PHYSICAL FEATURES OF CHILI. 



423 



The ground slopes gradually eastwards, that is, towards the southern prolonga- 

 tion of the longitudinal depression of Chili, and the gulf is studded with islands 

 and islets, like tlie hills scattered over the plains round about Valparaiso. As 

 many as 120 of these islands have been counted in the Chiloe Archipelago. But 

 far more numerous are those of the more southerly Chonos Archipelago, which 

 is sub-divided into secondary groups by a labyrinth of straits and channels. On 

 the marine charts are figured over a thousand distinct islands of all sizes. But a 

 general survey of all these separate masses shows that, together with the Taytao 



Fig. 161. — San Eafael Lake. 



Scale 1 : 800,000. 



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46- 



\ ^\ 



* 0- 



■i%t^ 



' ' m^ 



--^ ^ fm^Mà:^m 



mmmmfy 



74'20' 



WesL or ureenwich 



7T50- 



12 Miles. 



Peninsula projecting from the mainland farther south, they form a vast penin- 

 sular region broken into fragments and separated from the Patagonian seaboard 

 by the Moraleda Channel. Viewed from north to south it presents the aspect of 

 a ruined embankment about 220 miles long and some 60 miles broad at its base. 

 But the isthmus connecting Taytao with the mainland consists of two narrow 

 alluvial strips enclosing the circular lacustrine depression of Lake San Rafael. 

 Taytao culminates in the Cerro Encinas, 4,000 feet high. 



Lake San Rafael presents one of the most remarkable spectacles on the Chiliaii 



