercury in the thermometer at noon was never below 

 46° ; and while we lay in Christmas Sound, it was 

 generally above temperate. At this place, the vari- 

 ation was L ZS° 30' east ; a few leagues to the S. W. of 

 Strait Le Maire, it was 24° ; and at anchor, within 

 New Year's isles, it was 24° 20' east. 



These isles are, in general, so unlike Staten Land, 

 especially the one on which we landed, that it de- 

 serves a particular description. It shews a surface 

 of equal height, and elevated about thirty or forty 

 feet above the sea, from which it is defended by a 

 rocky coast. The inner part of the isle is covered 

 with a sort of sword-grass, very green, and of a great 

 length. It grows on little hillocks, of two or three 

 feet in diameter, and as many or more in height, in 

 large tufts, which seemed to be composed of the roots 



