Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/319

] At eight o'clock the next morning the snow-clad summits of the hills, whose southern termination forms Cape Deceit, were seen bearing W.S.W. by compass, and at noon Cape Horn was observed, S. 62° W., distant between six and seven leagues.

The poetical descriptions that former navigators have given of this celebrated and dreaded promontory, occasioned us to feel a degree of disappointment when we first saw it; for, although it stands prominently forward, a bold, almost perpendicular headland, in whose outline it requires but little imaginative power to detect the resemblance of a "sleeping lion, facing and braving the southern tempests," yet it is part only of a small island, and its elevation, not exceeding five or six hundred feet, conveys to the mind nothing of grandeur. But the day was beautifully fine, so that it is probable we saw this cape of terror and tempests under some disadvantage. We passed it at 3, at the distance of about a mile and a half, which was as near as we could approach it with prudence, by reason of the dangerous rocks which lie off to the east and west, and whose black points were rendered conspicuous by the white foam of the breakers, amongst which numerous seals were sporting. There was some snow on the summit of the cape, and its sides were clothed with a brownish coloured vegetation; beyond it, the shores of the island consisted of black vertical cliffs, with a curiously cleft rock at its north-western extreme.