Feb. 1827. 



GABRIEL CHAXNEL. 



49 



violence from S.W., and the Hope, at her anchor, sheered about 

 by the squalls, was occasionally laid over so as to dip her gun- 

 wale under water. 



The following day (17th), although the rain had ceased, the 

 wind was still strong. Towards evening it fell, and early on 

 the 18th we left Eagle Bay with a fresh breeze from E.N.E., 

 and passed close to Port San Antonio ; but were then delayed 

 by calms and squalls. At noon a westerly wind sprung up, 

 and we proceeded down the Gabriel Channel, with the wind aft, 

 and the tide in our favour. Port Waterfall sheltered us for the 

 night. 



The apparently artificial formation of this channel is very 

 striking. It seems to have been formerly a valley between two 

 ridges of the range, in the direction of the strata (of which 

 there are frequent instances, such as the valley in the Lomas 

 Range, opposite Cape San Isidro, the valley of Valdez Bay, 

 and one immediately to the north of the channel itself, besides 

 many others), and that at some remote period the sea had 

 forced its way through, effecting a communication between the 

 Strait and the waters behind Dawson Island : as if one of those 

 great ' northern waves,' of which we once heard so much, had 

 rolled down the wide reach of the Strait (the parallelism of 

 whose shores is also remarkable) from the north-west, towards 

 Cape Froward ; and finding itself opposed by the Lomas 

 liange, had forced a passage through the valley until stopped 

 by the mountains at Fitton Bay. Having imagined such a 

 wave in motion, the reader may fancy it uniting with another 

 northern roller from Cape San Valentyn, attacking the hills 

 and carrying all before it, until Mount Hope, at the bottom 

 of Admiralty Sound, arrested its course. I have already noticed 

 the remarkably straight direction in which this curious channel 

 trends. At both extremities the width may be from two to 

 three miles ; but the shores gradually approach each other mid- 

 way, and the coast on each side rises abruptly to the height of 

 fifteen hundred feet. The south shore, sheltered from the pre- 

 vailing and strongest winds, is thickly covered with trees and 

 luxuriant underwood, v/hicli, being chiefly evergreen, improve 



VOL. I. E 



