| Show IL FWD OF OUR hemisphere A lighted 1898 by frank G carpenter strait of magellan ude e 56 min aln 65 55 deg south oct 23 at the tail end of our hemisphere e lowest continental point of the L three thre thousand miles nearer south mouth pole than the foot of the se peninsula at the end of asia than a thousand miles below the of good hope at the bottom of a with a distance almost equal to kness of the earth between my uld d the northern parts of the unit tates states I 1 write for my american I 1 am on the steamer in strait alt of magellan just opposite ie black rocky walls of cape fross the southernmost point of south arica ca rise almost straight upward s height of 1200 feet and behind a glistening in the moonlight are glacial gl gk acial snows of mount victoria feet higher I 1 am at the bottom of great grea t andean chain those hills althe he end of the mighty ridge which the continents together loaded copper coopper silver and gold they crawl here on their sinuous way toward f borth h pole they span the equator drop rop their heads at the isthmus ot 0 una a and end only at the arctic a beyond the gold mines of alaska the klondike the hills to the hward rd are a part of tierra det dei ML above capt horn and that great e frozen pyramidal cone which inong among them is mount sarmiento lento h pierces the southern sky more 1000 feet above the altitude of at t washington behind and in of my ship here as black as ink r the shadows of the hills there sd to silver by the full moons rays raya the strait of magellan that salt river in which moved by the the great oceans the atlantic le e pacific rush together and clasp hands to bear up the commerce of rid d strait of magellan makes the e between the oceans shorter by 1000 miles cape horn is less couple of hundred miles south but its waters are always tossed t ly by terrible storms tonight the allans are almost as quiet as a mill and the is steaming as athly ily through them as the boat carries away the hero in the song of D engeln we aare are now midway between tween the atlantic e pacific we entered the strait vt is known as smyths channel e desolation island about thirty from cape pilar which marks its rn end we could see the two rive e rocks of the cape as we turned ke eastward they rise almost pre ansly ly for a distance of 1500 feet when the air is clear they are in tor many miles beginning here itt raight ight runs southeast to cape wd it then turns to the north widening here and there as it until it ends at the atlantic be t cape virgin and cape holy the channel is miles long and its width varies from two to awen ty four miles at times our vessel has haa been within a stones throw of the shore and again in the misty aar where the channel widened the waters seemed to almost bound the ho horizon this is so only in the che eastern parts of the channel on both sides of which the lands of Ps patagonia Magonia and tierra del fuego are low in the west there is little else than mountains which are now snow dusted and in many cases loaded with vast glaciers slowly sliding down them to the sea below the strait of magellan there is a vast archipelago of islands the smaller of which are mountain peaks rising above the waves and the largest the island of tierra dle die fuego the last is bigger than many of our americast Americ aft states and it has mountains and valleys vast forests and extensive plains which have lately been trans formed into some of the biggest sheep farms of the world north of the strait lies the end of southern patagonia on the east and on the west a continuation of the archipelago of tierra dil del fuego these islands as s well as the strait and almost all of tierra del fuego belong to chile she has an area of land herp here which she calls the territory of the magellan of square miles halt halS again as large as the state of new york and almost twice the area of ohio some of the chilean naval vessels are now here engaged in surveying the channels and harbors but the greater part of this region is almost as unknown as it was when hernando magellan a spanish navigator discovered the strait in 1620 1520 the land and the people have been misrepresented by passersby passers by from darwin down to within recent years and it is only lately that opportunities have been offered for careful investigation even now the savages I 1 see here are less known than the tribes of central africa and only the coasts of a few of the islands have been explored the sheep farmer the gold digger and the government vessels are however making headway and within a few years this great archipelago will be a terra incognito no longer the generally accepted belief reged regarding southern patagonia and tierra del fuego is that they are something like the coasts of greenland or those of the arctic seas the geographies represent them as wastes of ice and aad snow desolate forbidding forb and terrible to the traveler for the past four days I 1 have been winding in and out of the channels bong the west coast of lower patagonia onla my sail oval has been through a series of scenic panoramas oramas that cannot be surpassed in the world we entered the archipelago by what la is knowe as the smyths channel route about kinles above here and coasted slowly along through ons one chae chaapel after amther an until