The innumerable floating icebergs, some small
and some great; and this would have occurred on our twenty-
second of June, and where the Lake of Geneva is now spread
out! [21]
[1] The south-westerly breezes are generally very dry.
January 29th, being at anchor under Cape Gregory: a very
hard gale from W. by S., clear sky with few cumuli;
temperature 57 degs., dew-point 36 degs., - difference
21 degs. On January 15th, at Port St. Julian: in the
morning, light winds with much rain, followed by a very
heavy squall with rain, - settled into heavy gale with
large cumuli, - cleared up, blowing very strong from S.S.W.
Temperature 60 degs., dew-point 42 degs., - difference
18 degs.
[2] Rengger, Natur. der Saeugethiere von Paraguay. S. 334.
[3] Captain Fitz Roy informs me that in April (our October),
the leaves of those trees which grow near the base of the
mountains change colour, but not those on the more elevated
parts. I remember having read some observations, showing
that in England the leaves fall earlier in a warm and fine
autumn than in a late and cold one, The change in the colour
being here retarded in the more elevated, and therefore colder
situations, must he owing to the same general law of vegetation.
The trees of Tierra del Fuego during no part of the year
entirely shed their leaves.
