April 18S9. MAGNETIC ROCKS KENDALL. 199 



to WeddePs Port Maxwell, which is evidently St. Bernard's 

 Cove of D'Arquistade.f A ) Port Maxwell is contained between 

 Jerdan Island, Saddle Island, and a third island, forming a 

 triangle. It has four entrances, the principal one being to the 

 north of Jerdan Island, and affords tolerable anchorage in the 

 centre, in nineteen and twenty fathoms, sand ;* nearer the shores 

 of the island the depth is more moderate, but the bottom is 

 very rocky. 



The summit of Saddle Island, which I ascended for bearings, 

 is composed of large blocks of greenstone rock, on one of which 

 the compass (Kater's Azimuth, without a stand) was placed ; 

 but the needle was found to be so much influenced by the fer- 

 ruginous nature of the rock, composed of quartz and feldspar, 

 thickly studded with large crystals of hornblende, that the 

 poles of the needle became exactly reversed. An experiment 

 was then made, by taking bearings of a very distant object, at 

 several stations around, about fifty yards from the magnetic 

 rock, when the extreme difference of the results amounted to 

 127°. The block upon which the compass stood, in the first 

 instance, is now conspicuously placed in the museum of the 

 Geological Society. 



Saddle Island, like the others near it, is clothed with low 

 stunted brushwood of beech, berberis, and arbutus, and the 

 ground is covered with a species of chamitis, and other moun- 

 tain plants. While Mr. Kendall and I were absent from the 

 boat, the crew caught several kelp fish, which are very deli- 

 cate and wholesome food. On the following day, while going 

 with Mr. Kendall to Wollaston Island, we passed a great many 

 whales, leaping and tumbling in the water. A blow from one 



ChJ \ do not think the bay adjacent to Cape Horn is that which was 

 named by D'Arquistade * St. Francis,' and, if my supposition is correct, 

 Port Maxwell is not the place which was called * St. Bernard's Cove.' See 

 Second volume. — R. F. 



• According to Capt. Fitz Roy the best berth is in sixteen fathoms. 

 (Sail. Directions.) 



t Nos. 268 to 271, Geo. Soc. Museum. 



