April.] 



STAT EN LAND. 



71 



CHAPTER V. 



Erroneous Ideas corrected — Staten Land — Strait of Le Maire — Natural History 

 of the Fur-seal and Sea-elephant — Exaggerated Accounts of Cape Horn Dan- 

 gers accounted for, and refuted — Doubling the Cape — Prevailing Winds and . 

 Weather in that Region — Diego Ramirez Islands — Ildefonso's Island — Christ- 

 mas Sound — Western Entrance to the Strait of Magellan — The Wasp sails 

 from Staten Land, and arrives at the Eastern Entrance, from the Atlantic — 

 Enters the Strait, and anchors in the Harbour of Cape Negro. 



I have said that Staten Land is an island which forms the south- 

 eastern extremity of South America. To those who are not conver- 

 sant with maps, this is not sufficiently explicit ; I will therefore be more 

 particular in describing its situation. 



I find that many persons, who ought to know better, are under the 

 impression that the continent of South America, as it stretches into the 

 southern hemisphere, gradually becomes more and more narrow, until 

 it finally tapers off to & point, and that this point is called Cape Horn. 

 The whole of this idea is not founded in truth ; for though the South 

 American continent does gradually become more and more attenuated, 

 as it extends beyond the tropic of Capricorn, it does not terminate in a 

 point, nor within one hundred miles of the celebrated Cape Horn. 



The extreme southern prolongation of the American continent is 

 Cape Froward, in the Strait of Magellan, in lat. 54° 3' S. Sixty-five 

 miles north of this, at the river Gallegos, the distance across Patago- 

 nia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, is about two hundred miles. 

 South, or rather south-east, of Magellan's Strait, lies a large cluster 

 of islands, called Terra del Fuego, or land of fire, on account of its 

 volcanoes. The greatest width of this cluster north and south is 

 about one hundred and sixty miles ; and its length, in a straight line 

 from east to west, is about double that distance. Its eastern extremity 

 forms one side of Le Maire's Strait, and a small island called Staten 

 Land forms the other. On the south of Terra del Fuego are other 

 little islands, such as Hermit's, Jordan's, Barnavell's, Evout's, Saddle 

 Island, Sic. The most southern of this cluster is called Horn Island, 

 and its most southern extremity is called Cape Horn. The whole of 

 this group, south and south-east of the continent, ought to have been 

 called the Archipelago of Maganhales, or Magellan, in honour of the 

 discoverer. 



Staten Land, we have seen, is separated by the Strait of Le Maire 

 from the island of Terra del Fuego, as the latter is separated from the 

 continent by the Strait of Magellan. It presents to the eye of the 

 navigator a surface of craggy hills, which rise to a vast height, espe- 

 cially near the west end of the island. The coast is rocky, and much 

 indented with bays and inlets. The dismal aspect of this country 

 (which has been much exaggerated) is painted in very strong colours 



