* 



April.] STRAIT OF LE MAIRE. 73 



appearance of shoal water, and are often the cause of alarm to cautious 

 mariners. But I can assure such that they may dismiss their ill- 

 grounded apprehensions ; for they may circumnavigate the island at 

 at any time, at two cables' length from shore, with the greatest safety, 

 in ships of any size. 



The Strait of Le Maire, which separates Staten Land from 

 Terra del Fuego, is a safe and commodious passage, without the 

 slightest symptom of those dangers which have been attributed to 

 it by several former navigators. Vessels of any size have nothing to 

 fear, two cables' length from shore, on either side. There are neither 

 winds, currents, nor calms that can endanger a ship in this passage, 

 which is about fifteen miles wide, and only four miles in length. In my 

 opinion, it owes all its supposed terrors to its being in a high latitude, 

 and so far from home! The American prize frigate Macedonian was 

 brought into the port of New- York by her gallant captor, in the middle 

 of winter, through Hurlgate, the Scylla and Charybdis of Long Island 

 Sound. Compare this with a strait of fifteen miles in breadth without 

 a rock or a whirlpool. 



In entering the Strait of Le Maire, you pass a low green sloping 

 point of land, that projects out from Terra del Fuego, in an E.N.E. 

 direction to the water. On the opposite side, Staten Land presents a 

 high bluff point, with bold water to the edge of the rocks. In passing 

 between these two distant points, there can be no more difficulty or 

 danger than there is in entering Long Island Sound from the ocean. 



Some mariners have represented it to be difficult to discover Strait 

 Le Maire. But I know that any navigator who keeps the land of 

 Terra del Fuego in sight cannot possibly miss or mistake the strait. 

 The only way, therefore, that such an occurrence could take place, 

 would be by losing sight of the land, and running too far to the 

 eastward ; which should never be done, as there is no danger that can 

 possibly arise from keeping the western shore on board. Easterly 

 winds are never known to blow fresh in this part of the world ; and 

 by hugging the western shore, the passage to the Pacific is very 

 much shortened. 



April 29th. — On Tuesday, at 5 P. M., our boats returned from their 

 excursion in search of seal, having been absent four days, with moderate 

 success. 



The seals which resort to the islands of this archipelago, as well as 

 to other islands south of latitude fifty, are generally clothed in jackets 

 of valuable fur. This species has been distinguished by naturalists, 

 merely for their size and shape ; but there are other peculiarities con- 

 nected with the history and habits of this animal, of a far more inter- 

 esting nature, which I have never yet met with in print ; a few of 

 which I will endeavour to describe. 



In killing a female which happens to be with young, even in an ac 

 vanced state of pregnancy, if the scull be pressed in by the sealing 

 club in dealing the fatal blow, an exactly similar indentation will fre- 

 quently be found on the scull of the foetus. This fact is a practical 

 illustration of the wonderful power of sympathy, and worthy the inves* 

 ligation of naturalists. Although modern philosophers have laboured 



