The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage. — John Shaqi
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage.Cook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage.
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
The people now beginning to complain of cold, each of them received what
is called a Magellanic jacket, and a pair of trowsers. The jacket is
made of a thick woollen stuff, called _Fearnought_, which is provided by
the government. We saw, from time to time, a great number of penguins,
albatrosses, and sheerwaters, seals, whales, and porpoises; and on the
11th, having passed Falkland’s islands, we discovered the coast of Terra
del Fuego, at the distance of about four leagues, extending from the W.
to S. E. by S. We had here five-and-thirty fathom, the ground soft,
small slate stones. As we ranged along the shore to the S. E., at the
distance of two or three leagues, we perceived smoke in several places,
which was made by the natives, probably as a signal, for they did not
continue it after we had passed by. This day we discovered that the ship
had got near a degree of longitude to the westward of the log, which, in
this latitude, is 35 minutes of a degree on the equator: probably there
is a small current setting to the westward, which may be caused by the
westerly current coming round Cape Horn, and through the Streight of Le
Maire, and the indraught of the Streight of Magellan.[1]
Having continued to range the coast, on the 14th we entered the Streight
of Le Maire; but the tide turning against us, drove us out with great
violence, and raised such a sea off Cape St. Deigo, that the waves had
exactly the same appearance as they would have had if they had broke
over a ledge of rocks; and when the ship was in this torrent, she
frequently pitched, so that the bowsprit was under water. About noon, we
got under the land between Cape St. Deigo and Cape St. Vincent, where I
intended to have anchored; but finding the ground every where hard and
rocky, and shallowing from thirty to twelve fathoms, I sent the master
to examine a little cove which lay at a small distance to the eastward
of Cape St. Vincent. When he returned, he reported that there was
anchorage in four fathom, and a good bottom, close to the eastward, of
the first bluff point, on the east of Cape St. Vincent, at the very
entrance of the cove, to which I gave the name of VINCENT’s Bay: before
this anchoring ground, however, lay several rocky ledges, that were
covered with sea-weed; but I was told that there was not less than eight
and nine fathom over all of them. It will probably be thought strange,
that where weeds, which grow at the bottom, appear above the surface,
there should be this depth of water; but the weeds which grow upon rocky
ground in these countries, and which always distinguish it from sand and
ooze, are of an enormous size. The leaves are four feet long, and some
of the stalks, though not thicker than a man’s thumb, above one hundred
and twenty. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander examined some of them, over which
we sounded and had fourteen fathom, which is eighty-four feet; and, as
they made a very acute angle with the bottom, they were thought to be at
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