2i8 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



applied to the unhappy victims ; and yet persons who 

 are not counted as hard-hearted seem to bear their 

 position with perfect equanimity, if not with something 

 of self-satisfaction. 



The morning of the 4th of June was so dark that 

 we supposed our watches to have gone astray. Of 

 course, the days were rapidly growing shorter as we 

 ran to the southward, but the dim light on this morn- 

 ing was explained when we sallied forth. The wind 

 had veered round to the north, and in these latitudes 

 that means a murky sky with leaden clouds above 

 and damp foggy air below. The change, however, 

 was opportune. We were steering about due south- 

 east, entering the Gulf of Peiias, with the dim outline 

 of Cape Tres Montes faintly seen on our larboard 

 bow. 



I have already alluded to the peculiar conformation 

 of the south-western extremity of the South American 

 continent, which, from the latitude of 40° south to the 

 opening of the Straits of Magellan, a distance of about 

 nine hundred miles, exhibits an almost continuous 

 range of high land running parallel to the southern 

 extremity of the great range of the Andes. At its 

 northern end this western range, under the names 

 Cordillera Pelada and Cordillera de la Costa, forms 

 part of the mainland of Chili, being separated from 

 the Andes by a broad belt of low country including 

 several large lakes, those of Ranco and Llanquihue 

 being each about a hundred miles in circuit. South 

 of the Canal dc Chacao the range is continued by the 

 island of Chiloe and the Chonos Archipelago, and 

 then by the great mountainous promontory whose 



