The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-05-12
AT CAPE HORN.
an rip OF THE SOUTHERN HEMI-
epuFRE. A LAND OF STORM AND
DARKNESS

..,..iai correspondence of The Journal.
r.rtwAIA, TERRA del Fuego, April
...4 should you ever find yourself
DESPERATELY hard-up for place to
gs to choose this far-away Fire
,.nl" be sure to time your arrival in
,-l May or June, the autumn
,-,a.as of this locality, which, though
..5 Al, Greenland's icy mountains, are
.rtey preferable to the slightly
.,oer but much wetter summer time.
e,-.t. there are few localities on the
. of the earth which have less of
.5urr time than this. August and
.rt.mher are the worst months of the
. ,Ore to be attended by terrific
- and ceaseless storms of sleet and
UN
...l0 fogs are rare on the Fuegoan
.he sun shows himself only at
.tlvals. the finest weather being
u en- call ''muggy," that is
aud cloudy. That is one rea-
-ass search as you may, scarcely a
an be found representing any
,.r II this archipelago because
uardly an hour from year to
,.. rar enough to make a photo
u-u Magellan and his men sailed
.m4-a the straits, nearly four hun
!.4 wars ago, they named the islands
-.. Mar eft TERRA del Fuego-'Land
Al r..e"- ON account of the innumer-
AIN. I'e fires that sprang up all along
.p4st at nightfall for, as now, the
lr..u- If those days kept themselves
... ,eczlng by budding over ignited
w. graps. Had they called the
.u.H Terra del Agua-'Iand of
U.4. instead, the name would have
... nure appropriate, because while
.s-- e maintained with difficulty,
... the bane of the islands, falling
.M,MIliy in rain OF snow, rushing
Ma. very declivity, or standing in
-a-.Gt pools, forming swamps in
-,.g a7el place, making peat bogs of
... H!lside, and keeping the knee
.. Aoss that covers the rocks satu-
-.ag ke sponges. SO excessively cold
.-., innate that even in midsummer,
u Hug to the almanac, people have
.- t,r in the snow and frozen to
sl q rev hundred feet above sea
>uur down toward Cape Horn in a
westerly, course, it is difficult to
-rs that the high, rugged, wintry
...s' Is not an unbroken continent, in
sea. # a vast plain of cloSe-lying
.sus \ nearer view discloses inlet
u- Met. intersecting the land in
direction, opening into larger
ud sounds behind the seward
Though Magellan's records
at he suspected some of the
might be channels running
to the ocean, he did not ex-
my of them, and for many years
N.7 supposed that the American
ut was terminated by single
and 1t remained for later sur
prove that there are hundreds
aHds, of as many sizes and fan
Shapes, separated from one
-I by deep and dangerous fiords
perfect labyrinth of sounds,
md inlets.
ne large island which the early
. su-se voyagers dubbed Land of
how known as King Charles
and, or Eastern TERRA del
ind the boundary line between
mes possessions and those of
Is straight down through the
thus dividing it half and half
ea those rival powers. There are
... llolpu other islands of consider
llr each larger than Cyprus,
any of the Philippine group,
indeed than most of the West
besides innumerable smaller
7me of them being nothing but
2 ks lifting their bald heads out
et. All of them are mountains
".r or less magnitude, and are evil
i continuation of the great
-."H lain, their intersecting chan
s ending the strait itself, being
nd ravines which the ocean has
"et.oHtd. Viewed in this light, the
--.-, indes-by far the largest chain
H'uutains on the globe-really
+.tatp at Staten Island, an island
pug wusiderably farther to the south
-"' tlau even Cape Horn. By the
't e celebrated straits do not run,
il host PEOPLE suppose, in an almost
'.r'' Inc east and west between the
f0 oceans. Entering from the At
'p- Tie ship first runs more south
..di' vest, until about half way through
' adnnel, when she must head al
'''sJ at a right angle to her former
''-'' and keep in that direction, due
O"ast, until she energies into the
Thus, as you see, the strait
''f- AN angle near the middle, Cape
'.d being the projecting point,
'' NE most southerly bit of land on
.'otnent. Below this, the Fue-