[50] At Mr. Tarn's request.

[51] King's 'Australia,' vol. i. p. 70; also vol. ii. pp. 573, 582, and 613.

[52] At high tide the sea-water undermines, by thawing, large masses of ice, which, when the tide falls, want support, and, consequently, break off, bringing after them huge fragments of the glacier, and falling into the still basin with a noise like thunder.

[53] "En los dias 24, y 25, oimos un ruido sordo, y de corta duracion, que, por el pronto, nos pareció trueno; pero habiendo reflexîonado, nos inclinamos à creer que fué efecto de alguna explosion subterranea, formado en el seno de alguna de las montañas inmediatas, en que parece haber algunos minerales, y aun volcanes, que están del todo ó casi apagados, movièndonos a hacer este juicio, el haberse encontrado, en la cima de una de ellas, porcion de materia compuesta de tierra y metal, que en su peso, color, y demas caracteres, tenia impreso el sello del fuego activo en que habia tomado aquel estado, pues era una perfecta imagèn de las escorias del hierro que se ven en nuestras ferrerías.—Apendice al Viage de Cordova al Magallanes, p. 65.

[54] No canvas could withstand some of these squalls, which carry spray, leaves, and dirt before them, in a dense cloud, reaching from the water to the height of a ship's lower yards, or even lower mast-heads. Happily their duration is so short, that the cable of a vessel, at anchor, is scarcely strained to the utmost, before the furious blast is over. Persons who have been some time in Tierra del Fuego, but fortunate enough not to have experienced the extreme violence of such squalls, may incline to think their force exaggerated in this description: but it ought to be considered, that their utmost fury is only felt during unusually heavy gales, and in particular situations; so that a ship might pass through the Strait of Magalhaens many times, without encountering one such blast as has occasionally been witnessed there.—R. F.

[55]

"sub rupe cavatâ

Arboribus clausam circum atque horrentibus umbria."

[56] Mount Boqueron.

[57] Including the master, there were on board, when cast away, twenty-two persons.