The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-07-05
SNYTHE CHANNEL SCENERY
PASSAGE BARRED by BRITISH
UNDERWRITERS.
As Picturesque as Japan's Inland Sea-
German Steamers Take the Risk and
Avoid Cape Horn storms.

some of the finest scenery I'm The /
world writes William l.. curtis, "is
to be found in the Smythe Channel, the !
strait OF sound which separates the !
archipelago of southern chile from the /
mainland; but the passage is dangerous
and the British insurance companies
will not permit steamers to go that
way owing to the lack of lighthouses
and proper charts. The German steam
ers however usually take the risk,
much to the enjoyment of their passen-
gers, who are not only able to enjoy a
voyage quite as picturesque as that
through the famous inland sea of Jap
an, but to escape the terrors that attend
the passage down the west coast below
Talchuano, where the surf is always
high and storms are frequent
"A lighthouse has recently been es-
tablished by the Government Of Chile,
at Cape Pillar, the western entrance TO
the Straits of Magellan, which is a
narrow and dangerous passage, and sell
dom could be entered at night until this
improvement was made. Several years
ago the steamer on which / was max
ing a cruise reached Cape Pillar about
3 o'clock i'm the morning and was COM
PEELED to slow down until II was light
enough to see the entrance. In the
meantime a terrible gale came on which
drove us $50 miles out of our course.
to Cape Pillar again. Cape Pillar is
a rugged barren rock $40 feet high, but
on the other side the peaks run up 10
1850 feet
1.-THE passage through the straits is
usually attended by rain, mist and
snow. An Irish friend. who formerly
lived there, once remarked that every
rain was. a snowstorm. The latitude of
the Straits of Magellan is about SO de-
grees south, nearly that of Sitka or
Cape Farewell, the southernmost point
of Greenland, and Puenta Arenas, the
only town, has a climate much like that
of the Klondike. There is little vegeta-
ton except along the waters edge, and
the snow line on the mountains comes
down nearly to the water, while daz-
zling glaciers of blush green ice are
, imbedded between craggy and barren
| hills, and often rise to the crests of the
mountains The masses of ice are as
imperishable as the glaciers of Green
| land, and add a feature to the scenery
that is not found elsewhere within the
ordinary course of steamers Our YES
| sci tied up to a glacier one night in the
middle of the straits until the crew had
| chopped off enough ice to fill the re-
frigerators and last until it arrived in
| England. 1t is region of marvellous
| sunsets, as well as rugged scenery, and
! If one were always sure of getting clear
weather 1 would recommend the voyage
| to everybody.
"Tne straits are ordinarily about as
| wide as the Hudson river, although the
| height of the mountains is much great
er. Mount Warden, the first peak to
! be seen after entering Cape Pillar, is
1880 feet high. Mount Victoria is $500
feet, and there are many others from
! 5000 to 1000 feet, with Mount Darwin
! 10000 and Mount Sarmiento 6,S00)
| browning the group.
Mount Sarmiento stands in what is
! known as 'Cockburn Channel not far
| from the open Pacific, and on clear
! days, its summit can be distinguished
from the decks of passing ships The
| beauty of this peak is much enhanced
| by the numerous blue tinted glaciers,
! which descend from the snowy cap to
the sea, and look as Darwin, the natur-
alist, who once saw it, said like hun
| dred frozen Niagaras.'
There are other mountains quite as
beautiful. but they sit in an atmosphere
which is seldom so clear as that which
surrounds Sarmiento, and cannot often
be seen by voyagers. That chain of
mighty granite vertebra, which extends
! from Alaska to Cape Horn, and forms
| the spinal column of the hemisphere,
| ends in granduer at the edge of the
| antarctic circle. The mountains hug
! the Pacific Coast, and below what was
once the southern boundary of Chile,
| they seem to have once been shattered
! by conVulsion, i'm which mighty masses
of rocks were thrown off into the ocean
to form the numberless islands that
compose the Patagonian archipelago.
The same upheaval broke the mountain
chain and left Terra del Fuego separat-
ed from the continent by narrow chan
nels of water with depth to which the
| plummet has never reached, forming
a safe and protected passage for navi-
! gators, for whom the incessant tenn
pests of Cape Horn possess the great
est dread"