The sun., 1908-03-26

I
pared some Of the glaciers In the strait
TO a hundred frozen Niagaras.' You
knew that you we're looking at one Of the
greatest Ice patches in the world outside
Of the Joe cap Of Greenland
Then you we're sorry that the mists
came on and hid the glaciers on the northern
side, but you we're glad that nature had
been little benevolent and had let you
see what you had seen,
THE wILLYwAws
The wind began TO strengthen and black
outbuBts OF II we're seen coming toward
you from time 10 time Then at last you
began to realize what a willywaw ia. II
Is fierce blast that comes down from these
mountains with well defined limits like the
ray Of searohlight in the night One mo-
ment you do not feel ii and then you shoot
into II and Il tosses you about, ohurns up
the waters, roars and barks at you and
you feel that demon from the hills is try
ing 10 tear you 30 pieces. Hall dozen
times one Of these willywaws got started
for the feet and then the sun came out,
the clouds broke up and the blast was dis
sipated. You could see it all with your
eyes, you didn't have TO imagine il. Il
was as II some big policemen had scattered
a crowd that had begun to torment a pro-
oession and had said 'G'wan!' II g'wanned
all right Finally big one gathered force
that laughed at the policeman, and il fell
upon US. With il came mist and dasbes OF
rain. II spat in our faces It wrapped our
coats about our legs in knots. II shrieked
and howled at us, and when we staggered
through it il laughed at us, as il to say:
You may be a great feet Of warships.
but I'm not afraid 10 tackle you, Just like
any other ship or set Of ships. have fun
with every ship that goes through here.
and II don't one Of my rough brothers
does the business No one who goes through
here can escape a wllywaw How do you
like being tousled up? Ha! Ha,"
All that the writer of this cares TO say is
that willywaws are ru de things, the r1idest
kind OF things he has ever met, and he's
glad that you can find them nowhere else
in the world than in Magellan Strait. Like
the man who made a mistake in fnatrimony.
he Is willing to sing hereafter the old song:
Once was enough for him.
When you got past that willywaw YOU
began perhaps 70 speculate on the height
OF the mountains and you we're surprised
10 learn that they are not high as snow
capped mountains 60; that they varied
IN height from 5000 TO $500 feet with oc-
casionally a monster in the distance from
5000 10 1900 feet tall They looked like
the Alps or the Canadian Rockies. You
soon realized that il was because they
rose directly from the water and there
was no slope to them before they began
10 shoot upward, as is the case in the great
mountain ranges Of the earth. The fact
that they were snowclad, like all the other
great mountains. also made you feel as
II they we're as high as such elevations
As hour after hour passed you saw why
II was that one writer had said that II you
had taken the Hlmalayas the Andes, the
Alps, and had moved them all here and
had submerged them up TO their necks
you would get scenery like that which
the strait presents. As you looked at
the mountains and saw the bays here and
there you began also 10 realize what an
other writer meant when he said that a
hundred Lake Comos, Lucernes and Genevas
could not present the lordly beauty
OF some Of these bays and inlets. Per-
haps you compared the trip with that of
the Inland Sea Of japan, II you did you
could only say:
This is grand the Inland Sea is beauti-
fIl.'
THIRTY MILES or FoG NAVIGATION.
And when we began to reach the end of
Long Reach and to get into the wide open
waters OF Sea Reach and the fog shut us
in completely many person then was
not altogether sorry, for he had been sur
feited with it all, We went down TO dinner
just as the ships began to feel the Pacific's
swells. The wind from the northwest
began to blow violently and soon after
O'Clock word was passed that we had passed
Cape Pillar, where no shipwrecked mariner
ever escapes, and that the fog had lifted
and those on the bridge had caught Rlimpse
Of IT, There had been thirty miles OF fog
navigation in the strait itself. Two hours
later as the ship was plunging and careening
in the gale-they always have a gale or
extremely heavy swells at the Pacific en-
trance TO Magellan-we heard that the
Evangeistas Islands, four rugged rocks
with light on one, had been seen, and
then We turned in, knowing that in an hour
or 30 the fleet would be headed due north,
every turn OF the screws bringing us nearer
home. On the whole, every one was glad
that II the fog was TO be il had shut of the
view Of the mountains and glaciers and baye
just after II had been finest We had seen
the strait at it's best and there was not a
man who did not feel something OF awe
over il, believing as he did that he had been
in sight Of the grandest handiwork Of the
Creator that the earth presents
sAnd God said. Let there be armament
in the midst Of the waters and let it divide
the waters from the waters.
And God made the armament and di-
vided the waters which we're under the
armament from the waters which we're
above the armament, and It was So"
Any one who has sailed through the
Strait Of Magellan can easily believe It
was there that God began to divide the
watefN from the waters, Any one also who
has sailed through the strait into the heav-
ing, tossing Pacific, wrongly named for
that part Of the world. could realize the
full significance Of what was In the heart
Of sailor Of the midwatch who sang softly
TO himself - you passed him:
sRoCked ln the cradle q the dSspi'