The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-23

precipitously into the sea; narrow gorges.
IN which the steamer must tack this way
and that as Il winds through islands Of
green ana Islands of rock. Here are fields
OF floating ice. through which the boat
crashes; narrow iords, in which the black
water is 900 feet deep. and. in short. such
a variety OF scenic wonders of clouds,
mountain and sea that doubt whether their
like can be found in the world II you could
take the most picturesque parts of the An
des. the Himalayas and the Alps, could sink
them up to their necks in dark blue water,
and pull cloud masses down with them into
the sea and wrap their rugged sides far up
from the waters edge with wonderful
mantle of green. which is now brilliant in
the sunlight, now frosted snow and now so
loaded with ice that 1t lies in terraces up
their sides. you might have a faint idea Of
some of natures wonders in the Magellans.
ON A SOUTH PACIFIC STEAMER.
But l despair of giving vivid picture of
our ride through this archipelago. 1t lasted
three days, and it was such a series OF
wonders that only a biograph of the gods
worked by their own hands could paint
them on the retina of your imagination. All
j shall attempt is TO take you with me
through some few places by a transcript
OF my notes made upon the ground We
start in the Bay of Coronel. Our steamer,
the Itauri, of the Kosmos line. bound for
Hamburg via the strait, lies in the har-
Dor. She is a German ship Of 600 tons.
lighted and heated by steam. Captain
Behrmann, her commander. is German, and
SO are all the passengers, officers and crew.
We speak German at the table, and are. in
fact, a small slice of Germany in one Of the
quietest harbors of the coast Of Chile l
go to my cabin. 1t is No. r. and is as
good a room as that OF an Atlantic liner.
The cooking is German. The meats are
fresh. As / go down to dinner / hear the
squawk OF a chicken. Our meats are car
ried alive on board, so that later on we shall
listen to the baaing of sheep, the grunting
Of pigs and the cackling OF geese mixed
with the crunching of the ice fields as the
steamer makes its way through them. Be-
fore pay the $40 which is my fare to Punta
Arenas, on the Strait of Magellan, 1 ask If
The ship win go via Smyths channel The
reply is yes. The Kosmos is the only line
that takes this route, the other ships going
through the strait preferring to stand the
storms which sweep up along the west coast
from Cape Horn to the narrow, dangerous,
slow. but more quiet, land-locked waters
travel very slowly and must anchor at
night, but before we start let lis take a,lCok
at our trip. What is our cargo? We have
5000 tons of saltpeter for Germany 1900 bar
rels of Chilean honey for different parts of
Europe. hundreds of rolls of Chilean sole
leather for Russia and wheat and wine for
Punta Arenas and Montevideo. We are now
taking on 800 tons of coal. Brawny Chilean
at.fe spfo he Chi
stand in lighters or flat boats and use SHOW
els to throw the coal uD to the platforms
under the doors of the hold. Here other
peasants shovel it in. They swear as they
work. and we hear them still sweating and
heaviHg as we go to bed
LAND-LOCKED SEAS.
We awake far out in the Pacific. The
steamer is rolling, the white caps are dane
ing over the waves and away off to the
eastward we can make out the faint blue
OF line of south Chile A day later, in storm
and rain, we steam past the long, narrow
Island of Chloe, which the government is
trying to COLOMBO, and on the evening of
The third day we enter the wide Gulf Of
Penos and come to anchor at the entrance
10 the channel. The water is like a mill
pond. The steamer moves slowly We seem
to be in a great river rather than in the
ocean. We are sailing among the clouds
through the water-filled ravines of some of
the greatest of the worlds mountains. On
our right are grass-clad islands. On our left
are rugged, ragged peaks rising in all
shapes out of the sea. There is one clothed
in green which reminds you of the pyramid
of Ghizeh, and there is another which is
fair likeness of the smashed nose sphinx
in front the green hills are climbing over
one another like troop of giants playing
leap frog. and farther on they rise upward
in fort-like walls of green a thousand feet
high, losing themselves in that misty white
cloud which rests above them. The channel
narrows and widens. Now we are in lakes
surrounded by snow-capped mountains
now in canyons. now we sail by a break in
the mountain walls, deep hord, with moss
green walls, snow-dusted. a thousand feet
high and filled with black water a thou
sand feet deep. AS we look the sun breaks
its way into the gorge and turns the water
10 silver. 1t paints diamonds in the snow
of it's moss green sides. Over there is
glacier, a great green mass shining out
Mpon the ragged sides of a snowy noun
tain. See. the sun has struck it, and it is
now q bed of emeralds in a setting of
frosted silver.
The weather and the sky changes every
moment and before us is an ever-varying
panorama of sky and sea and land. We sail
out of the SUNLIGHT into snowstorms and
steam right out of the snow into the sun.
Now the sky is almost blue overhead, with
fleecy white clouds scattered here and there
through it, Cloud masses here nestle in the
vevety laps of the hills; there they wrap
themselves about the snowy peaks as
though to warm them. and Inere they stoop
down and press warm, tantalizing kisses
Opon their icy lips. Upon the snow-dusted
hills and dark water are dashes OF silver
where the sun has poked its way through
the clouds The varying light makes the
channel on one side of the ship black, on
the other side it is of a beautiful yellowish
green. and behind, where the sun strikes it.
the ship has left path OF molten silver.
The hills change even as the water under
the sun. Now they are dark. The sun
washes them with it's rays and the ferns
and moss and trees brighten. The ragged
volcanic background of the rocks show out
and through the green and black falling
hundreds and sometimes thousands of feet
almost straight down. are siIvery cascades,
Eeme as big as your wrist. others no larger
around than your little finger. These are
10 be seen all along these inland channels
They come from the glaciers and the noun
fain SHOWS