Jan. 1827. BEAGLE—CAPE FROWARD. 69 
direction, not force) of a trade-wind ; a current setting to the 
eastward, commonly at the rate of a knot and three quarters 
an hour, will be found in mid-channel. The tides exert 
scarcely any influence, except near either shore; and some- 
times appear to set, up one side of the Straits, and down the 
other: the weather tide is generally shown by a rippling. (c) 
“© Heavy squalls off Cape Froward repeatedly obliged us to 
clew all up. By day their approach is announced, in time for 
the necessary precautions, by their curling up and covering 
with foam the surface of the water, and driving the spray in 
clouds before them. 
« At last we doubled Cape Froward. This Cape (called 
by the Spaniards El Morro de Santa Agueda), the southern- 
most point of all America, is a bold promontory, composed of 
dark coloured slaty rock; its outer face is nearly perpen- 
dicular, and whether coming from the eastward or westward, 
it ‘makes’ as a high round-topped bluff hill (¢ Morro’). 
* Bougainville observes, that ‘ Cape Froward has always 
been much dreaded by nayigators.’+ To double it, and gain an 
anchorage under Cape Holland, certainly cost the Beagle as 
tough a sixteen hours’ beat as I have ever witnessed: we made 
thirty-one tacks, which, with the squalls, kept us constantly on 
the alert, and scarcely allowed the crew to have the ropes out 
of their hands throughout the day. But what there is to 
inspire a navigator with ‘ dread’ I cannot tell, for the coast on 
both sides is perfectly clear, and a vessel may work from shore 
to shore.” 
From Cape Holland, the Beagle proceeded to Port Gallant, 
and during her stay there, Mr. Bowen ascended the Mountain 
de la Cruz. Upon the summit he found some remains of a 
glass bottle, and a roll of papers, which proved to be the 
memorials stated to have been left by Don Antonio de Cordova, 
(c) While the ‘ current’ runs eastward for many days in mid-channel, 
or along one shore, it often happens that the ‘ stream of tide’ either sets 
in a contrary direction, along each side of the Strait, or that it follows 
only the shore opposite to that washed by the ‘ current.’—R. F. 
+ “ Voyage autour du Monde.” 1767. 
