The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-10
AROUND CAPE HORN.
The Weather. Beaten Tip of the
American Hemisphere.
WINTRY TERRA DEL FuEoo.
Indians Used to HuddIe Around Fires
ut Night, Hence the Name-Ths
Straits of Magellan.

ever LD2 yourself 80 desperately hard up
for new place TO visit az to choose this
faraway Fire Land, /" be sure to time your
arrival IN April, May or June, the autumn
months Of this locality, which though
cold as GreenIand's icy mountains. are in
flnitely preferable 10 the slightly warmer
but much wetter summer tine. In fact,
there are few localities on the face OF the
earth which have less OF summer time
than this. August and September are the
worst months Of the year, sure 70 be at
tended by terrific gales and ceasele.s
storms Of sleet and snow. Though fogs
are rare on the Fuegoan coast, the sun
SHOWS himself but az rare intervals, the
hnest weather being what the seamen call
m1ggy, l. e. overcast and cloudy. That
Is one reason why, search IS you may,
scarcely picture can be found represent
ing any portion OF this archipelago. be-
cause there is hardly 81 hoar from year 20
year clear enough 70 make = photograph.
When Magellan and hi. men sailed
through the straits. some $40 years ago,
they named the country on their left Terra
del Fuego-''lapd Of tire'-on account Of
the innumerable little fires that sprang up
ali along the coast 81 nightfall. for the In
dams OF those days, as now, kept them
selves from freezing by budding over
lgnited brush heaps. Had they called the
country Terra del Agua-"land OF water
instead, the name would have been more
appropriate, for, while fires are maintained
with difficulty, water is the bane OF the
islands, falling continually in rain or
snow, rushing down every declivity or
standing in stsgnant pools. forming
swamps in every level place. making peat
boys OF all the Aillsides and keeping the
knee-deep moss that cover. the rocks sat-
urated ike sponges- So excessively cold
Is the climate that even in midsummer,
according TO the almanac, people have
been lost in the snow and frozen
to death a few hundred feet above
the sea-level. Sailing down toward
Cape Horn in a southwesterly course, it is
difficult TO believe that the high, rugged
wintry coast is not an unbroken CONT
nent, instead OF vast chain of close-lying
Islands. a nearer view discloses inlet
after inlet, intersecting the land in every
direction, opening into larger gulfs and
sounds behind the seward islands.
Though Magellan's records show that he
suspected some of the inlets might be
channels running through TO the ocean,
he did not explore any of them; and for
many years it was supposed that the
American continent was terminated by
single great island. Ii remained for later
surveys 10 prove that there are hundreds
OF islands. OF as many sizes and fantastic
shapes, separated from one another by
deep and dangerous tiords and perfect
labyrinth Of sounds. bights and inlets. The
one large island, which the Spano-Portu-
guese voyagers dubbed Land Of Fire." is
now King Charles South Land, or Eastern
TERRA del Fuego: and the boundary line
between Argentine possessions and those
OF the Chlleans runs straight down through
the middle, thus dividing it half and half
between those rival powers There are
half dozen other islands of considerable
size, each larger than any of the Philippine
group, Cyprus, Crete and most OF the West
Indies; besides innumerable smaller ones.
some of them being nothing but great
rocks lifting their bald heads out of the
sea. All OF them are mountains of more
or less magnitude. and evidently con-
tlnuation OF the great Andean chain, their
lntersecting channels, including the strait
itself, being gorges and ravines which the
ocean has overfiowed. Viewed in this
light, the Andes-by far the longest chain
OF mountains on the gobe-realiy
terminals at Staten Land an
island lying considerably farther TO
the southeast than even Care Horn. By
the way, the celebrated straits do not run
as most people suppose. in an almost
direct line east and west between the TWO
oceans. Entering from the Atlantic the
ship first runs more south than west until
about ha5t way through the channel, when
she must head almost at a right angie 10
her former course. ard keen that direc-
ton, due northeast, until she emerges into
the Pacific. Thus, a. ycu see. the strait
forms an angle near ne middle. Cape Fro
ward being The projecting point. the most
southeriy bit OF land on the continent.
Below this the Fu=goan islands stretch
400 mics northwest and southeast between
tapes Pillar and Hem, and ah0u: go
mics east and vest from be first-named
cape and thai called Esperito Santo, while
Souih"aTd 1t taperS to little more than
loo miles between the Horn and Staten
island. Most of the islands rise
straight up out of the water from
LOCO 10 5,eo) feet toward the low
ering sky without any Intervening
foothills. covered with eternal snow.
for IN this far southland. rs in countries
at an eqQa! distance north Of the equator.
the iluo OF perpetual winter begins not for
above the sea. l. is hard 10 believe rho
statements o. travellers that beyond those
iorbGding hills there are rich valleys and
grassy plains, lakes, rivers and beautiful
scenery-in short that EVERY pro.pect
pieases and only man is vile'' in the inter-
Tor OF King Charles domain. Strange 10
say, the farther t1om the equator one vow
ages down the western side OF the arebi
pe.asO, Tire less snow he sees: and finally
where the weather ought TO b. coolest il
disappears altogether, giving place on the
heights fronting the ocean 10 soll,bre for
eSts OF evergreens-or rather ever-vellovs.
the livery OF Antarctic beaches This lack
or snow where snow Is most expected is
due 10 the prevailing western winds
which come laden with moisture from
over the hmiliess Pacific. melting
the snow as 1t falls. Seen FROM
distance there is nothing es-
peclaily striking about the island of
Horn or Hoorn, whose celebrated cape is
nearest 10 the South pole OF any discov-
cred land. as II - the sto-miest and most
dreaded by mariners. But interest in.
creases with nearer view of the high
bleak cliff. that form the southern
promontory, which, towering TO q height
OF 100 feet, can be distinguished from
the decks OF passing vessels fifty miles
away Close by Is a little group of
is!ands-Hermito, high and rugged:
Naliaston, Herschel and Deceit, whose
mountains rise in sharp peaks from 1000
10 5000 feet hign-all composed of green
stone IN which hornblende, feispar and
IRON are conspicuous. their lower declivi-
ties thlckly clothed with dark forests. II
VAS the Englshman. Drake, | believe.
who nrst sighted the cape, about the wear
1913; and nearly forty years later lin
loib) the Dutch navigator. Schouten.
named il HORN. from his native town in
Holland. Near the Chri.tmas-side OF
LA Captain Cook, while examining
these coasts, was forced TO seek refuge
nom the Storm ossed sea in