The severity of the weather brought a most disagreeable accompaniment. Scurvy appeared, and increased; while the accidental death of a seaman, occasioned by falling down a hatchway, followed by the decease of two others, and also of Mr. Low, of the Adeona, whose body was brought to me for burial, tended to create a despondency amongst the crew that I could in no way check. The monotony of their occupations, the chilling and gloomy appearance of the country, and the severity of the climate, all tended to increase the number of the
sick, as well as the unfavourable symptoms of their disease. The Beagle's term of absence was, however, drawing to a close, and I caused a rumour to be spread, that upon her appearance we should quit Port Famine. To give a semblance of reality to this report, the topmasts were ordered to be fidded, and the ship otherwise prepared for sea, which had a manifest effect upon the scorbutic, of whom several were in a bad stage of that horrid disease, and many others were just attacked. We found ourselves now, too, thrown on our own resources for fresh food: scarcely a fish was taken with the hook, and the seine, although frequently shot, never caught anything. Of birds, only a few hawks and small finches were procured, which were all reserved for the sick, the greater number of whom lived on shore, at the tents, where they might walk about, and amuse themselves as they pleased.
The Adelaide returned from Bougainville Harbour on the 18th of June, having succeeded in the object for which she was sent. The extremity of Cape Froward, a bluff head, over which is a round-topped hill (precisely the French 'Morre') is what Sarmiento called the Morro de Santa Agueda. Any name given by this excellent old navigator is too classical and valuable to be omitted; therefore, while the extremity itself may retain the modern appellation of Cape Froward, the mountain by which it is formed may still be allowed to keep his distinction. Behind it, the land rises to a higher ridge, the edge of which is remarkably serrated, and probably of a slaty character.
The specimens procured from the Cape were clay-slate, much intermixed with iron pyrites, and crossed by small veins of white quartz. Of the anchorages examined by Mr. Graves, Bougainville Harbour, better known to sealers by the name of Jack's Cove, or Harbour, is the most sheltered.
It is surrounded on all sides by high precipitous hills, thickly clothed with trees. The depth is moderate, and the water so beautifully clear, that the anchors, and even shells and stones, were distinctly seen upon the bottom. It was here that Bougainville procured wood for the use of the settlement
at the Falkland Islands. Captain Stokes says of this place: "After seeing the abundant supplies of timber which Freshwater Bay and Port Famine afford, I had shared in the surprise which Byron expresses, that any one should have come so far up the Strait to get it; but on examining the spot, I found that a happier selection could not have been made. It is a little cove, just round the eastern point of the Bay of San Nicolas, about a hundred yards wide and three times as long. Here, moored to the shore, a ship may lie in eight fathoms, perfectly sheltered from any wind, the water as smooth as in a wet-dock. Shapely trees, of all dimensions, are growing within a few yards of the shore; and the wood, when felled, may be hoisted on board from the beach, by tackles from the yard-arms. Here, too, with very little trouble, a supply of water may be got from the many streams that make their way through the underwood which skirts the cove. As we pulled up this sequestered nook, the unusual sound of our oars and voices put to flight multitudes of birds, and the surface of the water was broken by the jumping of fine fish. Some very eatable geese were shot. Our stay was too short to admit of hauling the seine; but my boat's crew contrived to half-fill the boat with excellent muscles and limpets, which are found here in great plenty."
The geological character of the coast between Cape St. Isidro and San Nicolas Bay is clay-slate; near the beach, however, this rock is not visible, since it is there covered with a kind of breccia of rounded pebbles, in an indurated sandy rock, of green colour. The pebbles are principally of slate; but some were found to be of granite and other quartzose rock, perhaps greenstone.
One of the headlands, called by M. Bougainville Cape Remarquable, was examined by Mr. Graves for fossil shells, of which the French navigator speaks. Half the rock was beaten to pieces, without detecting anything like organic remains. Living shells were in the greatest abundance about the base of the Cape, but that is the case every where. The species generally found are limpets and muscles, but with little variety and no novelty.
On the 21st of June, after a heavy north-east gale, we had an unusually fine day. The hills at the bottom of Magdalen Channel were more distinct than we had ever noticed them, and Mount Sarmiento was particularly clear; indeed its outline was so sharply defined, that the distance did not appear to be more than ten miles. This extraordinary transparency of the air was at first considered a presage of wet weather; yet the clear and sharp appearance of the distant land was unlike that which usually precedes a fall of rain. The long series of rainy weather we had experienced made us look for a good result from such an unusual atmosphere, and we were not deceived. The following day our hopes were still further confirmed by seeing three Indian canoes, coming across the Strait, towards us, from Lomas Bay, which they would not have attempted had they not been sure of its continuing fine; for their canoes are ill adapted to encounter the short cross sea found during bad weather in mid-channel of the Strait.