Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/222

194 same month, it was ascertained that a reef of rocks, named the Eight Stones, did not exist in the situation which for a number of years they have occupied in our charts. From Cape Finisterre to Point Nags the error in the direction S. 33° W. was not less than ninety miles. The position of the island of Fernands Noronha was found, on the 26th of June, to be eighteen miles eastward of the position given in the East India Directory.

On the 11th of July they arrived at Rio Janeiro, where they remained until the 13th of August, on which day they sailed for the Pacific. During their stay they measured the height of the Peak of Corcovado, a mass of granite overlooking the placid waters of Bota-Fogo; and after checking these by observations repeated three years afterwards, the height, by trigonometrical measurement, was. found to be 2306 feet in the first instance, and 2305½ in the second. In making Cape Horn, on September 16, a current drifted the ship fifty miles to the northward in the twenty-four hours. On the 26th of September they were fifty leagues west of Cape Pillar. With regard to this navigation, Captain Beechey says, in his nautical remarks appended to the narrative, 'I concur in opinion with Cook, Perouse, Krusenstern, and others, in thinking there is no necessity whatever for going far to the southward: and I should recommend always standing on that tack which gained most longitude, without paying any regard to latitude further than taking care to keep south (say a degree) of Cape Horn.'

On the 6th of October they made the island of Mocha, on the coast of Chili. This island, once celebrated as a resort of the buccaneers, and thickly peopled, was found deserted by Captain Strong in 1690, and appears to have remained uninhabited ever since. On the 8th of the same month they anchored at Talcahuana.

In the survey of the Bay of Conception, a shoal was discovered by Lieutenant Belcher on the Penco side. It was also necessary to make some alterations in the position of the Belen Bank, from the manner in which it is laid down in the Spanish charts; and the shoal said to occur off the sandy point of Quiriquina does not at present exist.

The Blossom put to sea on the 24th, anchored three days afterwards at Valparaiso, and on the 29th took a final leave of the coast.

The island of Salas y Gomez, which was determined to be in latitude 86° 27′ 46″ S., and longitude 105° 20′, has the appearance of three rocks. Its longest direction is N.W. and S.E., and its extent something less than half a mile in length, and a fifth of a