406 SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



Later Explorations of Tierra del Fuego. 



After tlie establishment of the Chilian Republic, Great Britain, desirous of 

 increasing her commercial relations with the regions which had till lately been 

 interdicted to her traders by Spanish exclusiveness, organised the memorable 

 expedition conducted by King and Fitzroy, and accompaviied by the young 

 naturalist Charles Darwin, at that time unknown to fame. This voyage of ten 

 years, 1826 to 1836, was the starting-point of a new era in the geographical 

 history of all the lands visited by the expedition. For the study of Argentina and 

 Chili it had the same scientific importance as the earlier researches of Humboldt 

 and Bonpland had for the regions at the other extremity of the continent. 



The men of science on board the Beagle and Adventure completed in all its 

 details the survey of the Magellanic lands. South of Tierra del Fuego proper, 

 they discovered that remarkable fiord now known as Beagle Channel, which 

 presents the aspect of a broad stream fringed with glaciers winding between Fuegia 

 and the southern archipelagoes. They explored all the lateral sounds and inlets of 

 Magellan Strait, of Otway and Skyring Water. North of the western entrance of 

 the Strait, they also followed all its branches : Smyth Channel, Messier Channel, 

 and the other countless fiord-like formations ramifying amid the labyrinth of 

 islands already visited by Sarmiento, 



Topographic amd Coast Surveys. 



North of Chiloe and of the Gulf of Reloncavi, they had little to do beyond 

 rectifying the contour-lines of already well-known coastlands ; but the observations 

 of Fitzroy and Darwin on the geology of the seaboard, on the oscillations of the 

 land, on its meteorology, flora, fauna, and all the phenomena of the terrestrial 

 planet formed the basis of the studies made by their numerous successors in the 

 same field. 



Amongst these were the brothers Philippi, who made important researches in 

 the geology and natural history of the Atacama desert and of the southern districts 

 of the republic. Claude Gay has studied the physical and political history of the 

 country, embodying the observations made by geographers, in a work of encyclo- 

 paedic dimensions The geologist Domeyko, the geodesian Moesta, the astronomer 

 Gilliss, have on their part added much by their special memoirs to our knowledge 

 of Chili, which has also been visited and described by numerous travellers. 



In general, the maps of Chili have been prepared with more accuracy and in 

 fuller detail than those of any other South American State. In 1848 Aimé Pissis 

 had already begun his works of triangulation, which were continued for sixteen 

 years, and which enabled him to draw a map to the scale of ytô'tt-ô'ô' comprising 

 over ten degrees of latitude from Caldera on the former Bolivian frontier to the 

 Rio Cauten (Imperial) south of Araucania, that is to say, the most populous section 

 of the country, in which are situated all the seaports, the mines and railways. 



