Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/197

Rh, as well as of the island itself of Cape Horn. The eastern part of King Charles's South Land is low, with plains like the Patagonian coast; but the range of high land crossing the Strait at Port Famine extends down the north side of Admiralty Sound, and, perhaps with some few interruptions, continues to the south-east extremity of the land, at Cape Good Success, which is the south cape of the west side of Strait Le Maire, and there terminates in lofty mountains covered with snow, one of which, called in the charts 'The Sugar-loaf,' is probably four thousand feet high.

The eastern shore of King Charles's South Land, towards the south part, is lofty, but near the northern part is very low. The interior is also low. with extensive plains, abounding with guanacoes, some of which were shot by the officers of the Beagle within fifty miles of Cape Horn.

In.the year 1828, from the commencement of January to the middle of August, the Adventure (the ship I commanded) was at anchor at Port Famine, in the strait Of Magalhaens, in latitude 53° 38¼′ south, and longitude 70° 54′ west of Greenwich; and during the whole of that time a careful meteorological journal was kept. The temperature was registered from a very good thermometer of Fahrenheit's scale, suspended within a copper cylindrical case of nine inches diameter, and perforated above and below with holes, to admit a free current of air. The cylinder was fixed to the roof of a shed, thatched with dried leaves to shelter it from the sun, while the sides were open. The barometer (a mountain barometer made by Newman, with an iron cylinder) was hung up in the observatory, five feet above the high-water mark, and both instruments were examined carefully and regularly at the following hours, viz.: six and nine o'clock in the morning, at noon, and at three and six o'clock in the evening. The state of the atmosphere was observed daily, by Daniel's hygrometer, at three o'clock in the afternoon. The maximum and minimum temperatures were also observed twice in twenty-four hours, from a Six's thermometer, viz.: at nine o'clock in the morning, and at nine in the evening. From this journal the following abstract has been drawn up:—