The Republican journal., 1904-04-07

be afraid of the indigenous human
species, though rarely met, unless ones
party outnumbers theirs One windy
afternoon, in the half-hour between
sunset and darkness, l wandered alone
short distance from the signal fire and
came upon cluster of deserted huts,
set close to the beach, each surrounded
by mighty pile of mussel shells. The
nomadic Indians of this section, sub
sisting almost entirely upon raw sea
food, roam from place to place, accord
ing to season. They build huts in favor
lite localities for use whenever they re-
turn thereto-skeletoD houses, made by
planting both ends of 1.-THE poles. inter
laced, in the ground, on top of which
skins are spread whenever the owners
wish to occupy them. Each hut is about
three feet high, by perhaps five feet
across, shaped precisely like an invert-
ed basin. Trying to fancy how it would
feel to be a Patagonian, crawled into
one of Them and was rewarded for my
lowly- mindedness by finding a bag-like
basket of woven reeds and a fishing
spear, made of a long bone, notched on
one side like saw teeth.
When we rounded Cape Froward-
which, as every school boy knows, is the
southernmost point on the Western
Hemisphere, Cape Horn being on tiny
island 200 miles farther south-the usual
snow storms prevailed, for we are
months too early in these waters for a
pleasant trip. On the right cleaned
stupendous blue-green glacier, shining
like glass between snowy mountains;
on the left, line of wonderful craggy
peaks, snow-crested all, looking like
stucco work against the wintry sky, or
a series of gigantic images done in plas-
ter. just ahead dark mass of rock
doomed up from the waters edge to a
height of 1900 feet, joined to the range
by low strip of land. And that black
mass is Cape Froward, the tip end of
the southern continent, a place familiar
enough by name in school boy annals.
but which few of us expected to behold
with our mortal eyes. Directly south
of us Mt. Sarmiento, the most striking
island mountain of the whole archipel-
ago, rears its almost perfect pyramid
1000 feet into the blue sky A little
farther eastward is Mt. Darwin, peak
as lofty, if not SO famous; and south of
both runs Darwin Sound, on whose
southern shore is an English mission
station, where few devoted men and
Wnmen are striving but without pro-
nounced success to ChristianiZe the be-
nighted TERRA del Fuegonians.
At dinner that day the captain hap
pened to remark that this was our very
last evening in sight of the Andes, for
the ships course would change during
the night SO that these mountains would
no longer be visible We felt as if he
had said that some old-time friend were
about to bid us final adieu; and though
snow was falling and bitter wind coat
ing everything with ice, stole out alone
from the we'll warmed cabin, where
others We're Waiting to the music of
either and guitar, for a last half hour
with those glorious heights which for
two years have been ever-present COM
panions-a perpetual light and inspira-
ton, and an unfailing solace when
dangers threatened or inconsistencies as
sailed They have taught us what the
PsalmiSt meant when he said y will
look unto the hills whence cometh my
help"
From sailing due southwark we had
turned to the northeast, so that the sun
appeared to have sunk in our wake,
while halo of crimson and gold yet
fingered on the distant Andes-trans-
figured mountains now, no longer bar
rem and icy, but clothed in rosy tints
like true Gland of the sky" But not
for long. In less time than it takes to
tell it the brilliant cOlors faded and they
became mere ghosts of mountains,
shadowy and pale, wrapped in misty
shrouds. In the deepening twilight they
seemed to be keeping tryst with one
who loved them well, standing on tip
toes and peering over the shoulders of
one another, to return mute farewell,
till darkness hides them from view.
The following morning we found our
selves at anchor off the coast of the
nineteenth province of Chill, opposite
Punta Arenas, the southernmost city
on the face of the earth; the home of
the penguin, the sea-lion and the guam
AGO, where wind and storm and cold
prevail during the greater portion of
the year. And here we disembarked.
armed and equipped with sundry letters
of introduction to the Governor, the
Consul, and other persons in authority,
purposing to spend three or four weeks
here until the next steamer of the line
comes along and picks us up in explor-
ing what we can of southern Patagonia
and the Islands of Terra del Fuego.
The site of Punta Arenas-Which is
Spanish for SANDY Point GER
tainly not chosen for its beauty. 1t