June 1828. WEATHER—PERILOUS SITUATION. 179 
he described them to be exactly like those we had hitherto met 
to the southward. 
**' This was the northernmost point at which we noficed 
traces of human beings. 
“Finding theboats’ crews suffer much from their unavoidable 
exposure during continually wet weather, I ordered some can- 
vas to be given to each man for a frock and trowsers, to be 
painted at the first opportunity, as a protection against rain 
and spray. 
** Nothing could be more dreary than the scene around 
us. The lofty, bleak, and barren heights that surround the 
inhospitable shores of this inlet, were covered, even low down 
their sides, with dense clouds, upon which the fierce squalls 
that assailed us beat, without causing any change: they seemed 
as immovable as the mountains where they rested. 
‘* Around us, and some of them distant no more than two- 
thirds of a cable’s length, were rocky islets, lashed by a tre- 
mendous surf; and, as if to complete the dreariness and utter 
desolation of the scene, even birds seemed to shun its neigh- 
bourhood. The weather was that in which (as Thompson em- 
phatically says) ¢ the soul of man dies in him.’ 
‘* In the course of our service since we left England, we have 
often been compelled to take up anchorages, exposed to great 
risk and danger. But the Beagle’s present situation I deemed 
by far the most perilous to which she had been exposed: her 
three anchors were down in twenty-three fathoms of water, on 
a bad bottom of sand, with patches of rock. The squalls were 
terrifically violent, and astern of her, distant only half a cable’s 
length, were rocks and low rocky islets, upon which a furious 
surf raged. 
“I might use Bulkeley’s words in describing the weather in 
this neighbourhood, and nearly at this season: ‘ Showers of 
rain and hail, which beat with such violence against a man’s 
face, that he can hardly withstand it. 
* On the 10th, the wind being moderate, and the weather 
better, preparations were made to quit this horrid place. We 
put to sea, with a moderate breeze from N. b. W., which 
w 2 
