CHAPTER II. 
Enter the Straits of Magalhaens (or Magellan), and anchor off Cape 
Possession — First Narrow—Gregory Bay — Patagonian Indians— 
Second Narrow — Elizabeth Island— Freshwater Bay — Fuegian 
Indians—Arrival at Port Famine. 
A contrary tide and light winds detained us at anchor 
near Cape Virgins until four o’clock in the afternoon, when, 
with the turn of the tide, a light air carried us past Dungeness 
Point, aptly named by Wallis from its resemblance to that in 
the English Channel. A great number of seals were huddled 
together upon the bank, above the wash of the tide, whilst 
others were sporting about in the surf. Cape Possession was 
in sight, and with the wind and tide in our favour we pro- 
ceeded until ten o'clock, when the anchor was dropped. At 
daylight we found ourselves six miles to the eastward of the 
cape. The anchor was then weighed, and was again dropped 
at three miles from the cape until the afternoon, when we 
made another attempt; but lost ground, and anchored a third 
time. Before night a fourth attempt was made, but the tide 
prevented our making any advance, and we again anchored. 
Mount Aymond* and “his four sons,” or (according to the 
old quaint nomenclature) the Asses’ Fars, had been in sight all 
day, as well as a small hummock of land on the S.W. horizon, 
which afterwards proved to be the peaked hillock upon Cape 
Orange, at the south side of the entrance to the First Narrow. 
At this anchorage the tide fell thirty feet, but the strength 
of the current, compared with the rate at which we afterwards 
found it to run, was inconsiderable Here we first experienced. 
* A hill on the north shore of Possession Bay, having near it, to the 
westward, four rocky summits, which, from a particular point of view, bear 
a strong resemblance to the cropped ears of a horse or ass. These are 
described less briefly in the Sailing Directions. 
