The Streight of Magellan
Index
Search
Contact us
cases of the most pressing necessity. He landed upon a large island on the north side of Snow Sound, and being almost perished with cold, the first thing he did was to make a large fire, with some small trees which he found upon the spot. He then climbed one of the rocky mountains, with Mr. Pickersgill, a midshipman, and one of the seamen, to take a view of the Streight, and the dismal regions that surround it. He found the entrance of the Sound to be full as broad as several parts of the Streight, and to grow but very little narrower, for several miles in land on the Terra del Fuego side. The country on the south of it was still more dreary and horrid than any he had yet seen: it consisted of craggy mountains, much higher than the clouds, that were altogether naked from the base to the summit, there not being a single shrub, nor even a blade of grass to be seen upon them; nor were the vallies between them less desolate, being intirely covered with deep beds of snow, except here and there where it had been washed away, or converted into ice, by the torrents which were precipitated from the fissures and crags of the mountain above, where the snow had been dissolved; and even these vallies, in the patches that were free from snow, were as destitute of verdure as the rocks between which they lay.
On Sunday the first of March, at half an hour after four o’clock in the morning, we saw the Swallow under sail, on the north shore of Cape Quod. At seven we weighed, and stood out of Butler’s bay, but it falling calm soon afterwards, the boats were obliged to take the vessel in tow, having with much difficulty kept clear of the rocks: the passage being very narrow, we sent the boats, about noon, to seek for anchorage on the north shore. At this time, Cape Notch bore W. by N. ½ N. distant between three and four leagues, and Cape Quod E. ½ N. distant three leagues.
 |
Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 398, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/398.html