their element. We were threatened with a tempest on the 14th: the windows were hermetically closed, but this time our fears subsided.
Once we saw a whale, sixty to seventy feet long, sporting on the surface of the water - a truly curious piece of mechanism. On the 16th we came in sight of the Malouine or Falkland Islands, which lie to the east of Patagonia: this is a group of islands, two of which are very large, Several attempts have been made by the Spanish, the French, the English and the Americans to form establishments here, but the severity of the climate has compelled them to abandon the project: latterly the Government of Buenos Aires has taken formal possession of them. On the 17th the wind was very impetuous, and a whale showed himself within thirty feet of the ship. On the 18th we saw the land of Staten Island. On the 19th we were astonished that the Shetland Islands appeared so near at hand. We did not see Cape Horn at all: it is the southernmost point of a group of islands called the Hermits. In the night of the 20th two icebergs, seeming about loo feet high, floated within a short distance of the ship. The next morning we saw the frightful rocks, wholly volcanic, discovered only a few years ago and which have been named " Greenock." - On the 23d we found ourselves very near the volcanic islands of Diego Ramirez and Ildefonso. They are composed of a frightful group of bare rocks, frequented only by ocean birds and sea-lions: and yet I contemplated with pleasure those formless isolated masses, being tired of seeing nothing day after day save the water and the firmament.
The albatross, the bird of those regions, wheeled constantly about our ship, indifferent to winds and waves. They stand four feet tall and measure some ten feet from tip to tip of their wings. It is the largest member of the winged race, and may easily be taken with a hook. The damier, or cape-pigeon, and the fou are two other birds of the cape that never left us in stormy times. The last