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a bag-full on board to be tested. The shining substance proved
to be, as I had supposed, the micaceous particles of disintegrated
granite. It was not our good fortune to discover streams
similar to those sung of by the poet,
“ Whose foam is amber, and whose gravel gold.” C H A P T E R X I.
Leave P o rt Otway—San Quintin’s Sound—Gulf of Peñas—Kelly H a rbour—
St. Xavier Islan d—Death of Serjeant Lindsey—P o rt Xavier__
Ygnacio Bay—Channel’s mouth—Bad weather—Perilous situation__
Lose the yawl—Sick list—Return to P o rt Otway—Thence to P o rt
Famine—Gregory Bay—Natives—Guanaco meat—Skunk—Condors
'—Brazilians—Juanico—Captain Foster—Changes of officers.
T he Beagle returned to Port Otway the following day, and
in an interval of better weather obtained the observations neces-
sary for ascertaining the latitude and longitude of the port,
and for rating the chronometers.
Captain Stokes’s journal continues on thelQth of May; “We
left Port Otway, and as soon as we had cleared its entrance,
steered E.N.E. across the gulf; leaving to the northward all
that cluster of islands, distinguished in the chart as the ‘Marine
Islands,’ and went to within a mile from the eastern shore.
Thence we ran four miles and a half parallel with the direction
of coast E.S.E. (mag.), at the mean distance of a mile off shore.
The aspect of the eastern and western portions of this gulf is
very different, and the comparison is much to the disadvantage
of the eastern. Ranges of bare, rugged, rocky mountains now
presented themselves, and where wood was seen, it was always
stunted and distorted. A long swell rolled in upon the shore,
and every thing seemed to indicate a stormy and inclement coast.
There are a few bays and coves, in which is anchorage depth,
with a pretty good bottom of dark coarse sand : but rock-weed
in large patches, seen in some of them, denoted foul ground ;
and they are all more or less exposed, and extremely unsafe.
As night advanced, the weather became rainy and thick ; so
having reached a bight which seemed less insecure than
others that we passed, I hauled in, and at about seven p .m .,
guided only by the gradual decrease of our soundings, from
I '.1