on the coast, but happily
none of them lie far from land, the approach to which may be known by
sounding, supposing the weather so obscure that you cannot see it. For
to judge of the whole by the parts we have sounded, it is more than
probable that there are soundings all along the coast, and for several
leagues out to sea. Upon the whole, this is by no means the dangerous
coast it has been represented.

Staten Land lies near E. by N. and W. by S., and is ten leagues long in
that direction, and no where above three or four leagues broad. The
coast is rocky, much indented, and seemed to form several bays or
inlets. It shews a surface of craggy hills which spire up to a vast
height, especially near the west end. Except the craggy summits of the
hills, the greatest part was covered with trees and shrubs, or some sort
of herbage, and there was little or no snow on it. The currents between
Cape Deseada and Cape Horn set from west to east, that is, in the same
direction as the coast; but they are by no means considerable. To the
east of the cape their strength is much increased, and their direction
is N.E. towards Staten Land. They are rapid in Strait Le Maire and along
the south coast of Staten Land, and set like a torrent round Cape St
John; where they take a N.W. direction, and continue to run very strong
both within and without New Year's Isles. While we lay at anchor within
this island, I observed that the current was strongest during the flood;
and that on the ebb its strength was so much impaired, that the ship
would sometimes ride head to the wind when it was at W. and W.N.W. This
is only to be understood of the place where the ship lay at anchor, for
at the very time we had a strong current setting to the westward, Mr
Gilbert found one of equal strength near the coast of Staten Land
setting to the eastward, though probably this was an eddy current or
tide.

If the tides are regulated by the moon, it is high-water by the shore at
this place on the days of the new and full moon, about four o'clock. The
perpendicular rise and fall is very inconsiderable, not exceeding four
feet at most. In Christmas Sound it is high-water at half past two
o'clock on the days of the full and change, and Mr Wales observed it to
rise and fall on a perpendicular three feet six inches; but this was
during the neap tides, consequently the spring tides must rise higher.
To give such an account of the tides and currents on these coasts as
nav