Show beating around ca cape V norn horn in in a 25 foot boat explorer tells of exciting experiences at sea washington seals playing on the rocks threw back their heads and gargled ar sea water with it noise like calves bawling as we beat around stormy cape horn for 10 ia days after leav ing magallanes on the straits of tierra del fuego we saw not a single human being except a few wild ala calaf indians on burnt island they looked so fierce running 7 along their cold lonely beach and shouting at us that we sailed on past them so says amos burg in a report to the national geographic society under whose auspices he is exploring the southernmost tip of the western hemisphere which is nearest the south pole of all continental lands magallanes itself itsel is a long way from portland ore where my trip began but from al magallanes ag a llanes to cape horn seems even farther because of the strange sense sensa of gloom that han hangs gs over these chilly solitudes and the sudden fury of the flip persistent gales the sea was smooth as glass the day we left magallanes yet in one short hour so terrific a sale aale had blown up that the waters became a smoking maelstrom and hall hail rattled against our bounding boat like machine gun fire many stormy days such storms are known to ra rage rae e for three weeks one year had bad SOO stormy st days on island we found a man named ken williams an otter hunter and took him bim aboard that made three in idour our 25 23 foot power boat bound for the islands of the horn crossing the open sea from nassau kassau bay to cape hall on grevy island the full fury of the gales ales hit us I 1 feared being blown out to sea for our propeller was fouled with kelp so much salt water blew through the air that bareheaded ken williams hair looked as if it had been lathered even when the storms were at their worst and it seemed we must surely swamp ken williams would buddi suddenly anly stand up and point to some rocky nook book and shout above the winds roar 1 I shot an otter over there once his father was a pioneer missionary among the caghan indians and williams himself besides being a hunter owns sheep that range some of these islands he Is therefore the most southerly sheepherder sheep herder in the western hemisphere away down hero here at the bottom of the western world even separated from the tip of south america itself by weeks of stormy seas and dependent wholly ona tiny lifeboat that I 1 bought at a sale from the united states coast guard and shipped here I 1 cant help thinking especially when it storms about how far it is back to portland ore in a calm spell we got ashore at bally island and from a peak we saw the bi big cloven cliff on horn island itself and also the wollaston and hermite groups that mark the very la last st land before the jump orf ore injo cold waters that tha stretch to the antarctic regions make lonely landings the american ship carpenters who built our 25 foot boat the Dor jun 1 of course never dreamed that she would one day make this historic voyage dut but how proud they would be could they have seen her rounding cape horn through tas seas that filled even drake cavendish and Ala magellan gellan himself with dismay seas in fact often so rough that in early days many portuguese and spanish sailors gave up the fight and went back up the coast and found happiness in the lotus life of pioneer brazil hundreds of flanoid landings s we made at strange lonely nooks 0 on n rocky shores where barking seals sea s otters and birds only make mans abs absence crice more impressive in the broken surf on the outer side of the horn itself a lot of em geror penguins are colonized glad we were and weary back once more in the town of magallanes which used to be called punta arenas to you its just a name a name for a faraway far away sheep town stuck somewhere bolow below patagonia on the straits of tierra del fuego to us after cold wet dangerous weeks on end it was civilization ain again ga what if its people are mostly slavs austrians Aust rians and italians who speak tongues that are ara strange to us and who paint the roofs in bright colors and build tight board fences around their gardens so the gales will not blow all the dirt awall or what if the galos gales from patagonia do bring clouds of dust filled with grass seeds from distant pampas and then tear across the straits lifting sheets of water into the air and threshing 7 them about till all the sea has the aspect of smoking prairie grass its still magallanes a city a place of streets stores mail from home dry clothes and a wireless station |