1832. CAPE CORRIENTES TOSCA COAST. 99 



of this peculiarity, it was far easier to avoid shoals, as they all 

 lay in a similar direction. 



On a round-topped hill, near Mar-chiquito, we saw an im- 

 mense herd of cattle, collected together in one dark-coloured 

 mass, which covered many acres of ground. A few men, on 

 horseback, were watching them, who, seeing us anchor, drove 

 the whole multitude away at a gallop, and in a few minutes 

 not one was left behind. Probably they suspected us of ma- 

 rauding inclinations. 



Cape Corrientes is a bold, cliffy promontory ; off which, 

 notwithstanding the name, I could not distinguish any remark- 

 able current. It is said to be hazardous for a boat to go along- 

 shore, near the high cliffs of that cape, because there are rocks 

 under water which sometimes cause sudden and extremely 

 dangerous ' blind breakers."* More than one boat's crew has 

 been lost there, in pursuit of seals, which are numerous among 

 the rocks and caves at the foot of those cliffs. Hence to Bahia 

 Blanco is a long and dreary line of coast, withovit an opening 

 fit to receive the smallest sailing vessel, without a remarkable 

 feature, and without a river whose mouth is not fordable. Even 

 the plan of it, on paper, has such a regular figure, that an 

 eye accustomed to charts may doubt its accuracy ; so rarely 

 does the outline of an exposed sea-coast extend so far without 

 a break. A heavy swell always sets upon it; there is no safe 

 anchorage near the shore ; and, as if to complete its uninviting 

 qualities, in the interior, but verging on this shore, is a desert 

 tract, avoided even by the Indians, and called, in their lan- 

 guage, Huecuvu-mapu (country of the Devil). In explor- 

 ing this exposed coast, southerly winds sometimes obliged us to 

 struggle for an offing ; and we lost several anchors in conse- 

 quence of letting them go upon ground which we thought was 

 hard sand lying over clay, but which turned out to be tosca, 

 slightly covered with sand, and full of holes. The lead indi- 

 cated a sandy, though hard bottom ; but we found it ever}* 

 where so perforated and so tough, that, drop an anchor where 

 we might, it was sure to hook a rock-like lump of tosca, which 

 sometimes was torn away, but at others broke the anchor. 



H ii 



