316 DESCENT OF GLACIERS. 



the sky is generally clear, rain does not fall for the 

 seven summer months, and Southern European 

 fruits succeed admirably ; and even the sugar-cane 

 has been cultivated.* No doubt the plane of per- 

 petual snow undergoes the above remarkable flex- 

 ure of 9000 feet, unparalleled in other parts of the 

 world, not far from the latitude of Concepcion, 

 where the land ceases to be covered with forest- 

 trees ; for trees in South America indicate a rainy 

 climate, and rain a clouded sky and little heat in 

 summer. 



The descent of glaciers to the sea must, I con- 

 ceive, mainly depend (subject, of course, to a prop- 

 er supply of snow in the upper region) on the low- 

 ness of the line of pei-petual snow on steep mount- 

 ains near the coast. As the snow-line is so low in 

 Tierra del Fuego, we might have expected that 

 many of the glaciers would have reached the sea. 

 Nevertheless, I was astonished when I first saw a 

 range, only from 3000 to 4000 feet in height, in 

 the latitude of Cumberland, with every valley filled 

 with streams of ice descending to the seacoast. 

 Almost every ami of the sea which penetrates to 

 the interior higher chain, not only in TieiTa del 

 Fuego, but on the coast for 650 miles northwards, 

 is terminated by " tremendous and astonishing gla- 

 ciers," as described by one of the officers on the 

 survey. Great masses of ice frequently fall from 

 these icy cliffs, and the crash reverberates like the 

 broadside of a man-of-war through the lonely chan- 

 nels. These falls, as noticed in the last chapter, 

 produce gi'eat waves, which break on the adjoining 

 coasts. It is known that earthquakes fi-equently 

 cause masses of earth to fall from sea-cliffs : how 



* Miers's Chile, vol. i., p. 415. It is said that the sugar-cane 

 grew at Ingenio, lat. 32° to 33° but not in sufficient quantity to 

 make the manufacture profitable. In the valley of Quillota, south 

 ol' Ingenio, I saw some large date pahn-tiees. 



