APPENDIX. 185 



blow nearly so strong as from north-west to north, or from south- 

 west to south. 



Currents. 



Near the island of Mocha, and to the westward of Cape Rumena, 

 the cun-ent usually runs to the north-west, from half-a-mile to one 

 mile and a half, each hour. Distant in the ofRng, more than twenty 

 or thirty miles from land, this set of current is so diminished that it 

 is hardly sensible ; but near Mocha, and especially near the very 

 dangerous out-lying rocks oiF the south and south-west extreme of 

 that island, it is increased to two, and, at times, even three miles an 

 hour. 



From the great river Bio Bio, and from other rivers in the vicinity, 

 floods, escaping to seaward, often cause strong and irregular currents 

 which set to the southward — passing the island of Santa Maria, 

 sweeping round Point Lavapie, and Cape Rumena, and Tucapel 

 Point — into the bay where his Majesty's ship Challenger was wTecked. 



These southerly currents are usually found to set strongly along- 

 shore, but seldom reach an offing of six miles to the westn^ard of 

 Cape Rumena. 



A very intelligent Hanoverian, Anthony Vogelborg, employed 

 during several years upon these coasts, was once drifted in a small 

 vessel, from six miles south of the Paps of Bio Bio, to the rocks 

 oif the north end of the Island of Santa Maria, in one night, during 

 a dead calm. 



After the great earthquake of the 20th of February, which affected 

 all the coast about Concepcion, and especially the Island of Santa 

 Maria, the currents set to the south-eastward so strongly, that a boat 

 belonging to the above-mentioned Anthony Vogelborg (which he was 

 steering) running near the Island of Mocha, under sail, with a fresh 

 southerly breeze, could hardly make head against the strong stream 

 that was passing along shore from the north-westward. It is, there- 

 fore, to be apprehended, that the strength and direction of the cur- 

 rents in the neighbouring ocean are unsettled and extremely uncer- 

 tain for some time after a serious earthquake. 



