NEW YEAR SOUND. 



March 1830. 



tending towards the N.W., with a multitude of islands scat- 

 tered about it. From its east side the land trends away towards 

 a point which is curiously peaked, like a horn, and which I 

 supposed to be the western point of Nassau Bay,"^ 



" 22d. We had hardly left our cove, when steady rain set in ; 

 however, we went across towards New Year Sound, sometimes 

 favoured by the wind, but could do little. As far as I saw the 

 day before, the snowy chain of mountains continued to the 

 eastward, therefore I had little hope of finding a body of water 

 in the interior of Tierra del Fuego, about the head of Nassau 

 Bay. About noon we were near WeddelFs ' Indian Cove,' but 

 the weather being thick I did not recognise it, so we stood up 

 the sound with a fresh breeze from the W.S.W, I soon found 

 that it led only to the north and west, and probably communi- 

 cated with some of the passages which Mr. Murray saw lead- 

 ing to the eastward from the neighbourhood of Christmas 

 Sound. Towards the north and east I had already noticed a 

 long range of mountains. Concluding therefore from what I 

 then observed, and from views obtained from the heights, that 

 no passage leads from this sound direct to Christmas Sound, 

 and that to return to the Beagle I must go part of the way by 

 the sea-coast, or else go round, by a series of intricate passages, 

 to the places which Mr. Murray had seen in the cutter ; I pre- 

 ferred the coast, as a second view of it would be of use, while a 

 traverse among the islands could not be very beneficial. 

 ^^Putting about, we returned down the sound, the breeze still 

 allowing us to sail fast. We closed the western shore to look for 

 Indian Cove, and, as the weather had cleared up, found it 

 without difficulty. It is not so good a place as I expected ; for 

 except at the inner corner close to a run of water, I found only 

 rocky soundings. The few casts of good ground were so close 

 to the shore that the place can only be considered fit for a cutter, 

 or small craft, which could lie quite close to the land. This 

 cove is, in my opinion, too far inland to be of general use ; and 

 an anchorage under Morton Island would be far preferable 



* False Cape Horn, or Cape False. 



