CHAP, x.] THE BEAGLE CHANNEL. 157 



After having been detained six days in Wigwam Cove by very bad 

 weather, we put to sea on the 3Oth of December. Captain Fitz Roy 

 wished to get westward to land York and Fuegia in their own country. 

 When at sea we had a constant succession of gales, and the current was 

 against us : we drifted to 57 23' south. On the nth of January, 1833, 

 by carrying a press of sail, we fetched within a few miles of the great 

 rugged mountain of York Minster (so called by Captain Cook, and the 

 origin of the name of the elder Fuegian), when a violent squall com- 

 pelled us to shorten sail and stand out to sea. The surf was breaking 

 fearfully on the coast, and the spray was carried over a cliff estimated 

 at two hundred feet in height. On the I2th the gale was very heavy, 

 and we did not know exactly where we were : it was a most unpleasant 

 sound to hear constantly repeated, " Keep a good look-out to leeward." 

 On the 1 3th the storm raged with its full fury; our horizon was 

 narrowly limited by the sheets of spray borne by the wind. The sea 

 looked ominous, like a dreary waving plain with patches of drifted 

 snow ; whilst the ship laboured heavily, the albatross glided with its 

 expanded wings right up the wind. At noon a great sea broke over us, 

 and filled one of the whale-boats, which was obliged to be instantly cut 

 away. The poor Beagle trembled at the shock, and for a few minutes 

 would not obey her helm ; but soon, like a good ship that she was, she 

 righted and came up to the wind again. Had another sea followed the 

 first our fate would have been decided soon, and for ever. We had 

 now been twenty-four days trying in vain to get westward ; the men 

 were worn out with fatigue, and they had not had for many nights or 

 days a dry thing to put on. Captain Fitz Roy gave up the attempt to 

 get westward by the outside coast. In the evening we ran in behind 

 False Cape Horn, and dropped our anchor in forty-seven fathoms, fire 

 flashing from the windlass as the chain rushed round it. How delight- 

 ful was that still night, after having been so long involved in the din of 

 the warring elements ! 



January \t>th, 1833. The Beagle anchored in Goeree Roads. 

 Captain Fitz Roy having resolved to settle the Fuegians, according to 

 their wishes, in Ponsonby Sound, four boats were equipped to carry 

 them there through the Beagle Channel. This channel, which was 

 discovered by Captain Fitz Roy during the last voyage, is a most 

 remarkable feature in the geography of this, or indeed of any other 

 country ; it may be compared to the valley of Lochness in Scotland, 

 with its chain of lakes and friths. It is about one hundred and twenty 

 miles long, with an average breadth, not subject to any very great 

 variation, of about two miles; and is throughout the greater part so 

 perfectly straight, that the view, bounded on each side by a line of 

 mountains, gradually becomes indistinct in the long distance. It 

 crosses the southern part of Tierra del Fuego in an east and west line, 

 and in the middle is joined at right angles on the south side by an 

 irregular channel, which has been called Ponsonby Sound. This is the 

 residence of Jemmy Button's tribe and family. 



January igf/i. Three whale-boats and the yawl, with a party of 

 twenty-eight, started under the command of Captain Fitz Roy. In the 



