DESCENT OF QLACtBBS. [CHAP. xi. 



summer months, and southern European fruits succeed admirably ; 

 and even the sugar-cane has been cultivated. * Xo doubt the plane 

 of perpetual snow undergoes the above remarkable flexure of 9000 

 feet, unparalleled in other parts of the world, not far from the 

 latitude of Concepcion, where the laud 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 conceive, mainly 

 depend (subject, of course, to a proper supply of snow in the upper 

 region) on the lowness of the line of perpetual snow on steep 

 mountains 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 1000 feet in height, in the 

 latitude of Cumberland, with every valley filled with streams of ice 

 descending to the sea-coast. Almost every arm of the sea, which 

 penetrates to the interior higher chain, not only in Tierra del Fuego, 

 but on the coast for 650 miles northwards, is terminated by " tre- 

 mendous and astonishing glaciers," 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 channels. These falls, as noticed 

 in the last chapter, produce great waves which break on the 

 adjoining coasts. It is known that earthquakes frequently cause 

 masses of earth to fall from sea-cliffs : how terrific, then, would be 

 the effect of a severe shock (and such occur heref) on a body like a 

 glacier, already in motion, and traversed by fissures ! I can readily 

 believe that the water would be fairly beaten back out of the 

 deepest channel, and then, returning with an overwhelming force, 

 would whirl about huge masses of rock like so much chaff. In 

 Eyre's Sound, in the latitude of Paris, there are immense glaciers, 

 and yet the loftiest neighbouring mountain is only 6200 feet high. 

 In this Sound, about fifty icebergs were seen at one time floating 

 outwards, and one of them must have been at least 168 feet in total 

 height. Some of the icebergs were loaded with blocks of no 



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

 Ingenio, lat. 32 to 33, but not in sufficient quantity to make the manu- 

 facture profitable. In the valley of Quillota, south of Ingenio, I saw some 

 large date palm-trees. 



t Bulkdey's and Cummin's Faithful Narrative of the Los* of the Wager, 

 flic earthquake happened August 2r>, 1741. 



