40 PATAGONIA. [1822. 



of brushwood, having small shrubs towards the east end, which from 

 the sea appears like a drove of cattle. Eight miles to the south and 

 west of this is a remarkable gap, about two miles and a half back of 

 the beach. As you approach the entrance of Rio Negro the range 

 of white sandhills will terminate, and the mouth of the river, bearing 

 W.S.W., appears high and bluff on the eastern side. The western 

 point of the river is low, but rises gradually to the south baranca, 

 which is high and bluff, terminating in a perpendicular point ; and this 

 point is a table-land for four or five miles to the westward. 



To enter the harbour of Rio Negro without a pilot the south-east 

 channel is to be preferred, and you must keep along in four, five, or six 

 fathoms of water, until you bring Point de Maine to bear N.W. Then 

 steer for the mouth of the river, observing to keep Point Welcome, 

 which is a remarkable bluff promontory, about ten yards open of a 

 low point off the pilot's house. These marks are distinctly seen 

 when Point de Maine, the eastern point of the river, bears north-west. 

 But beware of the flood tide, which sets strong over the north bank ; 

 and if your vessel draws more than ten feet of water, you must not 

 attempt to enter until three-quarters flood, when you will have from 

 two to two and a half fathoms of water between the banks, which will 

 deepen as you approach Point de Maine. The breakers on the bank 

 are distinctly seen, and with a southerly wind it frequently breaks all 

 round the channel. Having passed through between the north and 

 south banks, you will find four, five, and six fathoms of water ; but 

 you must be careful and keep the eastern point on board until you are 

 inside of the point of the Borras ; by which means you will clear the 

 inner bank, which extends two-thirds of its length outside the har- 

 bour's mouth. In this river, at the town, there are about two hours 

 of flood tide, and commonly about ten hours of ebb tide, frequently 

 running at the rate of five or six miles an hour. But within the 

 mouth of the river the flood tide runs four hours, and the ebb tide 

 eight hours, at the rate of three or three and a half miles an hour. 

 It is high water at the bar, on the days of new and full moon, at a 

 quarter past eleven ; and the water rises there eleven feet on the 

 spring tides, and eight feet on the neap tides ; but when the wind 

 blows strongly from the south-east, the tide rises from twelve to four- 

 teen feet. There is a regular tide along the coast, six hours flood, 

 and six hours ebb ; but the flood tide inclines rather towards the shore, 

 about N.E. by N., at the rate of two or three miles an hour. Con- 

 sequently, in entering the Rio Negro particular attention must be paid 

 to the currents and tides, which set strongly to the north-east round the 

 Point de Maine. 



September 23c?. — Having supplied the schooner with wood, water, 

 and some fresh provisions, we were now in readiness to continue the sur- 

 vey of this interesting coast, — the seaboard of a country so little 

 known to geographers and historians. Indeed there is scarcely another 

 region of the western world but what is better known, and has been 

 more accurately described ; certainly none concerning which so many 

 contradictory statements and monstrous absurdities have been re- 

 ported, — fables more difficult to believe than Gulliver's Travels, or the 



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