A good description of a difficult sail around South America is in the journals of Afred R. DOTEN. He sailed out of Plymouth, Mass. on the barque _Yeoman_, manned by members of the Pilgrim Mining Co., March 18, 1849, and didn't arrived in San Francisco till Oct. 2 -- 198 days, which was an extraordinarily long passage. Makes for fascinating reading. It should be available at most libraries. BTW, if anyone wants lookups in these journals, I'll be happy to do it -- my mom's family spent several generations in Virginia City and Gold Hill, which is why my grandfather bought the books in the first place. He was in the Motherlode above Stockton till 1855, when he got caught in a cave-in at Fort John. He then moved to San Francisco, where he saw some of the vigilante activity, then on to Mountain View and Milpitas till 1865, when he went to Virginia City. His journals are quite candid (he used to tally how many times he had sex with his wife) and very interesting. If anyone's interested, I'll transcribe some of what he wrote relating to the Gold Rush. Joann Betschart mailto:[email protected] Details: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/4646