Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/24

18 more northerly channels. The temperature of the air followed in a general way that of the water.

While there was a great deal in the way of birds and flowers to suggest familiar objects, our surroundings in other respects were strange. The trees of the forest, the smaller forms of sea shore life, the utterly barbarous look of the natives, the wildness of the scenery, left strong impressions. Even the constellations were altogether unfamiliar. The navigating officer pointed out the Southern Cross, the beautiful nebulous mass called the Cloud of Magellan, the "Coal Sack," that dark starless area close to the Milky Way, and the bright stars Canopus and Achenas.

I know of no more forbidding headland than Cape Froward, the southern point of the continent.' The scenery reminds one in many ways of the inland passage of Alaska and is probably finer, as there are more high cliffs of exposed rock. As in Alaska, the vegetation of the forest comes uniformly down to sea level, and here we find it actually overhanging and touching the surface at high tide.

After passing through Magellan Straits and turning northward into Smythe Channel and the series of inland passages beyond, the channels become narrower and the scenery wilder. The evergreen coniferous forests of the north are here replaced by evergreen beeches, which give a new and strange aspect. There are, however, the same high, tumbling waterfalls in the foreground with snow-topped ranges beyond.

No ordinary description can convey a clear idea of the generally impenetrable character of the forests, which are more tangled and difficult than those of the tropics. Fallen trees and branches cover deeply the whole forest floor, these in turn being mostly concealed with mosses and large plants, the whole always saturated as if by a recent rainstorm. After clambering over decayed logs, heavily blanketed with mosses, one may land waist deep in boggy vegetation. Progress is possible only by constant and laborious climbing over obstructions.

In this western section of nearly four hundred miles, the open ocean is seen only once, so completely is the long stretch of coast protected by the lofty islands of the archipelago. Passing gradually northward, glimpses of lofty snow ranges become more frequent, and at the mouth of the last narrow channel the white Andes are exposed to full view and may be enjoyed during the forty-mile voyage across the Gulf of Penas.

Before leaving Eyre Sound we made fast to one of the small icebergs drifting away from adjacent glaciers terminating in tide water, and took on board seven tons of ancient Andean ice for our voyage northward to the Galapagos Islands in the tropical Pacific.