94 PATAGONIAN CHANNELS

reached on December 24th. Christmas Eve was spent by three
of our party, Mr. Ritchie, Mr. Corry, and Mr. Gillam, on a small
rock " taking stars " till 2 a.m. The rock, which had been
selected at low tide, grew by degrees unexpectedly small, and
to keep carefully balanced on a diminishing platform out of
reach of the rising water, while at the same time being con-
tinuously bitten by insects, was, they ruefully felt, to make
scientific observations under difficulties. On Christmas Day
it poured without intermission, but it was a peaceful if not an
exciting day. It is, I believe, the correct thing to give the
menu on these occasions: the following was ours.

SCHOONER YACHT MAN A, R.C.C.
CHRISTMAS DAY, 1913.

Potages aux legumes & I'Anglais.

Mulets d'eaux Patagonia.
Boeuf rdti d'Argentine, Pommes de terre de Punta Arenas.

Petits Pois a 1'Angleterre.

Pouding Noel de Army & Navy Stores, garni " Holly Antarctic.1'

Fromage Gouda, Beurre, Pain de Mana, Biscuits Matelote,

Bonbons Peppermint & la School-girl.

Caf6 de Rio de Janeiro.

The forecastle was visited after dinner and each man given a
half-pound tin of tobacco. Boxing Day was comparatively
fine, and a laundry was organised on shore with great success; a
fire was made, old kerosene tins turned into boilers, and tie
articles washed in camp-baths with water from a streamlet. It
is one thing, however, to wet clothes in the Patagonian Channels;
it is quite another to dry them. For days afterwards the rain
descended in torrents, while the wind blew persistently from the
north-west; with one short intermission we lay in Hale Cove
weather-bound for thirteen days, till, as some one remarked, " it.
was a pity that we had not given it as a postal address." It
was tiresome of course, but an interval of rest for all on board
after the strenuous passage of the channels was not without
advantage; for ourselves j ournals were written up, flowers pressed,
and photographs developed.

Hale Cove was fortunately one of those few ports in which
it was possible to get a. little exercise, which the defisenesS of
the undergrowth generally rendered impossible. The cliffs, at
the foot''of which Mana lay, were precipitous and clothed with