Even in that land of beasts and birds of prey something would be left in evidence. The daylight hours were now so few that little could be accomplished, and the cold was becoming severe. A violent snowstorm on the fifteenth of May decided French to give up the search and go home.

Accordingly, they steamed out of the Straits of Magellan and turned the vessel northward, keeping as near the Patagonian shore as was prudent, in the hope of sighting canoes. They had been steaming in this direction for about three hours, going slowly and keeping a sharp outlook toward the land, when the captain called French's attention to an opening in the coast line, where the Gallegos River empties into the sea. An impulse-perhaps it might more truly be called an inspiration-induced French to order the yacht brought to anchor in the bay.