MOUNTAINS. 177 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



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 a (south) latitude 

 corresponding with that of Paris, there are immense glaciers, 

 and yet the loftiest neighboring mountain is only six thou- 

 sand two hundred feet high. In this sound about fifty ice- 

 bergs were seen at one time floating outward, and one of 

 them must have been at least one hundred and sixty-eight 

 feet in total height. Some of the icebergs were loaded with 

 blocks, of no inconsiderable size, of granite and other rocks, 

 different from the clay -slate of the surrounding mountains. 

 The glacier farthest from the Pole, surveyed during the voy- 

 ages of the Adventure and Beagle, is in latitude 46 50', in 

 the Gulf of Penas. It is fifteen miles long, and in one part 

 seven broad, and descends to the sea-coast. 



From the east coast of the island of Chiloe, on a splen- 

 didly clear day (November 26, 1834), we saw the volcano of 

 Osorno spouting out volumes of smoke. This most beautiful 

 mountain, formed like a perfect cone, and white with snow, 

 stands out in front of the Cordillera. Another great volcano, 

 with a saddle-shaped summit, also emitted from its immense 

 crater little jets of steam. Afterward we saw the lofty-peak- 

 ed Corcovado (Hunchback) well deserving the name of 

 "famous" (elfamoso Corcovado). Thus we beheld, from one 

 point of view, three great active volcanoes, each about seven 

 thousand feet high. In addition to this, far to the south, 

 there were other lofty cones covered with snow, which, al- 



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