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returned to the vessel with some hundred new specimens! One would suppose that it would be needless to search for plants in a climate so rigorous in its effects. It is true that the Discovery was just from Rio Janeiro; and the trifling reduction of temperature, certainly not severer than a winter in England, might have produced a different effect on them than if they had been a little longer inured to it.

In consequence of the equability of temperature in the climate of Cape Horn, produced by the immense expanse of ocean, the summer there is much cooler than that of the northern parallel; for there is no terrestrial radiation, nothing, as it were, to catch the sun's rays, which must necessarily fall powerless almost on a wide extensive sea. But the winter compensates for this deficiency, and a remarkable degree of mildness prevails; for as the sea preserves nearly a uniform mild temperature throughout the year, about 44°, the air over it can never remain much below it for any great length of time.

48°.

Hail is frequent at a temperature from 42° to The average degree of dryness shown by Daniell's hygrometer was two or three, the max

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imum being seven or eight, notwithstanding which evaporation was remarkably quick, arising probably from a low barometric pressure, and a brisk wind. We had no fog at Cape Horn, and the nights when clear are remarkably so, the stars shining with peculiar brilliancy, appearing as large as planets: this arising, no doubt, from the humidity of the atmosphere increasing its transparency. The cloudy nights prevent any radiation; and as the sun seems to act a subordinate part in this climate, there is a perfect equality of temperature throughout the twenty-four hours.

Of the barometer, I shall only observe here, that with the severe south-west gales we experienced, it always fell and sometimes very considerably; but we have also had the finest weather with the lowest state of the barometer. A north-west wind in a gentle breeze has been attended with very fine weather, and the barometer below 29°. The height of the mercury is perpetually fluctuating, showing a constant change in the aërial column. The boisterous character which belongs to the climate of Cape Horn, and the great prevalence of westerly

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winds, render the passage into the Pacific Ocean most tedious and unpleasant; but I can find no reason whatever to sanction the prevailing opinion that the southern regions are 10° latitude lower in temperature than the northern hemisphere. Vessels that go round Cape Horn in winter, in the vicinity of the Cape rarely find the thermometer below the freezing point; and we have ascended hills in Hermite Island two thousand feet high, in the winter, and yet have found no snow on them. The hills of Cape Horn are not covered with snow even in the winter, whereas those of Staten Island are.

Such then is the disparity in point of temperature between the northern and southern hemispheres, and the opinion that the latter is colder than the former by 10° of latitude is certainly most erroneous. It is allowed that a vast volume of water will acquire an accession of temperature slower than an equal extent of land, and also that an immeasurable depth of ocean must cool slower than land; for this reaislands are cooler in summer, and warmer in winter, than continents. The abyss of water

son,

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in the southern ocean gives mildness and equality of temperature to the southern parts of America, while the vast tracts of high land in the arctic regions, eternally covered with snow and ice, constitute a perpetual source of cold for the north.

JOINED BY THE ADVENTURE.

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CHAPTER X.

Joined by his Majesty's ship Adventure.-A Tribute to the memory of Cook.-Symptoms of Scurvy.-Donkin's meat.-Depart from Cape Horn.-Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope.-Oceanic companions.-Make the land.

It was on the 17th of April, Good Friday, that his Majesty's ship Adventure, under the command of Captain King, arrived in the bay of St. Francis, and broke in upon our solitude; for our friends the Fuegian Indians had left us on the third. The arrival of Captain King and his officers was hailed with delight by us in our exiled condition, and we enjoyed the pleasure of seeing the faces of our countrymen again, for we had long been aliens to society. The Adventure was employed on a survey of these islands; and Captain King, it appeared, had taken advantage of his proximity to our situation to see Captain Foster, according to an appointment made with him at Monte Video.

Certainly the meeting of long separated