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Long Reach is both long and nai-row, and ill supplied with
anchorages for a ship; such as they are. Swallow Harbour,
Playa Parda, Marian Cove, and Half Port Bay, seem to be
the best. In thick weather, although the channel is very
narrow, yet one side is scarcely visible from the other, and
the only advantage it has over other parts of the strait is the
smoothness of the water. In Sea Reach there is a heavy
rolling swell, with a short and deep sea, which renders it very
difficult to beat to windward.
Tamar Harbour, Valentine Harbour, Tuesday Cove, and
the Harbour of Mercy, are the best anchorages ; and the latter
is particularly convenient to occupy, while awaiting an opportunity
of sailing out of the strait.
In the entrance, the sea runs very heavy and irregularly
during and after a gale; so that a ship should not leave her
anchorage in the Harbour of Mercy, without a fair or a
leading wind to get her quickly through it.
For small vessels, particularly if they he fore-and-aft rigged,
many, if not all of the local difficulties vanish; and inlets
which a ship dare not or cannot approach, may be entered with
safety, and anchorage easily obtained by them. A large
ship will perhaps be better off in entering and leaving the
Strait where there is open space and frequently a heavy sea;
but for the navigation of the Strait, a small vessel has considerably
the advantage. She has also the opportunity of
passing through the Cockburn Channel should the wind be
north-westerly, which will very much reduce the length of
the passage into the Pacific.
One very great advantage to be derived from the passage
through the Strait is, the opportunity of obtaining as much
wood and water as can be required, without the least difficulty ;
and another benefit is, that by hauling the seine during
the summer months, from January to May, at the mouth of
the river or along the beaches in Port Famine, at the first
quarter flood, a plentiful supply of fish may be obtained.
Excellent fish are also caught at the anchorage with the hook
and line, at all seasons, early in the morning or late in the
evening. Fish may also be obtained with the seine at any
other place where there are rivers. Freshwater Bay and Port
Gallant are equally productive. On the puter coast of
Tierra del Fuego an excellent fish may be caught in tlie
kelp.
The advantage which a ship will derive from passing
through the Strait, from the Pacific to the Atlantic is very
great; and it ought to be great to induce the seaman to entangle
his ship with the land when fair winds and an open
sea are before him. After passing through the Strait, the
prevailing winds being westerly, and more frequently from
the northward than from the southward of west, they are fair
for his running up the coast; or if not, the ship is not liable
to receive much injury from the sea, which is comparatively
smooth; whereas, to a ship passing round the Horn, if the
wind be north-west she must go to the eastward of the Falkland
Islands, and be exposed to strong gales and a lieavy
beam sea, and hug the wind to make her northing. To a
small vessel the advantage is incalculable ; for, besides filling
her hold with wood and water, she is enabled to escape the
severe weather that so constantly reigns in the higher latitudes
of the South Atlantic Ocean.
Coming from the northward, it will be advisable to keep an
offing until the western entrance of the Strait is well under the
lee, to avoid being thrown upon the coast to the northwai'd of
Cape Victory, which is rugged and inhospitable, and, forming
as it were a breakwater to the deep rolling swell of the ocean,
is for some miles off' fringed by a cross hollow sea almost
amounting to breakers.
The land of Cape Victory is high and rugged, and much
broken ; and if the weather be not very thick, will be seen
long before the Evangelists, which are not visible above the
horizon, from a ship’s deck, for more than four or five leagues.*
Pass to the southward of them, and steer for Cape Pillar,
• From the Adventure's deck, the eye being thirteen feet above tlie
water, they were seen on the horizon at the distance of fourteen miles.
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