June. LEAVE STRAIT LE MAIRE—TIDES. 455 
moon. It was high water at a quarter past four, and the tide 
rose seven feet. 
«7th. We unmoored, weighed, stood to the eastward and 
anchored with the stream anchor, and a large hawser, in fifty 
fathoms water, about three miles from Success Bay. After 
taking the required angles and bearings we weighed at eleven, 
and stood towards Cape San Diego with the first of the flood. 
The tide being strong, we made rapid progress, and were soon 
out of the strait ; but wishing to see as much of the N.E. coast 
as possible, in our progress northward, we hauled to the wind 
and kept near the land during the night, as the weather was 
fine and settled. 
*“‘ Before leaving Good Success Bay and the Strait of Le 
Maire, I felt satisfied that we had acquainted ourselves with 
the tides, which are as regular and as little to be dreaded as in 
any part of the world where they run with strength. ‘They 
will materially assist any vessel in her passage through the 
strait; which is very wide, perfectly free from obstacles of any 
kind, and has Good Success Bay close at hand, in case wind 
or tide should fail. When the tide opposes the wind and swell, 
there is always a heavy, and, for small vessels, dangerous ‘race’ 
off Cape San Diego, where the water is more shoal than else- 
where (k), we found it so at a neap: flood-tide, but let it be 
remembered that on another day, at the top of the springs, 
being the day after full moon, we passed the same spot, at 
half flood, with the water perfectly smooth, and although 
strong eddies were seen in every direction, the vessel’s steerage 
was but little affected by them. It is high water in Success 
Bay soon after four in. the afternoon, on the full and change 
days, and low water exactly at ten in the morning. The flood 
tide-stream begins to make to the northward about an hour 
after low water, and the ebb, to the southward, about the same 
time after high water. The tides rise from six to eight feet, 
perpendicularly. At Cape Pillar the turn of tide, with high 
water, is at noon: but along the S.W. and S.E. coast the time 
(&) Five fathoms only were found in one spot during the Beagle’s last 
voyage.—R. F. . 
