Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-22
IN SOUTHERN SEAS.
Fannie B. Ward OF the Coast Of Pata-
gonia Rounding the Horn.
THE sun SINKS AT FOUR O'CLOCK.
Nothing but Desolation and Ruined Castles
on the Islands.
ROASTING MUSSELs on THE SHORES


About midway between Coronel and the
entrance to that perilous passage known IS
Smyth's Channel, is the port Corral-one of
the quaintest and most picturesque places
it has been my good fortune to find. Upon
high bluff overlooking its placid bay,
which is said to be the safest as it is the
most commodious in Southern Chile, are the
crumbling walls of battlemented fortress
the fortress of dream or of picture
entirely unlike the prosaic forts of now-a-
days. This was constructed more than three
centuries and quarter ago by Pedro de
Valdivia, one of Pizarro's followers. Inside
the fort are rusty cannon of queer pattern,
tottering stairways that lead to grass-grown
passages and mouldy vaults below, where
doorways open to the waters edge.
Just back of the fort an odd little village
struggles upon and down the steepest
streets, whose weather-beaten cottages, an
cient church and dingy saloons look as if
tired of clinging to the cliffs and ready to
let go their precarious hold and slip quietly
into the sea Some of us chartered steam
tug and went up the river to Valdivia city.
So narrow and winding is the channel, full
of snags and shoals, that it is navigable
only for craft drawing less than nine and
one-half feet of water and even they re-
quire the assistance Of local pilot.
Suggests knights and Troubadours.
All the adjacent country is hilly and
heavily timbered, and the river looks barred
little way ahead by the green, untrodden
solitudes that crowd close on every side,
while the perspective is closed by the great,
n - IL
stands 175 miles inland, but whose snowy
dome is distinctly visible from the ocean.
The city of Villa Rica, at its base, which
Valdivia built some $40 years ago, has been
so many times destroyed by Indians and
earthquakes that but little trace of it re-
mains.
valdivia city is only about 1000 feet
above sea level, and is completely sur
rounded by dense forests. The chief object
of interest in it is an old tower, a relic of
the Conquistadores, which shows up beauti-
fully from the river. On landing we made
. run for it, for the Captain gave US only Is
minutes ashore. We found it another case
where distance lends enchantment to the
vlew." A rough board fence is built close
around it. at the top of the little hill upon
which it stands. Ascending flight of
rickety wooden steps, we pounded upon a
our eyes of knights and troubadours, hal
herds and coats of maitland were answered
by the angry baying Of dog inside.
A Decided DisiIlusionins.
Presently the door was opened BY an
elderly German woman who lives within
the temporary inelosure in little wooden
hut leaned against the crumbling citadel,
which appeared to be conformity occupied
by numerous colony of pigs and chickens.
A pile of boards obstructed the entrance to
the tower, in front of which the angry dog
tugged frantically at his chain; so that there
was nothing to be done but scamper back to
the landing with ali possible speed.
Though we were three days in passing
through Smyth's Channel-coming to
anchor every night at sunset-it is barely 70
miles long, beginning just beyond Chloe,
which is the northernmost island of that
wonderful chain of islands and archipela-
goes extending from about latitude 42o
southwark to Cape Horn. Chloe, by itself,
is Province of Chile, 120 miles long by 80
miles wide, with total area of $500 square
miles Though its interior has never vet
been explored the island is divided into FIVE
compartments" or districts, of which
built town, Bishops seat, with some pre-
tensions OF elegance, which in times not
long past had reputation as high as 5000.
In the year 1875 the total population OF the
Province was estimated at "a, $50. The
whole southwark coast of the island Is an
inaccessible precipice 8, 900 feet high, against
which the Pacific thunders with ceaseless
uproar The interior is hilly and mostly
covered with dark forests of cedar-the
Fitzroya Patagonica known to commerce.
Nae;vos n, Not T.o Nonov
But comparatively small portion of it
has been cleared; and though its scanty
population enjoy considerable trade with
passing vessels, money is almost unknown
among them, all business transactions be-
ing conducted by barter. The most valu-
able article of commerce is the cedar above
mentioned, which is exported in small
planks. Next in importance is the in
diginous potato, which is annually pro-
duced in increasing quantities as the forests
are cut away. I am told that coal beds Of
considerable size and value have lately
been discovered, which promise to give
Chile new Importance.
The largest island off the coast of Chile
is Wellington, a good deal farther south
ward, which is 40 miles long by from 80
to 80 wide. The home of the penguin and
the sea-lion, where cold winds blow and
portion of the year, it has never been e1-
plored TO any extent and seems to support
nothing better than antarctic beeches and
several kinds of evergreens, growing amid
soft, spongy moss, into which those who
venture ashore sink to their knees. The
Patagonian channels, Of which there are
many besides this named "Smythe," are
remarkably alike in general features
broadening out four or five miles, others
narrowing to ships length. All of them
have high, abrupt shores, showing innum-
erable peaks and headlands, whose dark and
rugged shapes lend an appearance Of gloomy
grandeur rarely to be seen elsewhere.
Night Begins ut O'Clock.
Probably the weather has much to do
with the prevailing dreariness, for the sun
never smiles brightly upon this forbidding
corner of creation where it SHOWS or rains
every day in the year and twilight falls at
4 O'Clock. The only species of verdure
found so far from the equator are evergreens
and antarctic beeches, and those are every
where blackening the mountain sides, from
the waters edge to height of several
thousand feet; like a sponge with ceaseless
moisture By and by we come to glaciers
mountains of green and blue ice, with
crests of snow, stretching 10, Is and 20
miles In unbroken grandeur, beside which
those of Switzerland and Norway dwindle
to insignifcance.
The highest peak Of this region is Mount
Sarmiento, in what is known as Cockburn
Channel, which rears cone of spotless
snow nearly 1000 feet straight up from the
HANGED by numerous blue-tinted glaciers,