March 1830. 



TREACHEROUS ROCKS, 



411 



stock of provisions to last more than the time allotted for the 

 the remainder of our solitary cruise. 



" By using substitutes for the mens' shoes, made of sealskin, 

 we secured enough to last as long as we should want them- 

 I have never mentioned the state of our sick list, because it 

 was always so trifling. There had been very little doing in 

 the surgeon''s department ; nothing indeed of consequence, 

 since Mr. Murray dislocated his shoulder. 



" The promontory of York Minster is a black irregularly- 

 shaped rocky cliff, eight hundred feet in height, rising almost 

 perpendicularly from the sea. It is nearly the loftiest as well 

 as the most projecting part of the land about Christmas Sound, 

 which, generally speaking, is not near so high as that further 

 west, but it is very barren. Granite is prevalent, and I could 

 find no sandstone. Coming from the westward, we thought the 

 heights about here inconsiderable ; but Cook, coming from the 

 South Sea, called them ' high and savage.** Had he made the 

 land nearer the Barbara Channel, where the mountains are much 

 higher, he would have spoken still more strongly of the wild 

 and disagreeable appearance of the coast. 



" 6th. During the past night it blew very hard, making our 

 vessel jerk her cables with unusual violence, though we had a 

 good scope out, and the water was perfectly smooth. We saw 

 that the best bower-anchor had been dragged some distance, it 

 was therefore hove to the bows when its stock was found to be 

 broken, by a rock, in the midst of good ground, having caught 

 the anchor. It had been obtained at San Carlos from a mer- 

 chant brig, but being much too light for our vessel, had been 

 woulded round with chains to give it weight : its place was 

 taken by a frigate's stream-anchor, well made and well tried, 

 which I had procured from Valparaiso.* In shifting our berth, 

 the small bower chain was found to be so firmly fixed round 

 another rock that for several hours we could not clear it. Such 

 rocks as these are very treacherous and not easily detected, 

 except by sweeping the bottom with a line and weights. A very 



* It had formerly belonged to H.M.S.. Doris, which was condemned at 

 Vtilparaiso; being unserviceable. 



