April 1829. | MAGNETIC ROCKS—KENDALL. 199 
to Weddel’s Port Maxwell, which is evidently St. Bernard’s 
Cove of D’Arquistade.(h.) Port Maxwell is contained between 
Jerdan Island, Saddle Island, and a third island, forming a 
triangle. It has four entrances, the principal one being to the 
north of Jerdan Island, and affords tolerable anchorage in the 
centre, in nineteen and twenty fathoms, sand ;* nearer the shores 
of the island the depth is more moderate, but the bottom is 
very rocky. 
The summit of Saddle Island, which I ascended for bearings, 
is composed of large blocks of greenstone rock, on one of which 
the compass (Kater’s Azimuth, without a stand) was placed ; 
but the needle was found to be so much influenced by the fer- 
ruginous nature of the rock, composed of quartz and feldspar, 
thickly studded with large crystals of hornblende, that the 
poles of the needle became exactly reversed. An experiment 
was then made, by taking bearings of a very distant object, at 
several stations around, about fifty yards from the magnetic. 
rock, when the extreme difference of the results amounted to 
127°. The block upon which the compass stood, in the first 
instance, is now conspicuously placed in the museum of the 
Geological Society.+ 
Saddle Island, like the others near it, is clothed with low 
stunted brushwood of beech, berberis, and arbutus, and the 
ground is covered with a species of chamitis, and other moun- 
tain plants. While Mr. Kendall and I were absent from the 
boat, the crew caught several kelp fish, which are very deli- 
cate and wholesome food. On the following day, while going 
with Mr. Kendall to Wollaston Island, we passed a great many 
whales, leaping and tumbling in the water. A blow from one 
(i) 1 do not think the bay adjacent to Cape Horn is that which was 
named by D’Arquistade ‘ St. Francis,’ and, if my supposition is correct, 
Port Maxwell is not the place which was called ‘ St. Bernard’s Cove.’ See 
Second volume.—R. F. 
* According to Capt. Fitz Roy the best berth is in sixteen fathoms. 
(Sail. Directions.) 
+ Nos. 268 to 271, Geo. See. Museum. 
