Evening journal., 1899-07-15
AROUND CAPE HORN.

larOund Cape Horn is especially interest
ing. and the public will be likely to
learn more of these strange seas and
their adjacent shores than has hither-
to been popularly known. When the
Oregon and Iowa steam around Cape
Horn they will not fly the American
flag or that OF any other country, for
they could not unfurl it before it would
be torn to tatters in the gale that in
levitably awaits them. Il will be
springtime there, but the weather will
be torrid and frigid all in a breath,
with such seas rolling as are only seen
once in a lifetime. If in the next hour
they experience the peculiar calm
(which follows this exhibition of Cape
Horn seas. they can take shy at the
"steamer ducks" which ride the waves.
These remarkable birds are too gamey
for food, but they are the largest ducks
in the world, and challenge attention
from the sportsman. This species of
duck is also called the loggerhead, that
being the name given them at the
Falkland Islands. Sailors call it the
paddlewheel duck. because its wings
and feet revolve like the paddles OF
steamer. The race horse" is an appel
lation bestowed. too. on account OF its
wonderful speed. It moves is wings
alternately, and uses its feet like pad
dies, and at full growth measures forty
inches from beak to tail, with an aver
age weight Of twenty-nine pounds.
Cape Horn. with its steep, black
summit, 500 feet above the surface of
those storm troubled Southern seas.
stands like a grim, watchful sentinel
on the southernmost island of the Fue-
glan archipelago, south Of South Amer
lea. Il was discovered by Schooten,
1916, and named after his birthplace
in the Netherlands. Il now belongs to
Chile, although formerly It was owned
by the Argentine Republic. A more
dreary, desolate stretch Of coast could
not be found in navigation, and its
waters have submerged many costly
cargoes and cost thousands of valuable
lives. No matter how fair the weather
may be on the approach of a ship, it
changes so suddenly and with such in
tensity that even the most trustworthy
barometer fails to indicate anything
but the preceding calm, the mercury
acting as II bewildered. rising and fall
ing several inches in a few hours, or re-
naming in n fixed condition. This in
dicates the disturbance of the atmos-
phere when the wind blows from all
quarters at once-a popularity OF
weather not equalled in the China seas,
when the typhoon RACES andthe barom-
eter announces its coming. The phe-
lnomenon OF one ship-where two were
speaking each other in passing sailing
in fine weather. and another in a stiff
gale, has been observed at the same
time. One ship laid to in a gale for
seventy days. Next to an actual en-
gagement with an enemy, the American
naval tars will be delighted to partici-
pate in this excitement of their long
voyage Of $4,000 miles TO Honolulu by
way Of Cape Horn.
If by any untoward chance our sail
ors of the Oregon and Iowa should be
stranded at Cape Horn, let them not
forget the regions OF pocket" gold in
that Tantalus land It is all in nice
little nuggets the size of kernels Of
corn-the ideal gold of the placer
miner. The discovery Of the gold fields
in the region lying between Cape Horn
and the Straits Of Magellan was made
by shipwrecked sailors, who filed their
pockets with gold and took the first
ship homeward bound, having the pro-
verbal sailors disdain for money.
They used common sluice boxes to
work the leads.and were content when
their pockets were filed.
Nor must our sailor boys forget the
Magellan Clouds and the Southern
Gross, two features of the southern
heavens worth going far to see. The
clouds at first seem just over the ho-
rizon, and they resemble ghostly stars.
being bright and dark nebulae, visible
as soon as the southern tropic is cross
ed. The Southern Cross is composed
OF several brilliant stars that light the
skies-if they are clear--with a soft,
brilliant light Of intense clearness, and
which at Cape Horn is directly over
head. The splendor of the moon in that
far latitude is also remarkable, and it
has been said by old sailors that Il
becomes at times oppressive, and, If
long continued. would be dangerous,
the rays being hypnotic in their influ-
ence on the mind and brain. Whales,
dolphins, with their rainbow colors
when dying; the famous bird, the al
batross, porpoises and other members
Of the great family Of the deep are in
cidental to the neighborhood OF Cape