58 ADMIRALTY SOUND. Feb. 1827. 
The harbour was full of fragments of ice, the succeeding 
morning, drifting into the Sound, where the sea-water, being 
at a higher temperature than the air, rapidly melted them. 
Since our departure from Port Waterfall, the weather had 
been mild, clear, and settled ; but as it wanted only three days 
of the change of the moon, at which period, as well as at the 
full, it always blew a gale, I wished to reach a place of security 
in the Gabriel Channel or Magdalen Sound. 
Near the islands of Ainsworth Harbour, three canoes passed 
us, steering across the Sound, each with a seal-skin fixed up in 
the bow for a sail; and we recognised in them the party left at 
Port Cooke, among whom was the Indian who had been detected 
in stealing a tin pot. They did not come along-side; but as we 
‘went by, pointed to the north, apparently urging us to go in 
that direction. 
We had noticed several wigwams at Parry and Ainsworth 
Harbours, which shows that they are much frequented by 
Indians, perhaps on their way to the open low country east 
of Mount Hope, where numerous herds of guanacoes may be 
found. 
Porpoises and seal were not scarce in this inlet, and in the 
entrance there were many whales. ‘The presence of seal and 
whales made me think it probable there was a channel; but I 
believe every person with me was satisfied of its being a sound, 
terminating under Mount Hope. Since my later experience of 
the deceptive character of some passages in Tierra del Fuego 
(the Barbara Channel, for example), I have felt less certain 
that there may not be a communication with the low land, 
behind Mount Hope, round its northern base. The improba- 
bility was, however, so great,—from the bottom of the sound 
formado en el seno de alguna de las montanas inmediatas, en que 
parece haber algunos minerales, y aun voleanes, que estén del todo 6 
casi apagados, moviéndonos a hacer este juicio, el haberse encontrado, 
en la cima de una de ellas, porcion de materia compuesta de tierra y 
metal, que en su peso, color, y demas caracteres, tenia impreso el sello 
del fuego activo en que habia tomado aquel estado, pues era una perfecta 
imagen de las escorias del hierro que se ven en nuestras ferrerias.— 
Apendice al Viage de Cordova al Magallanes, p. 65. 
