Page:The birds of Tierra del Fuego - Richard Crawshay.djvu/20

x Stokes of the "Beagle" alludes to the weather as "that in which the soul of man dies in him"—pathetically enough, almost his last words before committing suicide under stress of all he had to undergo.

How difficult is navigation in these waters may be realized from the time taken by some of the early voyagers in making the Bay of Mercy from Cape Froward, a distance of 200 miles—Byron, in 1764, 42 days; Wallis and Carteret, in 1766, 82 and 84 days respectively; Bougainville, in 1768, 40 days; Stokes, in 1827, 30 days. Of Cape Froward. Stokes thus records his experience:—"To double it, and gain an anchorage under Cape Holland, certainly cost the 'Beagle' as tough a sixteen hours' beat as I have ever witnessed: we made thirty one tacks, which, with the squalls, kept us constantly on the alert, and scarcely allowed the crew to have the ropes out of their hands throughout the day."

But, of course, the region of Cape Horn is notorious for being the most storm-ridden on earth. However rigorous, it is healthy, as Sir John Narborough constantly testifies in 1670. "A man hath an excellent stomach here," he says; "I can eat Foxes and Kites as savourily as if it were Mutton. Nothing comes amiss to our stomachs."

For weaklings and for those who cling to luxury it is no country. To the robust, reasonably optimistic, and open-minded. I commend it in all confidence—above all, to those who would realize the Earth as God created Her. In Tierra del Fuego, man is face to face with Nature and Her greatest forces untamed and unrestrained, to an extent perhaps unequalled anywhere else in the world. Well has Darwin said:—"The inanimate works of Nature—rock, ice, snow, wind, and water, all warring with each other, yet combined against man—here reign in absolute sovereignty."

Here, if anywhere, is the Mystery of Life likely to reveal Itself to man. "Nothing meets the eye but only God." Alone, with none but these mighty voices of the Creator thundering in his