Dec. 1832. 



CAPE HORN. 



233 



wide view over the surrounding country : to the northward 

 a swampy moorland extended^ but to the southward we had 

 a scene of savage magnificence^, well becoming Tierra del 

 Fuego. There was a degree of mysterious grandeur in moun- 

 tain behind mountain, with the deep intervening valleys, all 

 covered by one thick, dusky mass of forest. The atmo- 

 sphere, likewise, in this climate (where gale succeeds gale, 

 with rain, hail, and sleet), seems blacker than any where else. 

 In the Strait of Magellan looking due south from Port 

 Famine, the distant channels between the mountains appear 

 from their gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this 

 world. 



December 21st. — The Beagle got under way: and on 

 the succeeding day, favoured to an uncommon degree by a 

 fine easterly breeze, we closed in with the Barnevelts, and, 

 running past Cape Deceit with its stony peaks, about three 

 o'clock doubled the weatherbeaten Cape Horn. The even- 

 ing was calm and bright, and we enjoyed a fine view of 

 the surrounding isles. Cape Horn, however, demanded his 

 tribute, and before night sent us a gale of wind directly in 

 our teeth. We stood out to sea, and on the second day again 

 made the land, when we saw on our weather-bow this 

 notorious promontory in its proper form — veiled in a mist, 

 and its dim outline surrounded by a storm of wind and 

 water. Great black clouds were rolling across the heavens, 

 and squalls of rain, with hail, swept by us with extreme 

 violence ; so that the captain determined to run into Wigwam 

 Cove. This is a snug little harbour, not far from Cape Horn ; 

 and here, at Christmas- eve, we anchored in smooth water. 

 The only thing which reminded us of the gale outside, was 

 every now and then a puff from the mountains, which 

 seemed to wish to blow us out of the water. 



December 25th. — Close by the cove, a pointed hill, 

 called Kater's Peak, rises to the height of 1 700 feet. The 

 surrounding islands all consist of conical masses of green- 

 stone, associated sometimes with less regular hills of baked 



