June. 



LEAVE STRAIT LE MAlliE 



— TIDES. 



455 



moon. It was high water at a quarter past four, and the tide 

 rose seven feet. 



" 7th. We unmoored, weighed, stood to the eastward and 

 anchored with the stream anchor, and a large hawser, in fifty 

 fathoms water, about three miles from Success Bay. After 

 taking the required angles and bearings we weighed at eleven, 

 and stood towards Cape San Diego with the first of the flood. 

 The tide being strong, we made rapid progress, and were soon 

 out of the strait ; but wishing to see as much of the N.E. coast 

 as possible, in our progress northward, we hauled to the wind 

 and kept near the land during the night, as the weather was 

 fine and settled. 



" Before leaving Good Success Bay and the Strait of Le 

 Maire, I felt satisfied that we had acquainted ourselves with 

 the tides, which are as regular and as little to be dreaded as in 

 any part of the world where they run with strength. They 

 will materially assist any vessel in her passage through the 

 strait ; which is very wide, perfectly free from obstacles of any 

 kind, and has Good Success Bay close at hand, in case wind 

 or tide should fail. When the tide opposes the wind and swell, 

 there is always a heavy, and, for small vessels, dangerous 'race"* 

 off Cape San Diego, where the water is more shoal than else- 

 where {k)y we found it so at a neap flood- tide, but let it be 

 remembered that on another day, at the top of the springs, 

 being the day after full moon, we passed the same spot, at 

 half flood, with the water perfectly smooth, and although 

 strong eddies were seen in every direction, the vessel's steerage 

 was but little affected by them. It is high water in Success 

 Bay soon after four in the afternoon, on the full and change 

 days, and low water exactly at ten in the morning. The flood 

 tide-stream begins to make to the northward about an hour 

 after low water, and the ebb, to the southward, about the same 

 time after high water. The tides rise from six to eight feet, 

 perpendicularly. At Cape Pillar the turn of tide, with high 

 water, is at noon : but along the S.W. and S.E. coast the time 



(k) Five fathoms only were found in one spot during- the Beagle's last 

 voyage. — R. F. 



