Feb. 1827. GABRIEL CHANNEL. 49 
violence from S.W., and the Hope, at her anchor, sheered about 
by the squalls, was occasionally laid over so as to dip her gun- 
wale under water. 
The following day (17th), although the rain had ceased, the 
wind was still strong. Towards evening it fell, and early on 
the 18th we left Eagle Bay with a fresh breeze from E.N.E., 
and passed close to Port San Antonio; but were then delayed 
by calms and squalls. At noon a westerly wind sprung up, 
and we proceeded down the Gabriel Channel, with the wind aft, 
and the tide in our favour. Port Waterfall sheltered us for the 
night. 
The apparently artificial formation of this channel is very 
striking. It seems to have been formerly a valley between two 
ridges of the range, in the direction of the strata (of which 
there are frequent instances, such as the valley in the Lomas 
Range, opposite Cape San Isidro, the valley of Valdez Bay, 
and one immediately to the north of the channel itself, besides 
many others), and that at some remote period the sea had 
forced its way through, effecting a communication between the 
Strait and the waters behind Dawson Island : as if one of those 
great ‘ northern waves,’ of which we once heard so much, had 
rolled down the wide reach of the Strait (the parallelism of 
whose shores is also remarkable) from the north-west, towards 
Cape Froward ; and finding itself opposed by the Lomas 
Range, had forced a passage through the valley until stopped 
by the mountains at Fitton Bay. Having imagined such a 
wave in motion, the reader may fancy it uniting with another 
northern roller from Cape San Valentyn, attacking the hills 
and carrying all before it, until Mount Hope, at the bottom 
of Admiralty Sound, arrested its course. I have already noticed 
the remarkably straight direction in which this curious channel 
trends. At both extremities the width may be from two to 
three miles ; but the shores gradually approach each other mid- 
way, and the coast on each side rises abruptly to the height of 
fifteen hundred feet. The south shore, sheltered from the pre- 
vailing and strongest winds, is thickly covered with trees and 
luxuriant underwood, which, being chiefly evergreen, improve 
VOL. I. E 
