NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
87: 
cleared at 3 p.m., and then the ship was steered for the West Jason Cay. At 4.40 p.m. 
the vessel stopped, and sounded and trawled in 55 fathoms in lat. 55° 20' S., long. 
67° 39' W., after which sail was made for the Falkland Islands. 
The deposit at 55 fathoms, as well as at two other soundings, 70 and 110 fathoms, 
was a coarse sand, the grains about one millimetre in diameter, consisting of quartz, 
jasper, felspars, mica, hornblende, augite, glauconite, pumice, and particles of crystalline 
and schistose rocks. ■ 
The deposits in the Messier and Sarmiento Channels and Magellan Strait were in all 
cases blue muds containing very little carbonate of lime, and consisting mostly of debris 
from the neighbouring mountains. Pelagic Foraminifera were only represented by a few 
stray specimens of Globigerina, and on the surface only a few of these shells were noticed, 
the deposits and surface gatherings in these enclosed channels thus being in marked con- 
trast to those found in the open sea, at some distance from land. The dredgings were 
moderately productive, and in depths between 60 and 400 fathoms a good many new 
species were procured, including one new genus and five new species of fish. The parties 
landed at the various points where the ship anchored made extensive collections of 
plants, birds, fish, and other animals. 
In passing through the eastern part of the Strait of Magellan, a red beacon, which 
had been recently erected by the Chilian Government, was observed on Cape Gregory. 
Arrangements had also been made, it was understood, to buoy the Triton Bank. In the 
first narrows a buoy was seen adrift, and after passing them, the Chilian vessel of war 
“O’Higgins” was observed at anchor on the Nassau Bank, so that the buoy passed was 
probably the one off that shoal. 
The Strait of Magellan was discovered by Fernao de Magalhaes in October 1520, 
during that celebrated voyage when for the first time the globe was circumnavigated. 
Entering the Strait from the Atlantic on October 21st, he reached the Pacific on the 27th 
November, 37 days after passing Cape Virgins. 
Magellan’s great discovery being made known on the return of his ship to 
Spain, other navigators turned their attention towards this route, and followed it with 
varying fortune. Thus, Don Garcia Jofre de Loyasa, a native of Ciudad Real, passed 
through in April and May 1526 in 48 days, having previously failed in January of 
that year. Simon de Alcazora attempted it in January 1535, but failed; Alonso de 
Camargo succeeded in January 1540 ; Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman who used 
the Strait, passed through it in 17 days in August and September 1578 ; and Sarmiento, 
after discovering the Gulf of Trinidad, navigated it from west to east in January and 
February 1580, occupying 31 days in the transit from one ocean to the other; a great 
part of this time was, however, spent at anchor, waiting for his consort. 
Sarmiento, on his arrival in Spain, represented to the King (Philip II.) the advantages 
