238 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



It was a morning never to be forgotten. We 

 rapidly made our way from amid the maze of 

 smaller islands, and glided over the smooth water 

 into a broad channel commanding a wide horizon, 

 bounded a panorama of unique character. As the 

 stars faded and daylight stole over the scene, fresh 

 features of strangeness and beauty at each successive 

 moment came into view, until at last the full glory 

 of sunshine struck the highest point of Queen 

 Adelaide Island, and a few moments later crowned 

 the glistening summits of all the eminences that 

 circled around. The mountainous outline of Queen 

 Adelaide Island, on the right hand, which anywhere 

 else would fix attention, was somewhat dwarfed by 

 the superior attractions of the other objects in view. 

 We had reached the point where Smyth's Channel 

 widens out into the western end of the Straits of 

 Magellan, and right in front of us rose the fantastic 

 outline of the Land of Desolation, as the early 

 navigators styled the shores that bound the southern 

 entrance to the Straits ; and as we advanced it was 

 possible to follow every detail of the outline, even to 

 the bold summit of Cape Pillar, forty miles away 

 to the westward. Marking as it does the entrance 

 to the Straits from the South Pacific, that headland 

 has drawn to it many an anxious gaze since steam 

 navigation has made the passage of the Straits easy 

 and safe, and thus avoids the hardship and delay of 

 the inclement voyage round Cape Horn. 



The coast nearest to us was at least as attractive as 

 any other part of the panorama. The southern 

 extremity of the continent is a strange medley of 



