lls on Staten Land, and some
creeks, resembling the Three Brothers and coves of Terra del Fuego, so
that they overshot the straits.

Though Terra del Fuego presented an aspect exceedingly barren and
desolate, yet this island of Staten Land far surpasses it in the
wildness and horror of its appearance, seeming to be entirely composed
of inaccessible rocks, without the smallest apparent admixture of
earth or mould, upon or between them. These rocks terminate in a vast
number of rugged points, which spire up to a prodigious height,
and are all covered with everlasting snow; their pointed summits or
pinnacles being every way surrounded by frightful precipices, and
often overhanging in a most astonishing manner. The hills which are
crowned by the rugged rocks, are generally separated from each other
by narrow clifts, appearing as if the country had been frequently rent
by earthquakes; for these chasms are nearly perpendicular, and extend
through the substance of the main rocks almost to their bases; so that
nothing can be imagined more savage and gloomy than the whole aspect
of this coast.

Having opened the Straits of Le Maire on the morning of the 7th March,
as before mentioned, the Pearl and Tryal, about ten o'clock,
were ordered to keep a-head of the squadron and lead the way. We
accordingly entered the straits with fair weather and a brisk gale,
and were hurried through by the rapidity of the tide in about two
hours, though they are between seven and eight leagues in length. As
these straits are often esteemed the boundary between the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans, and as we presumed that we had nothing now before us
but an open sea, till we should arrive on the opulent coasts where all
our hopes and wishes centered, we could not help flattering ourselves
that the greatest difficulty of our voyage was now at an end, and
that our most sanguine dreams were on the point of being realized. We
indulged ourselves, therefore, in the romantic imaginations which
the fancied possession of the gold of Chili and silver of Peru might
readily be conceived to inspire. These joyous ideas were considerably
heightened, by the brightness of the sky and serenity of the weather,
which indeed were both most remarkably delightful: For, though the
antarctic winter was now advancing with hasty strides, the morning of
this day, in mildness and even brilliancy, gave place to none that
we had seen since our departure from England. Thus, animated b