ANCHOR OFF MONTE VIDEO. 
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temperature was 32^°, surface being 76°. The results 
from our dredgings to the natural history collection, 
however, were but scanty. 
As we neared the coast of South America, the 
weather was much finer, and on the 14th we dredged 
in 600 fathoms, from a rock bottom, and got numerous 
specimens, but nothing new. 
Feb. loth . — This morning, in the haze, we had 
a glimpse of the low land lying to the south of 
Maldonado Point. We now entered the River La 
Plata, or Plate, as it is commonly termed by sailors. 
Steaming on over a calm sea for some eighty miles, 
at 4.30 p.m. the fine panorama of Monte Yideo and 
its suburbs, with the harbour full of shipping, was in 
view, and here we anchored, some two miles off the 
shore. From what could be seen of the city, it 
seems a charming place, full of bright-looking, hand- 
some edifices, built on the side of a hill. Here were 
H.M. gun-vessels Cracker and Ready , and represen- 
tative men-of-war steam-vessels, flying the national 
colours of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and 
Uruguay, with great numbers of merchant-vessels of 
different nations. 
The River La Plata owes its name to the Spaniards, 
who transferred the produce of the silver mines of 
Chili and Peru, on its waters, to the ocean, and thence 
to Europe. The gold and silver was brought from 
those provinces across the Andes, to Buenos Ayres, 
from whence it was shipped ; but the extension of 
