748 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



this region, and especially in the Strait of 

 Magellan, was a kind of home feeling that 

 it gave him. Although the mountains rose 

 from the ocean, instead of from the plain as 

 in Switzerland, yet the snow-fields and the gla- 

 ciers carried him back to his youth. To him, 

 the sunset of this evening in the Port San 

 Pedro, with the singular transparent rose color 

 over the snow mountains, and the soft suc- 

 ceeding pallor, was the very reproduction of 

 an Alpine sunset. 



The next morning brought a disappoint- 

 ment. From this point Agassiz had hoped to 

 continue the voyage by the inside passage be- 

 tween the main-land and the island of Chiloe. 

 This was of importance to him, on account of 

 its geological relation to Smythe's Channel 

 and the Strait of Magellan. In the absence 

 of any good charts of the channel, the Cap- 

 tain, after examining the shoals at the en- 

 trance, was forced to decide, almost as much 

 to his own regret as to that of Agassiz, not 

 to attempt the further passage. Keeping up 

 the outer coast of Chiloe, therefore, the vessel 

 anchored before Ancud on the 8th of April. 

 It was a heavenly day. The volcanic peak of 

 Osorno and the whole snowy Cordilleras were 

 unveiled. The little town above the harbor, 



