272 TIEKKA DEL FUEGO. 



and on the succeeding day, favoured to an uncom- 

 mon degi'ee by a fine easterly breeze, we closed 

 in with the Barnevelts, and running past Cape 

 Deceit, with its stony peaks, about three o'clock 

 doubled the weather-beaten Cape Horn. The 

 evening was calm and bright, and we enjoyed a 

 fine view of the surrounding isles. Cape Horn, 

 however, demanded his tribute, and before night 

 sent us a gale of wind directly in our teeth. We 

 stood out to sea, and on the second day again 

 made the land, when we saw on our weather-bow 

 this notorious promontory in. its proper form — 

 veiled in a mist, and its dim outline surrounded by 

 a storm of wind and water. Great black clouds 

 were rolling across the heavens, and squalls of rain, 

 with hail, swept by us with such extreme violence, 

 that the captain determined to run into Wigwam 

 Cove. This is a snug little harbour, not far from 

 Cape Horn ; and here, at Christmas-eve, we an- 

 chored in smooth water. The only thing which 

 reminded us of the gale outside was, every now 

 and then, a puff from the mountains, which made 

 the ship surge at her anchors. 



December 2oth. — Close by the cove, a pointed 

 hill, called Kater's Peak, rises to the height of 1700 

 feet. The surrounding islands all consist of coni- 

 cal masses of greenstone, associated sometimes 

 wdth less regular hills of baked and altered clay- 

 slate. This part of Tierra del Fuego may be con- 

 sidered as the extremity of the submerged chain 

 of mountains already alluded to. The cove takes 

 its name of " Wigwam" from some of the Fuegian 

 habitations ; but every bay in the neighbourhood 

 might be so called with equal propriety. The in- 

 habitants, living chiefly upon shell-fish, are obliged 

 constantly to change their place of residence ; but 

 they return at intervals to the same spots, as is 



