The streight itself, which is bounded on the west by Terra del Fuego, and on the east by the west end of Staten Land, is about five leagues long, and as many broad. The Bay of Good Success lies about the middle of it, on the Terra del Fuego side, and is discovered immediately upon entering the streight from the northward; and the south head of it may be distinguished by a mark on the land, that has the appearance of a broad road, leading up from the sea into the country: At the entrance it is half a league wide, and runs in westward about two miles and a half. There is good anchorage in every part of it, in from ten to seven fathom, clear ground; and it affords plenty of exceeding good wood and water. The tides flow in the bay, at the full and change of the moon, about four or five o'clock, and rise about five or six feet perpendicular. But the flood runs two or three hours longer in the streight than in the bay; and the ebb, or northerly current, runs with near double the strength of the flood.
In the appearance of Staten Land, we did not discover the wildness and horror that is ascribed to it in the account of Lord Anson's voyage. On the north side are the appearances of bays or harbours; and the land when we saw it, was neither destitute of wood nor verdure, nor covered with snow. The island seems to be about twelve leagues in length and five broad.
On the west side of the Cape of Good Success, which forms the S.W. entrance of the streight, lies Valentine's Bay, of which we only saw the entrance; from this bay the land trends away to the W.S.W. for twenty or thirty leagues; it appears to be high and mountainous, and forms several bays and inlets.
At the distance of fourteen leagues from the Bay of Good Success, in the direction of S.W.1/2 W. and between two and three leagues from the shore, lies New Island. It is about two leagues in length from N.E. to S.W. and terminates to the N.E. in a remarkable hillock. At the distance of seven leagues from New Island, in the direction of S.W. lies the isle Evouts; and a little to the west of the south of this island lie Barnevelt's two small flat islands, close to each other; they are partly surrounded with rocks, which rise to different heights above the water, and lie twenty-four leagues from the streight of Le Maire. At the distance of three leagues from Barnevelt's islands, in the direction of S.W. by S. lies the S.E. point of Hermit's islands: These islands lie S.E. and N.W. and are pretty high: From most points of view they will be taken for one island, or a part of the main.
From the S.E. point of Hermit's islands to Cape Horn the course is S.W. by S. distance three leagues.
In the chart I drew of this coast, from our first making land to the cape, which includes the Streight of Le Maire, and part of Staten Land, I have laid down no land, nor traced out any shore, but what I saw myself, and thus far it may be depended upon: The bays and inlets, of which we saw only the openings, are not traced; it can, however, scarcely be doubted but that most, if not all of them, afford anchorage, wood and water. The Dutch squadron, commanded by Hermit, certainly put into some of them in the year 1624: And it was Chapenham, the vice-admiral of this squadron, who first discovered that the land of Cape Horn consisted of a number of islands. The account, however, which those who sailed in Hermit's fleet have given of these parts, is extremely defective; and those of Schouton and Le Maire are still worse: It is therefore no wonder that the charts hitherto published should be erroneous, not only in laying down the land, but in the latitude and longitude of the places they contain. I will, however, venture to assert, that the longitude of few parts of the world is better ascertained than that of the Streight of Le Maire, and Cape Horn, in the chart now alluded to, as it was laid down by several observations of the sun and moon that were made both by myself and Mr Green.[82]
[Footnote 82: This chart is necessarily omitted. Krusenstern, speaking of the observations respecting the position of Cape St John, says, "There are few cities in Europe, the geographical longitude of which is determined with the same degree of accuracy as that of this barren rock, in one of the roughest and most inhospitable islands of the globe. But how infinitely important is this accuracy to the safety of shipping!" He verified Cook's determination of the longitude of this cape.--E.]
The variation of the compass on this coast I found to be from 23° to 25° E. except near Barnevelt's islands and Cape Horn, where we found it less, and unsettled: Probably it is disturbed here by the land, as Hermit's squadron, in this very place, found all their compasses differ from each other. The declination of the dipping-needle, when set upon shore in Success Bay, was 68° 15' below the horizon.
Between Streight Le Maire and Cape Horn we found a current setting, generally very strong, to the N.E. when we were in with the shore; but lost it when we were at the distance of fifteen or twenty leagues.
On the 26th of January, we took our departure from Cape Horn, which lies in latitude 55° 53' S. longitude 68° 13' W. The farthest southern latitude that we made was 60° 10', our longitude was then 74° 30' W.; and we found the variation of the compass, by the mean of eighteen azimuths, to be 27° 9' E. As the weather was frequently calm, Mr Banks went out in a small boat to shoot birds, among which were some albatrosses and sheer-waters. The albatrosses were observed to be larger than those which had been taken northward of the streight; one of them measured ten feet two inches from the tip of one wing to that of the other, when they were extended: The sheer-water, on the contrary, is less, and darker coloured on the back. The albatrosses we skinned, and having soaked them in salt water till the morning, we parboiled them, then throwing away the liquor, stewed them in a very little fresh water till they were tender, and had them served up with savoury sauce; thus dressed, the dish was universally commended, and we eat of it very heartily even when there was fresh pork upon the table.