CAPE HORN 223 



ficence, well becoming Tierra del Fuego. There was a degree 

 of mysterious grandeur in mountain behind mountain, with the 

 deep intervening valleys, all covered by one thick, dusky mass 

 of forest. The atmosphere, likewise, in this climate, where 

 gale succeeds gale, with rain, hail, and sleet, seems blacker 

 than anywhere else. In the Strait of Magellan, looking due 

 southward from Port Famine, the distant channels between the 

 mountains appeared from their gloominess to lead beyond the 

 confines of this world. 



December 2 \ St. — The Beagle got under way: and on the 

 succeeding day, favoured to an uncommon degree by a fine 

 easterly breeze, we closed in with the Barnevelts, and running 



CAPE HORN (another VIEW). 



past Cape Deceit with its stony peaks, about three o'clock 

 doubled the weatherbeaten Cape Horn. The evening was 

 calm and bright, and we enjoyed a fine view of the surrounding 

 isles. Cape Horn, however, demanded his tribute, and before 

 night sent us a gale of wind directly in our teeth. We stood 

 out to sea, and on the second day again made the land, when 

 we saw on our weather-bow this notorious promontory in its 

 proper form — veiled in a mist, and its dim outline surrounded 

 by a storm of wind and water. Great black clouds were rolling 

 across the heavens, and squalls of rain, with hail, swept by us 

 with such extreme violence, that the Captain determined to 

 run into Wigwam Cove. This is a snug little harbour, not far 

 from Cape Horn ; and here, at Christmas-eve, we anchored in 