we came into the strait proper at desolation Deao dation island darwin compared the glaciers sanni ento in tierra flerra del fuego to frozen Nia garas the waters along the lower end of western present com bli natIons which make yu think thick of a hundred lake comos lake genevaa and dake Lu cernes tied together in one ever widening ever changing river here are the beauties beati fies of the thousand islands of the st 14 lawrence wrence added to by snow enow capped mountains kissed by the sun and mighty glaciers sliding down into masses of dark green vege vee tation bation here are giant rocks cathedral cathedra shaped shat ped covered with moss mass rising rifling straight upward from the water for 1000 feet mountains their heads look loal in the clouds dropping almost precipitously into the sea narrow gorges to la which the steamer must tack this way and aad that as itt it winds through island to of green and islands of rock here are fields of floating lee ice through which taj th boat crashes narrow fjords in which the black water is feet deep and d in short such a variety of scenic won ders of clouds mountain and sea chii thai I 1 doubt whether their like can be found in the world it if you could take the most picturesque parts of cut the andes the himalayas and the alps could sink them up to their necks in dark blue blua water and pull cloud masses down with them into info the sea and wrap their rug ged sides far up from the waters edge with a wonderful mantle of green which is now cow brilliant in the sunlight now frosted snow and now so loaded with lee ice that it lies to mn terraces terr acee up their sides you might have a falak idea of some of natures wonders in the magellano Magel lans but I 1 despair of giving a vivid picture of our lour ride through this archipelago it lasted three days and it VMS wa such ouch a series of wonders that only a of the gods worked aked by their own hands could plaint them on th he retina of your imagination all I 1 shan shall attempt is to take you with me mae through some few places by tran script of my notes made upon utie ground we start in the bay of coronet coronel our steamer the I eaurl of the line bound for hamburg via vl the strait lies in the harbor she IN a german ship of tons tong lighted and heated by steam captain behrmann her commander german lagerman la Is and so are all the passengers off officers leers and crew we speak germek at the and are in fact a small slice of germany in one of the quietest harbors of 01 the coast of chile I 1 go to my cabin it is no 12 and to is as good a room as that of an atlantic liner 11 ner the cookin is german the meats are fresh As A I 1 go down to bo dinner I 1 hear oe he squawk of a chicken our meats are carried alive on board so that later on om we shan shall listen to the baa lag ing of sheep the grunting of plo sad and the cackling of geese mixed with the crunching of the tha lee ice fields as ap the steamer makes its way through th thein em before I 1 pay the 70 which is my fare to punta arenas on the strait of magellan I 1 ask if t the will go 90 via smyths channel T r tt im is yes the zooms is the 03 4 ne that takes this route the oth t A going through the strait ant to V stand the which sw sweep e vp up kroog the west coat coast frova from cape ape horn to tho the narrow marrow dangelus dangerio Ug slow alow but quiet landlocked la nd locked waters ot of the patar conlan coast eo aaa we bull almal ht N very slowly and must anchor at night might but before we start let us take a look at our trip what to Is the cargo we have tons of saltpeter tor for germany 2009 barrels of chilean horney honey tor for different parts of europe hundreds of rolls of chilean sole leather for russia and wheat and wine for punta arenas and montevideo we are now taking on tons of coal brawny chilean peasants are putting it into L the ship they stand in lighters or flat boa boatti ta and use shovels to throw the coal up to bo the platforms under the doors of af he hold here other peasants shovel it to ia they swear as they work and we hear them still swearing and heaving as we go to bed we awake far out in the pacific the steamer teamer Si is rolling the white caps are dancing over the waves and away off to the eastward we can make out the faint kalnit blue outline of south chile A day later in storm and rain we steam past the long narrow island of chaloe which the government As is trying to colonize and on the evening of the third day we enter the wide gulf of and come to anchor at the entrance channel the water is like it a millpond milr pond the steamer moves slowly we seem to be in a great over river rather than in the ocean we are re sailing galling among the clouds through the water ravines of some of the greatest grea of the worlds mountains on our right are grasa clad alad islands on our left are rugged ragged peaks rising ID in all shapes out of the sea there is one clot clothed in green which reminds you of the pyramid of Ghi and there is another which is a fair liken likeness ess of the smashed nose sphinx in front the green hills are climbing over one another like a troop of giants playing leap frog and farther on they rise upward in fort fart like ilke walls of green a thousand feet high losing themselves in that misty white cloud which rests above