74 



TttREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



steer to the northward. If successful in gaining that meridian^ 

 without being driven far to the southward, the passage is gene- 

 rally short; — the voyage from the latitude of 40° S., in the At- 

 lantic, to Valparaiso, is made in from thirty to thirty-five days. 



It frequently happens, however, that vessels are driven as 

 far as 63°, and even 64° south, where, if to the eastward of the 

 meridian of Cape Horn, they meet with icebergs, and sufier 

 severely from the cold. Vessels have been, occasionally, forty, 

 fifty, sixty, and in some instances, seventy days, contending 

 with wind and storms, before being able to get to the west- 

 ward, when "hugging the land while, at the very same pe- 

 riod, the same region has been passed by others, in from fif- 

 teen to twenty days, by pursuing the southern route. The com- 

 bined experience of whalemen and sealers, goes to establish, 

 that, in high southern latitudes, the winds prevail from the 

 eastward during a great part of the year, which is directly con- 

 trary to what is true as respects the direction of the winds in 

 the vicinity of the land. In fact, it seems that the winds in 

 this part of the world, blow comparatively in narrow veins ; 

 and it has been remarked by the most experienced navigators, 

 that gales do not blow home to the land. 



It is the opinion of the most intelligent seamen, that vessels 

 should not pass through Straits La Mair ; that they should keep 

 close in to the land, and not go south of 57° S., but beat be- 

 tween that parallel and the land, until they may reach the me- 

 ridian of 85° west longitude, before attempting to get to the 

 northward. Though the wind blows generally from the west- 

 ward, varying from south, south-west, to north, north-west, it 

 occasionally comes from the eastward. Of three vessels that 

 doubled Cape Horn, in October 1831, the first was thirty-one 

 days, from Lat. 45° 40' S. Long. 58° 30' W. in the Atlantic, to 

 Lat. 34° 30' S. Long. 79° 15' W. in the Pacific. She reached 

 59° 31' S. Her log-book does not show that she had the wind 

 from the eastward at any one time ; it varied from south to 

 north, north-west. The second vessel was thirty days from 

 Lat. 40° 21' S. Long. 54° 5' W. in the Atlantic, to Lat. 30° 46' 

 S. Long. 73° 30' W. in the Pacific. She passed through Straits 

 La Mair, and went as far as 57° 54' S. She had an easterly 



