June 1829. 



ADELAIDE RETURNS PLAN. 



night. Not even a frost-bitten foot could prevent me from 

 sleeping soundly for the first time during many nights. 



" 9th. At one o''clock this day, I heard an exclamation of 

 ' The schooner ! "* and soon saw her standing across from the 

 Barbara Channel with a fair wind. Before she anchored in Port 

 Gallant, I went on board, and, to my joy, found Lieutenants 

 Skyring and Graves, and all their companions well, having 

 thoroughly completed the work they had to perform, without loss, 

 or even an accident. The difficulty of their task was increased by 

 very bad weather ; but they succeeded in tracing and surveying 

 the Magdalen Channel to its junction with the sea, and thence 

 returned by the Barbara Channel to Port Gallant ; carrying 

 on a regular chain of triangles, and connecting their work with 

 points previously fixed in the Strait of Magalhaens. A multi- 

 tude of small islands, and much bad weather, detained them 

 longer than was expected. 



^ While Lieutenants Skyring and Graves, assisted by Mr. 

 Kirke, were employed surveying, Mr. Bynoe collected geolo- 

 gical and other specimens.* 



" 11th. We had nearly reached the shortest day ; the sun 

 did not rise above the hills until past eleven ; it disappeared 

 again before two (the land being less high towards the N.W,), 

 and even in those three hours was seldom visible. 



" 12th. Finding that Lieutenant Skyring agi:eed with me 

 in thinking that the channel from Cape Tamar to the Gulf of 

 Trinidad might be surveyed by the Adelaide, in her way to 

 San Carlos de Chiloe, I resolved to send him and Lieutenant 

 Graves on that service, hoping that it would lead to the disco- 

 very of a passage into the Skyring Water, and give vessels 

 another way of getting into or out of the Strait, should thick 

 weather or adverse winds oppose them in the usual channel. 



" In making this arrangement there was much to be con- 

 sidered. As I had received no orders from Captain King to 

 employ the Adelaide in surveying, after her return from the 

 Magdalen Channel ; and as I had been desired to repair, with 

 her, to San Carlos, in Childe, during which voyage Lieutenant 

 * Geol. Soc. Museum, Nos. 176 to 205, and Zool. Mus. 



VOL. I. R 