them the channel narrows and widens now we are in lakes surrounded by snow capped mountains now in canons now we sail by a break in the mountain walls a deep fiord with moss green walls snow dusted a thousand feet high and filled with black water a thousand feet deep As we look the sun un breaks its it way into the gorge and turns the water to sll all ver it paints diamonds in the snow of its moss green sides over there is a glacier a great green mass shining out upon the ragged sides of a snowy mountain see the sun has struck it and it is now a bed of emeralds in a setting getting of frosted silver the weather and the sky changes every avery moment and before us Is an ever varying panorama of sky and sea and land we sail out of the sunlight into snow storms ared and steam right out of the snow into the win sun now the sky Is in almost blue overhead with fleecy white clouds scattered here and there through it cloud masses here nestle in the velvety laps of the hills there they wrap themselves about the snowy peaks as though to warm them and there they down and press warm tantalizing kisses upon their ley icy lips upon the snow dusted hills and dark water waiter are flashes of silver allver where the sun has poked its way through the clouds the varying light makes the channel on one side of the ship black on the other side it is ofa of a beautiful yellowish green and behind where the sun strikes it the ship has left a path of molten silver the hills change even as a the water under the sun son now they are dark the sun washes wash them with its rays and the ferns terna and moss and trees brighten the tagged fogged volcanic background of the rooks rocks show out and through the green ind black falling hundreds and sometimes thousands ouanda th of feet almost straight down are silvery cascades cascade some as aa big as your erlat others no larger around than your little finger these are to be seen all along the inland channels they come from the glaciers and the the mountain snows one of the strangest atmospheric effects f I 1 have ever seen happened on our third day in the channel the mountain walled river had widened anti ana we were again coming to narrows when over our pathway in front of us a gre great art rainbow sprang from the snowy summit of a low mountain in the south to that of another mountain almost opposite on ithe north of the channel making a great rainbow span apan over the dark water it was a splendid many colored arch of the gods founded on pedestals of frosted silver As we approached the rainbow faded the sky was blue overhead but a great wall of fleo fleecy cy white clouds had dropped down upon or raither risen up from the water when I 1 first saw it it was a field of icebergs it was as white as snow and it extended upward to what seeded a height of several hundred feet stretching stretch ng across the channel from mountain to mountain above this wall the sky was clear and the only other clouds to be seen were those hovering over the mountain peaks we sailed out of the light right into this cloud wall out of the dry air into ft a ml at so thick that we could almost wash our hands in it A half hour later we were again under a lear delar sky at times the masts olf off the steamer were in the clouds and the deck clear and dry again the clouds would for form M a roof over the channel and again the lower walls of the hills would be hidden and we could look over the clouds ait the green and snow above it seems g to thank of green moss green trees and a mass of danse green vegetation in midwinter teT amid the snows and glaciers glacie as that is what we have here the glaciers slide down into the green and me snow falls and melts upon it all winter long in many places the green te a clear in others it is snow dusted and in others loaded with snow masses on the highest peaks only it Is all snow and lee ice even in the jungles of india I 1 have not seen so dense a growth of of trees and plants as along the west coast of patagonia we had a chance to go on shore every af afternoon ter when we anchored for the night pushing our way into the country was however impossible the trees are evergreens ever greens generally small but so 00 dense that you could walk on their tops on snow shoes shoes A bed of moss as deep as your waist covers the ground about them and great ferns with leaves aa long as your arm extend out in every bare and rocky spot the ground 10 1 saturated with moisture the mold and rotting wood of centuries covers it and you sink in and stumble about more than you would in an irish bog it is only on the higher parts of the mountains that vegetation ceases and only there that the climate is such as to produce glaciers and perpetual snow the icebergs which we saw in the channel came from these glaciers they are among the great glaciers of the world many of them surpassing it la in said the largest glaciers of the alps in tierra del fuego they line the channels in places with walls of ice a thousand feet high and ships must sail carefully not to be struck by the icebergs which in chunks of a thousand tons and upward break off of them with a noise like thunder and fall into the sea icebergs often fill 1111 smyths channel so that it is Imp impossible sIble to get through this was the case last year when one of the steamers |
