PASSAGE EASTWARD THROUGH THE STRAIT. 471 
evening. Fish may also be obtained with the seine at any 
other place where there are rivers. Freshwater Bay and Port 
Gallant are equally productive. On the outer coast of 
Tierra del Fuego an excellent fish may be caught in the 
kelp. 
The advantage which a ship will derive from passing 
through the Strait, from the Pacific to the Atlantic is very 
great; and it ought to be great to induce the seaman to en- 
tangle his ship with the land when fair winds and an open 
sea are before him. After passing through the Strait, the 
prevailing winds being westerly, and more frequently from 
the northward than from the southward of west, they are fair 
for his running up the coast ; or if not, the ship is not liable 
to receive much injury from the sea, which is comparatively 
smooth ; whereas, toa ship passing round the Horn, if the 
wind be north-west she must go to the eastward of the Falk- 
land Islands, and be exposed to strong gales and a heavy 
beam sea, and hug the wind to make her northing. To a 
-small vessel the advantage is incalculable ; for, besides filling 
her hold with wood and water, she is enabled to escape the 
severe weather that so constantly reigns in the higher latitudes 
of the South Atlantic Ocean. 
Coming from the northward, it will be advisable to keep an 
offing until the western entrance of the Strait is well under the 
lee, to avoid being thrown upon the coast to the northward of 
Cape Victory, which is rugged and inhospitable, and, forming 
as it were a breakwater to the deep rolling swell of the ocean, 
is for some miles off fringed by a cross hollow sea almost 
amounting to breakers. . 
The land of Cape Victory is high and rugged, and much 
broken ; and if the weather be not very thick, will be seen 
long before the Evangelists, which are not visible above the 
horizon, from a ship’s deck, for more than four or five leagues.* 
Pass to the southward of them, and steer for Cape Piilar, 
* From the Adventure’s deck, the eye being thirteen feet above the 
water, they were seen on the horizon at the distance of fourteen miles. 
