The Monticellonian., 1915-02-11
" WILD and wonderful is the
 E scenery in the Straits of Ma HE gellan, which separate Pata-
 gonia from Tierra del Fuego,

~ E0 A SItDCiS III LlIC AJtl pito OA AId AN gellan, which separate Pata-
 gonia from Tierra del Fuego.
 but comparatively few world travellers ever get to that remote part of the globe. In the Boston Globe An drew S1bbald gives this description of the waterway and it's shores:
 Starting on cruise from the Eng fish settlement at Stanley, the chief town of the Falkland islands, and after being tossed about at sea, we sighted the cliffs of Tierra del Fuego As we went along the scenery was exceed ingly lovely; from the open sea and stormy winds it was a pleasant change to be comparatively at rest on near ing the land, and to look on the quick iy changing beauties of Natures pano- rama, like transformation scene not to be surpassed.
 Fancy a small vessel alone, in a region little known, with a landscape of rugged grandeur all around, ap- preaching what appears in the dis tance to be chaos of wild and lofty mountains, with no apparent outlet, or, indeed, termination.
 On ascending to the masthead one could see the channel getting mar roWer, and our onward passage stopped, apparently, by low range of hills in the foreground; at the back. jagged peaks and huge mountains in all their solemn but barren sublimity.
 On the left was Navarin island in some parts high. but not so lofty as 1t seemed in the distance; on the other side was also high land, but at its base were several islands and wa ter passages leading by various gorges to the Magellan straits.
 We now approached the narrows, which are between clay cliffs; they form the entrance to the Beagle chan nel, so named from the ship whose captain discovered 1t, and the tide, which before had been gentle, now be- gan to increase in swiftness; the pas sage through which we were sailing, and which had been nearly straight. began to develop more curves and the depth of water decreased.
 We had gentle breeze as we glided swiftly past the narrows and many islets. all equally pretty; penguins and other birds were seen in immense numbers around us
 A little longer and a fresh bend in the channel discovered new beauties as different from what we had just seen as possible; it reminded one of a rapid transition from the plains of Lombardy to the gigantic peaks of the Rocky mountains.
 In Beagle Channel
 But it is almost impossible to do justice to the scene; the effect of the suns rays as they glanced on the snow-capped mountains before us, as of the narrows and entered the huge natural canal which forms the Beagle channel, was magnificent. Glancing at the clay cliffs in our rear, the pas sage seemed to have shut in behind us, and left us no outlet save far ahead.
 In all these bold and lonely places there was a mysterious quiet, which gave the scenery around truly alpine look; lofty mountains were on view and those bounding our sight ahead were quite bare and of conical shape. A very vivid imagination could easily convert some of the cupola shaped mountains In front of us, at the ex- treme verge of our view, into so many cathedrals with their lofty spires.
 Those on our right were destitute of verdure in many places, like the bald spots on mans head, but with vegetation around such spots; on our left were the Cedrington mountains on Navarin island, dark. frowning masses with singular peaks, something like sugar loaves; and the scene was diver sified by the brown summits of other mountains peeping up free from the perpetual snow, their lower. parts clothed with a mantle of green.
 By this time we had glimpses of the natives, covering the rocks and beach closely watching us; they were uni versally naked, wild and shaggy look ing with long spears in their hands
 Their canoes on both sides of us shot out from sheltered corners and tried to overtake us, still shouting with all their might. But our speed was too great for them to get up to us, for they only started from the shore as we came abreast of them.
 At no great distance ahead lay group of small islands, around which