e 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 thirty-five minutes of a degree on the equator: Probably
there is a small current setting 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.

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 Diego, 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 Diego 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
least one-half longer: The foot-stalks were swelled into an air vessel,
and Mr Banks and Dr Solander called this plant _Fucus giganteus_. Upon
the report of the master, I stood in with the ship; but not trusting
implicitly to his intelligence, I continued to sound, and found but four
fathom upon the