We had
heard from Sir Woodbine Parish, and others at Buenos Ayres, of the
terrible blinding dust-storms which occur _there_, causing utter
darkness for a space of ten or fifteen minutes; but Buenos Ayres is on
the edge of a river, with hundreds and thousands of leagues of sandy
plains behind it, the soil of which is only kept together by the roots
of the wiry pampas grass. For this dust to reach the Messier Channel,
where we now are, it would have to surmount two chains of snowy
mountains, six or seven thousand feet in height, and in many places
hundreds of miles in width, and traverse a vast extent of country
besides.
The weather was still so fine, and the barometer so high--30.52
inches--that Tom determined to go to sea to-day, instead of stopping
at Hale Cove for the night, as we had originally intended. Directly we
got through the English Narrows, therefore, all hands were busily
engaged in once more sending up the square-yards, top-masts, &c., and
in making ready for sea. Just before sunset, as we were quitting the
narrow channels, the sun pierced through the clouds and lightened up
the lonely landscape as well as the broad waters of the Pacific Ocean.
Its surface was scarcely rippled by the gentle breeze that wafted us
on our course; the light of the setting sun rested, in soft and varied
tints, on the fast-fading mountains and peaks; and thus, under the
most favourable and encouraging circumstances, we have fairly entered
upon a new and important section of our long voyage.
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