It was the captain’s intention to try the straits once more this afternoon; but, alas! the implacable westerly winds began to lash out again; and it is now, 3.30 +P.M.+, blowing as hard as ever, the sky is covered with heavy snow-clouds, and everything is gloomy and dreary once more. We now have to light the lamps below to read by soon after two o’clock; this is the third day of westerly gales, and goodness knows how long they may have been blowing before we got down here; these are the winds which keep ships off Cape Horn for a month at a time. One of the most arduous and protracted passages of the Horn was that of Lord Anson on his famous voyage in 1740-41, when he was three months in doubling the stormy Cape; while in modern times the cases of the British ships “Natuna” and “The Hahnemann” offer examples of what the weather can do down here. They each made passages within the last year of about two hundred and thirty days from Great Britain to San Francisco. The “Natuna” had a particularly hard passage; she made four distinct attempts to round the Horn, but was driven back so far each time that Captain Fretwurst decided to square away for the Good Hope passage, which he did, running down the eighty-five degrees of longitude which separate the capes in nineteen days. The cargo was a miserable one, cement and creosote, and while off the Horn some of the casks containing the latter were stove, and the drinking-water became tainted with the disagreeable stuff. To the eastward of Good Hope the parrels of several of the yards carried away in a gale of wind, and the captain had to lash them with chains and wire, while he ran away over into 130° west before hauling up to the northward. The other vessel, “The Hahnemann,” had just as hard a passage, though she stuck to Cape Horn, and her captain died during the voyage. About eighty-five guineas premium had been paid on both vessels. A curious phase of the weather to the northward and eastward of the Horn is that a westerly gale generally doesn’t blow steadily for more than twelve hours, when it will clear up for a while and then begin again; while fine, clear nights often succeed the most villanous weather during the daytime. This morning we sent down the three sky-sail-yards and secured them on top of the forward house; this is the practice of some ship masters, while others never do so; but to strike them must certainly greatly relieve the strain on the backstays, for each sky-sail-yard, including sail and gear, weighs about seven hundred pounds, and the leverage of a ton one hundred and sixty feet from the fulcrum must be very considerable. Latitude, 54° 20′ south; longitude, 64° 20′ west. +July 13+