The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-05-12

heights fronting the ocean to SOmbel
forests of evergreens, or rather ever
yellows, the livery Of Antarctic beeches
This lack of snow, where snow is most
expected, is due to prevailing western
winds, which come laden with moisture
from over the limitless Pacific, melting
the snow as it falls.
Seen from distance there is nothing
specially striking about the island OF
Horn, or Hoorn, whose celebrated cape
is nearest to the South Pole of any dis
covered land, as it is the stormiest and
most dreaded by mariners. But inter
est increases with a nearer view of the
high, bleak cliffs that form the south
ern promontory, which, towering to a
height of fifteen hundred feet, cali be
distinguished from the decks of vessels
fifty miles away. Close by is little
group of islands-H ermito, high and
rugged; Wallaston, Herschel and De-
ceit, whose mountains rise in sharp
peaks from one thousand to three thou
sand fetal composed of green stone
in which horneblende, feldspar and iron
are conspicuous, their lower declivities
thickly covered with dark forests. 1t
was the Englishman, Drake, l believe,
who first sighted the Cape, about the
year 1913; and nearly forty years later
came the Dutch navigator, Sthouten, who
named it Hoorn, from his native town
in Holland. Near the Christmas-tid
Of TIA, Captain Cook, while examining
these coasts, was forced to seek refuge
from the storm tossed seas in a shelter
ed spot which he named christmas
Sound In this good year 1904, the
party which includes your correspond
ent, following in the footsteps of Cap
tain Cook, passed a wretched night
rolling at anchor in the same spot.
The notorious promontory still keeps
up its ancient reputation and made us
pay the usual tribute to the resistless
spirit of the place. When approached,
the weather. beaten Cape hid her face
like bashful maiden behind r veil of
mist and spray, while black clouds
scudded across the heavens and squalls
of rain and hail accompanied by ter
rife wind, made it impossible to stand
upon the deck that was constantly
washed by sheets of spray. Ice hung
upon the rigging, and huge pillows. like
moving Alps with deep valleys between,
came laundering toward us in an un-
broken line: while screaming sea-birds
swept round and round in narrowing
circles, as those birds will when a Sc
we're gale approaches. One moment we
seemed almost becalmed in the hollow
of the seas, the next we were on their
summit, caught as by unseen hands
lifting the tiny ship in malicious sport
to dash it to destruction. And so, dis
erection being by all odds the better
part of valor, we turned our backs
on the capricious cape and sought
the shelter Of Christmas Sound till
calmer weather. Nobody thought of
retiring on that terrible night, though
probably it was no worse than hun
dreds upon hundreds of other voyagers
have experienced in these waters. When
the mysterious sea, with its dark mas
ses and snowy crests yields up its dead,
a greater company will arise from
this locality than from any other on
the face of the earth. Daylight found
us in Eyric Sound, with icebergs jost-
ling one another on either hand, all
floating outward toward the sea..sS<
Some days afterward we actually did
reach Hoorn Island, and went ashore,
though only for a moment, Drawing a
drenching in the raging surf for the
satisfaction of having it to say that
our feet had touched the southernmost
lands end, the very jumping off place
of all creation. | am yet too much OPP
pressed by the horror of it-by a feel
ing akin to that one experiences after
nightmare-to give you lucid des-
cription of the scene. My mind re-
tains .only confused impression of
bare heights, desolate beyond the pow
er of imagination to conceive, termin
ating in awful precipices, around whose
SUBMITS sea-birds shrieked for prey,
and at whose feet restless pillows dash
ed with deafening tumult; the whole a
detached link of the mighty Andes
the last link, dropped off into an un-
known ocean, surging toward an undis-
covered pole.
We are now at Ushuwaia (pronounc-
ed Oo-hoo-ee-ah) Protestant mission
station on the north bank of Beagle
channel, which separates King Charles
South Land from the southernmost is
lands. This channel-which is, per-
haps, better known historically than
any other portion of the archipelago,
not only from the accounts of Fitzroy
and Darwin, but because on all pilots
charts it is marked as the one place of
safety which seamen should endeavor
to reach whose ships have been wreck
ed in rounding the Horn-is only about
one hundred miles north of the cape,
but with many small island interven