THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



263 



46 50', in the Gulf of Penas. It is 15 miles long, and in 

 one part 7 broad and descends to the sea-coast. But even a 

 few miles northward of this glacier, in the Laguna de San 



Kettyttoom 



47*00 



Rafael, some Spanish missionaries 14 encountered " many ice- 

 bergs, some great, some small, and others middle-sized," in 

 a narrow arm of the sea, on the 22nd of the month corre- 

 sponding with our June, and in a latitude corresponding with 

 that of the Lake of Geneva ! 



In Europe, the most southern glacier which comes down 

 to the sea is met with, according to Von Buch, on the coast 

 of Norway, in lat. 67. Now, this is more than 20 of lati- 

 tude, or 1230 miles, nearer the pole than the Laguna de San 

 Rafael. The position of the glaciers at this place and in the 

 Gulf of Penas may be put even in a more striking point of 

 view, for they descend to the sea-coast within 7^2 of lati- 

 tude, or 450 miles, of a harbour, where three species of 

 Oliva, a Voluta, and a Terebra, are the commonest shells, 

 within less than 9 from where palms grow, within 4^ of 

 a region where the jaguar and puma range over the 

 plains, less than 2 l /2 from arborescent grasses, and (look- 



"Agiieros, Desc. Hist, dc Chiloe, p. 227. 



