Jan. 1827. 



BEAGLE CAPE FROWAKD. 



69 



direction, not force) of a trade-wind ; a current setting to the 

 eastward, commonly at the rate of a knot and three quarters 

 an hour, will be found in mid-channel. The tides exert 

 scarcely any influence, except near either shore ; and some- 

 times appear to set, up one side of the Straits, and down the 

 other : the weather tide is generally shown by a rippling, (c) 



" Heavy squalls off Cape Froward repeatedly obliged us to 

 clew all up. By day their approach is announced, in time for 

 the necessary precautions, by their curling up and covering 

 with foam the surface of the water, and driving the spray in 

 clouds before them. 



" At last we doubled Cape Froward. This Cape (called 

 by the Spaniards Ei Morro de Santa Agueda), the southern- 

 most point of all America, is a bold promontory, composed of 

 dark coloured slaty rock ; its outer face is nearly perpen- 

 dicular, and whether coming from the eastward or westward, 

 it ' makes ' as a high round-topped bluff hill (' Morro ^). 



" Bougainville observes, that ' Cape Froward has always 

 been much dreaded by navigators.'-f- To double it, and gain an 

 anchorage under Cape Holland, certainly cost the Beagle as 

 tough a sixteen hours' beat as I have ever witnessed : we made 

 thirty-one tacks, which, with the squalls, kept us constantly on 

 the alert, and scarcely allowed the crew to have the ropes out 

 of their hands throughout the day. But what there is to 

 inspire a navigator with ' dread"* I cannot tell, for the coast on 

 both sides is perfectly clear, and a vessel may work from shore 

 to shore."" 



From Cape Holland, the Beagle proceeded to Port Gallant, 

 and during her stay there, Mr. Bowen ascended the Mountain 

 de la Cruz. Upon the summit he found some remains of a 

 glass bottle, and a roll of papers, which proved to be the 

 memorials stated to have been left by Don Antonio de Cordova, 



(c) While the ' current' runs eastward for many days in mid-channel, 

 or along one shore, it often happens that the ' stream of tide' either sets 

 in a contrary direction, along each side of the Strait, or that it follows 

 only the shore opposite to that washed by the • current.' — R. F. 



t " Voyage autour du Monde." 1767. 



