Steam-tug Navigation through Straits of Magelhaen. 317 



displa3^s the most cheering signs of vitality, and that in a 

 climate which has acquired, most unjustly however, an un- 

 enviable reputation, but promises to be "of great importance 

 both to Chile itself and to the vessels of all nations navigating 

 the Straits of Magelhaen.* This will be more particularly 

 the case, so soon as the scheme projected by certain Chilean 

 patriots is realized, of which there is an early prospect, of 

 placing a number of steamers upon the Magelhaen-Straits' 

 line, for the purpose of towing vessels through. 



In order to form an adequate conception of the importance 

 of this undertaking, both for Chile and all sea-faring nations, 

 it must be borne in mind, that by thus making the Straits 

 available, vessels will not alone escape the storms of Capo 

 Horn, but will effect a great saving in time. Maury estimates 

 the time required by a vessel to pass from the eastern en- 

 trance of the Straits around Cape Horn to the western en- 

 trance at 25 days. They could be towed through in from 

 four to five days, thus saving some 20 days. The tonnage 

 passing round Cape Horn to Valparaiso alone cannot be 

 much short of 120,000 tons of merchandise, valued at about 

 16,000,000 dollars (£3,200,000), so that the pecuniary returns 

 realized by the saving of time in the voyages of these vessels 

 promises to realize to the company a net profit of 257,776 

 dollars (£53,600).t 



♦ See a very interesting « Essay " upon Chile, published at Hamburg by Seiior 

 Vicente Perez-Rosales, Consul-General for Chile at that port. 

 t This estimate is founded on the following calculations :— 

 120,000 tons at is!40_ per ton, comes to $4,800,000, the annual expenses of which, 



