1833. VALDES CREEK — TIDES. 309 



communication across the continent with Chiloe, which misht 

 be a means of diffusing Christianity, civilization, and commer- 

 cial intercourse. 



On the 3d, Lieut. Wickham and his party left the Chupat. 

 Early on the 5th they entered Valdes Creek (by the Spaniards 

 styled ' port'), with the flood tide running nearly six knots 

 into the narrow entrance : and on its shores found heaps of 

 horns and bones, besides the wreck of a vessel.* These were 

 indications of one of the temporary settlements maintained on 

 the peninsula of San Jose for the purpose of obtaining hides. 

 The carcases of the animals were invariably left to decay ; a 

 few deUcate portions only being selected for food. 



Until the 12th our little vessels were unable to quit this 

 singular place, for the ebb tide set so strongly against the swell 

 outside, raised by a S.E. gale, that they could not attempt to 

 cross the bar. Sometimes the very narrow entrance of Valdes 

 Creek is almost stopped up for a time by shingle and sand, 

 after a S.E. gale has been blowing for a few days, therefore at 

 such a time no vessel ought to run for it. 



During the war between Brazil and Buenos Ayres (1825-9), 

 Mr. Adams, of Carmen, was master of a merchant vessel 

 hired by Vernet to convey settlers to the Falkland Islands. In 

 returning thence, short of water and provisions, he thought to 

 put into Valdes Creek, knowing that some people were there 

 employed in collecting hides. He ran in for the land, with a 

 fresh S.E. wand, and did not discover, until almost too late, 

 that the bar was not passable. W^hen close in he peixeived a 

 heavy sea breaking at the entrance, where he expected smooth 

 water, and directly hauled off; but it was only by carrying a 

 heavy press of sail that he cleared the land ; and at the expense 

 of passing through ' races,' which tore off the vessel's bulwarks 

 and otherwise damaged her materially. As our cock-boats 

 crossed this bar, they had ten feet water, but on each side of it 

 there were five fathoms. The Liebre, sharp built, plunged into 

 each short swell ; while the Paz, with her bluff bow, did not 



* Of about two hundred tons burthen. 



