June 1828. weather — perilous situation. 



179 



he described them to be exactly like those we had hitherto met 

 to the southward. 



" This was the northernmost point at which we noticed 

 traces of human beings. 



"Finding theboats"' crews suffer much from their unavoidable 

 exposure during continually wet weather, I ordered some can- 

 vas to be given to each man for a frock and trowsers, to be 

 painted at the first opportunity, as a protection against rain 

 and spray. 



" Nothing could be more dreary than the scene around 

 us. The lofty, bleak, and barren heights that surround the 

 inhospitable shores of this inlet, were covered, even low down 

 their sides, with dense clouds, upon which the fierce squalls 

 that assailed us beat, without causing any change : they seemed 

 as immovable as the mountains where they rested. 



" Around us, and some of them distant no more than two- 

 thirds of a cable's length, were rocky islets, lashed by a tre- 

 mendous surf ; and, as if to complete the dreariness and utter 

 desolation of the scene, even birds seemed to shun its neigh- 

 bourhood. The weather was that in which (as Thompson em- 

 phatically says) ' the soul of man dies in him.' 



" In the course of our service since we left England, we have 

 often been compelled to take up anchorages, exposed to great 

 risk and danger. But the Beagle's present situation I deemed 

 by far the most perilous to which she had been exposed : her 

 three anchors were down in twenty-three fathoms of water, on 

 a bad bottom of sand, with patches of rock. The squalls were 

 terrifically violent, and astern of her, distant only half a cable's 

 length, were rocks and low rocky islets, upon which a furious 

 surf raged. 



" I might use Bulkeley's words in describing the weather in 

 this neighbourhood, and nearly at this season : ' Showers of 

 rain and hail, which beat with such violence against a man's 

 face, that he can hardly withstand it.' 



" On the 10th, the wind being moderate, and the weather 

 better, preparations were made to quit this horrid place. We 

 put to sea, with a moderate breeze from N. b. W., which 



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