134 SOUTH AGAIN : NEW ZEALAND AND THE CAPE 
climates, where vegetation itself is scarce, I find that every- 
thing, in however bad a state, must be taken at once and 
looked for, in fruit or flower, afterwards. Indeed I often 
wonder what can be done with the barren specimens I am 
forced to be content with. [From a letter to his Father, 
August 25, 1842.] 
To Jiis Mother 
December 6, 1842. 
September 8th we weighed and made sail down the Sound 
as I was writing a letter to Bessy. On the following day 
we were greeted as we expected by a stout S.W. gale, which 
blew almost without intermission until the 16th, during all 
of which time we were hove to and battened down, most 
dehghtful as you may suppose after four months in harbor. 
On the 16th we were eighty miles to leeward of the Falk- 
lands ! when, after a short calm, Easterly wind sprang up, 
and as the sea went down, we ran on rapidly to the Horn. 
Fair winds took us on to the land ; on the 19th we made it 
early in the morning, consisting of ranges of snowy peaks, 
and soon after saw the far-famed Horn. The day was 
beautiful and so we passed in the afternoon right under the 
cliff, which is quite a line one, — very steep and precipitous 
to the Southward. Jagged and peaked at the top, covered 
with very stunted brushwood of the crumpled or deciduous 
leaved beech, which was broA^n as the leaves were not ex- 
panded yet. The chff is of a black color and about 600 ft. 
high with plenty of Albatross, Cape pigeons, and other sea 
birds wheeling about it, indeed we w^ere so close that we 
could see them sitting on the face of it. A little cairn of 
stones raised by the officers of the Beagle is on the top of all. 
After rounding (or doubhng) the Cape, the Bay of St. 
Francis opens out and the view is very fine. This bay was 
supposed to be in Hermite Island until that Island was 
found to be made up of many enclosing this sheet of water. 
Horn Island is the most Westerly and, as its name otvtis, 
boasts of the Cape. Hermite Island is the Easternmost 
and Cape Spencer,. its most Southern point, is very similar 
to and abreast of Cape Horn (some two or three miles further 
North). We beat up the Bay and at night anchored in very 
deep water under a bluff precipice off the mouth of the 
Cove. When it came on dark, it was a very curious place. 
