After discovering and sounding this cove, I sent Lieutenant Clerke, who commanded the other boat, on board, with orders to remove the ship into this place, while I proceeded farther up the inlet. I presently saw that the land we were under, which disjoined the two arms, as mentioned before, was an island, at the north end of which the two channels united. After this I hastened on board, and found every thing in readiness to weigh, which was accordingly done, and all the boats sent ahead to tow the ship round the point. But at that moment a light breeze came in from the sea too scant to fill our sails, so that we were obliged to drop the anchor again, for fear of falling upon the point, and to carry out a kedge to windward. That being done, we hove up the anchor, warped up to, and weighed the kedge, and proceeding round the point under our stay-sails; there anchored with the best bower in twenty fathoms; and moored with the other bower, which lay to the north, in thirteen fathoms. In this position we were shut in from the sea by the point above-mentioned, which was in one with the extremity of the inlet to the east. Some islets, off the next point above us, covered us from the N.W., from which quarter the wind had the greatest fetch, and our distance from the shore was about one-third of a mile.
Thus situated we went to work, to clear a place to fill water, to cut wood, and to set up a tent for the reception of a guard, which was thought necessary, as we had already discovered that, barren as this country is, it was not without people, though we had not yet seen any. Mr Wales also got his observatory and instruments on shore; but it was with the greatest difficulty he could find a place of sufficient stability, and clear of the mountains, which every where surrounded us, to set them up in; and at last he was obliged to content himself with the top of a rock not more than nine feet over.
Next day I sent Lieutenants Clerke and Pickersgill, accompanied by some of the other officers, to examine and draw a sketch of the channel on the other side of the island; and I went myself in another boat, accompanied by the botanists, to survey the northern parts of the sound. In my way I landed on the point of a low isle covered with herbage, part of which had been lately burnt: We likewise saw a hut, signs sufficient that people were in the neighbourhood. After I had taken the necessary bearings, we proceeded round the east end of Burnt Island, and over to what we judged to be the main of Terra del Fuego, where we found a very fine harbour encompassed by steep rocks of vast height, down which ran many limpid streams of water; and at the foot of the rocks some tufts of trees, fit for little else but fuel.[1]
[1] "We found many little clefts, which cannot properly be called vallies, where a few shrubs of different species sprang up in a thin layer of swampy soil, being defended against the violence of storms, and exposed to the genial influence of reverberated sun-beams. The rock, of which the whole island consisted, is a coarse granite, composed of feld-spath, quartz, and black mica or glimmer. This rock is in most places entirely naked, without the smallest vegetable particle; but wherever the rains, or melted snows, have washed together some little rubbish, and other particles in decay, it is covered with a coating of minute plants, in growth like mosses, which, forming a kind of turf, about an inch or more in thickness, very easily slip away under the foot, having no firm hold on the rock. In sheltered places a few other plants thrive among these mossy species, and these at last form a sufficient quantity of soil for the nutriment of shrubs. Here we found the species which affords what has been called Winter's Bark; but in this unfriendly situation it was only a shrub about ten feet high, crooked and shapeless. Barren as these rocks appeared, yet almost every plant which we gathered on them was new to us, and some species were remarkable for the beauty of their flowers, or their smell."--G.F.
This harbour, which I shall distinguish by the name of the Devil's Bason, is divided, as it were, into two, an inner. and an outer one; and the communication between them is by a narrow channel five fathoms deep. In the outer bason I found thirteen and seventeen fathoms water, and in the inner seventeen and twenty-three. This last is as secure a place as can be, but nothing can be more gloomy. The vast height of the savage rocks which encompass it, deprived great part of it, even on this day, of the meridian sun. The outer harbour is not quite free from this inconvenience, but far more so than the other; it is also rather more commodious, and equally safe. It lies in the direction of north, a mile and a half distant from the east end of Burnt Island. I likewise found a good anchoring-place a little to the west of this harbour, before a stream of water, that comes out of a lake or large reservoir, which is continually supplied by a cascade falling into it.
Leaving this place, we proceeded along the shore to the westward, and found other harbours which I had not time to look into. In all of them is fresh water, and wood for fuel; but, except these little tufts of bushes, the whole country is a barren rock, doomed by nature to everlasting sterility. The low islands, and even some of the higher, which lie scattered up and down the sound, are indeed mostly covered with shrubs and herbage, the soil a black rotten turf, evidently composed, by length of time, of decayed vegetables.
I had an opportunity to verify what we had observed at sea, that the sea- coast is composed of a number of large and small islands, and that the numerous inlets are formed by the junction of several channels; at least so it is here. On one of these low islands we found several huts, which had lately been inhabited; and near them was a good deal of celery, with which we loaded our boat, and returned on board at seven o'clock in the evening. In this expedition we met with little game; one duck, three or four shags, and about that number of rails or sea-pies, being all we got. The other boat returned on board some hours before, having found two harbours on the west side of the other channel; the one large, and the other small, but both of them safe and commodious; though, by the sketch Mr Pickersgill had taken of them, the access to both appeared rather intricate.[2]
I was now told of a melancholy accident which had befallen one of our marines. He had not been seen since eleven or twelve o'clock the preceding night. It was supposed that he had fallen overboard, out of the head, where he had been last seen, and was drowned.
Having fine pleasant weather on the 23d, I sent Lieutenant Pickersgill in the cutter to explore the east side of the sound, and went myself in the pinnace to the west side, with an intent to go round the island, under which we were at anchor (and which I shall distinguish by the name of Shag Island), in order to view the passage leading to the harbours Mr Pickersgill had discovered the day before, on which I made the following observations. In coming from sea, leave all the rocks and islands, lying off and within York Minster, on your larboard side; and the black rock, which lies off the south end of Shag Island, on your starboard; and when abreast of the south end of that island, haul over for the west shore, taking care to avoid the beds of weeds you will see before you, as they always grow on rocks; some of which I have found twelve fathoms under water; but it is always best to keep clear of them. The entrance to the large harbour, or Port Clerke, is just to the north of some low rocks lying off a point on Shag Island. This harbour lies in W. by S., a mile and a half, and hath in it from twelve to twenty-four fathoms depth, wood and fresh water. About a mile without, or to the southward of Port Clerke, is, or seemed to be, another which I did not examine. It is formed by a large island which covers it from the south and east winds. Without this island, that is, between it and York Minster, the sea seemed strewed with islets, rocks, and breakers. In proceeding round the south end of Shag Island, we observed the shags to breed in vast numbers in the cliffs of the rock. Some of the old ones we shot, but could not come at the young ones, which are by far the best eating. On the east side of the island we saw some geese; and having with difficulty landed, we killed three, which, at this time, was a valuable acquisition.
About seven, in the evening, we got on board, where Mr Pickersgill had arrived but just before. He informed me that the land opposite to our station was an island, which he had been round; that on another, more to the north, be found many terns eggs; and that without the great island, between it and the east-head, lay a cove in which were many geese; one only of which he got, beside some young goslings.