XIV PREFACE 



Early voyaf^ers record hardly any definite impressions of the 

 island, even as seen from the sea. 



Describing the Strait, Drake says : — " The inountaines arise 

 with such tops and spires into the aire, and of so rare a height, 

 as they may well be accounted amongst the wonders of the 

 world; enuironed, as it were, with many regions of congealed 

 clouds and frozen meteors, whereby they are continually fed and 

 increased, both in height and bignes, from time to time, retaining 

 that which they haue once received, being little againe diminished 

 by the heate of the sun, as being so farre from reflexion and so 

 nio:h the cold and frozen res^ion." 



Cook says of the island's aspect to westward, in summer : — 

 " This is the most desolate coast I ever saw. It seems entirely 

 composed of rock mountains without the least appearance of 

 vegetation. These mountains terminate in horrible precipices, 

 whose craggy summits spire up to a vast height ; so that hardly 

 anything in nature can appear with a more barren and savage 

 aspect, than the whole of this country. The inland mountains 

 were covered with snow, but those on the sea- coast were 

 not." 



Down to the present time, the Survey of the "Adventure" and 

 "Beagle" constitutes the most reliable and complete information 

 on this region at all generally accessible. King's descriptions 

 of the scenery are particularly powerful and vivid. 



Of Gabriel Channel, he says : — " Mount Buckland is a tall 

 obelisk-like hill, terminating in a sharp needle-point, and lifting 

 its head above a chaotic mass of ' reliquias diluviano},' covered 

 with perpetual snow, by the melting of which an enormous 

 glacier on the leeward, or north-eastern side, has been 

 gradually formed. This icy domain is twelve or fourteen miles 

 long, feeding, in the intermediate space, many magnificent 

 cascades, which, for number and height, are not perhaps 

 to be exceeded in an equal space of any part of the world. 

 Within an extent of nine or ten miles, there are upwards 

 of a hundred and fifty waterfalls, dashing into the Channel 



