CHAPTER XV. 
Extracts from the Journals of Lieutenants Skyring and Graves—Mag- 
dalen Channel — Keats Sound ~ Mount Sarmiento — Barrow Head 
— Cockburn Channel — Prevalence of south-west winds — Melville 
Sound— Ascent of Mount Skyring— Memorial — Cockburn and 
Barbara Channels — Mass of Islets and Rocks—Hewett Bay — 
Cypress trees useful—Adelaide rejoins Beagle in Port Gallant—Captain 
King’s narrative resumed — Plan of future proceedings — Adelaide 
arrives at Chil6e—Abstract of Lieutenant Skyring’s account of her 
proceedings—Smyth Channel—Mount Burney—‘ Ancon sin Salida’— 
Natives—Kirke Narrows—Guia Narrows—Peculiar tides—Indians in 
plank canoes— Passage to Childe. 
Tue extracts from Captain Fitz Roy’s first journal being 
ended, I shall now give some passages from the journals of 
Lieutenants Skyring and Graves, while employed in the Ade- 
laide, exploring and surveying the Magdalen and Barbara 
Channels. 
The reader will remember, that the Adelaide parted company 
with the Beagle, at the entrance of the Magdalen Channel, on 
the 19th of April; and steered to the southward under the 
direction of Lieutenant Skyring. 
Lieutenant Graves says :— 
“The east and west shores of the Magdalen Channel run 
nearly parallel to each other: but the east side is broken by 
a large opening, named Keats Sound, which runs into the land 
for eight miles, and appears very like a channel.(s) 
“* At the S.W. angle of the Magdalen Channel stands Mount 
Sarmiento : the most conspicuous, and the most splendid object 
in these regions. Rising abruptly from the sea, to a height of 
about 7,000 feet, it terminates in two sharp peaks, which seem 
absolutely in the sky: so lofty does the mountain appear, when 
you are close to its base. 
(s) I do not think that there is any opening at the bottom of Keats 
Sound; which lies at the base of a chain of snow-covered mountains, whose 
southern side I have closely traced.—R. F. 
