PASSAGE EASTWARD THROUGH THE STRAIT. 



471 



evening. Fish may also be obtained with the seine at any 

 other place where there are rivers. Freshwater Bay and Port 

 Gallant are equally productive. On the outer coast of 

 Tierra del Fuego an excellent fish may be caught in the 

 kelp. 



The advantage which a ship will derive from passing 

 through the Strait, from the Pacific to the Atlantic is very 

 great ; and it ought to be great to induce the seaman to en- 

 tangle his ship with the land when fair winds and an open 

 sea are before him. After passing through the Strait, the 

 prevailing winds being westerly, and more frequently from 

 the northward than from the southward of west, they are fair 

 for his running up the coast ; or if not, the ship is not liable 

 to receive much injury from the sea, which is comparatively 

 smooth ; whereas, to a ship passing round the Horn, if the 

 wind be north-west she must go to the eastward of the Falk- 

 land Islands, and be exposed to strong gales and a heavy 

 beam sea, and hug the wind to make her northing. To a 

 small vessel the advantage is incalculable ; for, besides filling 

 her hold with wood and water, she is enabled to escape the 

 severe weather that so constantly reigns in the higher latitudes 

 of the South Atlantic Ocean. 



Coming from the northward, it will be advisable to keep an 

 offing until the western entrance of the Strait is well under the 

 lee, to avoid being thrown upon the coast to the northward of 

 Cape Victory, which is rugged and inhospitable, and, forming 

 as it were a breakwater to the deep rolling swell of the ocean, 

 is for some miles off fringed by a cross hollow sea almost 

 amounting to breakers. 



The land of Cape Victory is high and rugged, and much 

 broken ; and if the weather be not very thick, will be seen 

 long before the Evangelists, which are not visible above the 

 horizon, from a ship's deck, for more than four or five leagues.* 

 Pass to the southward of them, and steer for Cape Pillar, 



* From the Adventure's deck, the eye being thirteen feet above the 

 water, they were seen on the horizon at the distanoe of fourteen miles. 



