SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
217 
The scenery of Talcahuana Ray is beautiful: high and 
steep hills, covered with wood from their summits to the 
water’s edge, surround it, excepting where they leave room 
Quinquina, which, occupying part of the entrance, forms two mouths to the 
bay. That to the eastward is the principal one, by which ships of all burdens 
enter, and is two miles wide; the western one, formed by the isle and the point 
of Talcahuana, is little less than half a league wide. The principal entrance 
to the bay has thirty fathoms water, which shoals gradually to the centre of 
the bay, where there are twelve fathoms, and that depth continues to within a 
mile of the shore fronting the entrance. Although the other passage appears 
so rocky that it would be thought impossible to enter by it, there is a channel 
which begins with thirty fathoms water, about a quarter of a league from the 
point of Talcahuana, and then shoals to eleven fathoms till you get into the 
bay. This channel is midway between the shores, and runs along by the shoals 
which run off from the side of Talcahuana, and stretch to Quiriquina, almost a 
quarter of a league in length. 
“ Vessels may anchor in any part of the bay ; the ground is clean and holds 
well, being of clay. There are three ports which are fittest to anchor in. One 
called the Puerto Tome bears E.S.E. from the north point of Quiriquina, op¬ 
posite to the Terra firma, where there are twelve fathoms water; but this is 
used only to anchor in at night, in order to wait till day permits you to make 
for one of the others. 
“ The chief port in the bay is that of Talcahuana, which is an inlet lying 
S.S.E. from the southern point of Quiriquina. And here it is that all vessels 
anchor; and may do it with security, because there is good holding ground, and 
there is shelter against the north winds; which is not the case in the port of 
Cerillo Verde, close to Conception, where ships are entirely exposed to the 
northerly gales, and suffer even from southerly winds, which blow freely across 
the low land on that side; add to which, the bottom is of soft mud, so that the 
vessels often drag their anchors, and are exposed thereby to wreck, for which 
reasons the port of Cerillo Verde is little frequented; only in mid-winter a few 
ships go thither to load, as being near the town, but they do not stay long.”— 
Noticias Secretas de America. 
F F 
