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1834. CLIMATE— BANKS— TIDES. 339
summer the heat is scorching, but not sultry; and in winter,
though the weather is sometimes searchingly cold, especially
during southerly winds, the air is always elastic and wholesome.
Changes of wind are sudden, and cause rapid, though
not very great, variations of temperature. Sometimes the sky
is slightly or partially overcast, occasionally clouded heavily;
but on most days there is bright sunshine, and a fresh or strong
westerly wind.
The confluence of a continental torrent of fresh water, with
great tides of the ocean, which here rise forty feet perpendicularly,
has embarrassed the mouth of the Santa Cruz with a
number of banks. They are all composed of shingle and mud,
and alter their forms and positions when affected by river-
floods, or by the heavy seas caused by south-east gales.
Into the entrance of the Santa Cruz, the flood-tide sets
ahout four knots an hour; one may say, from two to five
knots, according to the time of tide, and the narrower or
broader part of the opening ; and outwards, the water rushes
at least six knots on an average in mid-channel. There are
places in which at times, when acted upon by wind or unusual
floods, it runs with a velocity of not less than seven or eight
knots an hour—perhaps even more; but near either shore, and
in bights between projecting points, of course the strength of
the outward as well as inward current is very inferior.
In such a bight, almost under some high cliffs on the southern
shore, the Beagle was moored, and it is easy to conceive
the different views presented in this situation, with forty feet
change in the level of the water. At high water, a noble river,
unimpeded, moves quietly, or is scarcely in motion : at other
times, a rushing torrent struggles amongst numerous banks,
whose dark colour and dismal appearance add to the effect
of the turbid yellow water, and naked-looking, black, muddy
shores.
The boats sailed on between some of the banks, with a fresh
southerly wind, disturbing every where immense flights of
sea-birds. Now and then a monstrous sea-lion lifted his unwieldy
bulk a few inches from the stony bank, lazily looked
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