X PREFACE 



Stokes of the "Beagle" alludes to the weather as "that 

 in which the soul of man dies in him" — pathetically enough, 

 almost his last words before committing suicide under stress of 

 all he had to undergo. 



How difficult is navigation in these waters may be realized 

 from the time taken by some of the early voyagers in making 

 the Bay of Mercy from Cape Froward, a distance of 200 miles — 

 Byron, in 1764, 42 days; Wallis and Carteret, in 1766, 82 and 

 84 days respectively; Bougainville, in 1768, 40 days; Stokes, in 

 1827, 30 days. Of Cape Froward, Stokes thus records his 

 experience : — " To double it, and gain an anchorage under Cape 

 Holland, certainly cost the ' Beagle ' as tough a sixteen hours' 

 beat as I have ever witnessed : we made thirty one tacks, which, 

 with the squalls, kept us constantly on the alert, and scarcely 

 allowed the crew to have the ropes out of their hands through- 

 out the day." 



But, of course, the region of Cape Horn is notorious for 

 beinar the most storm -ridden on earth. 



However rigorous, it is healthy, as Sir John Xarborough 

 constantly testifies in 1670. " A man hath an excellent stomach 

 here," he says ; " I can eat Foxes and Kites as savourily as if 

 it were Mutton. Nothing comes amiss to our stomachs." 



For weaklings and for those who cling to luxury it is no 

 country. To the robust, reasonably optimistic, and open-minded, 

 I commend it in all confidence — above all, to those who would 

 realize the Earth as God created Her. 



In Tierra del Fuego, man is face to face with Nature and 

 Her greatest forces untamed and unrestrained, to an extent 

 perhaps unequalled anywhere else in the world. Well has 

 Darwin said : — "The inanimate works of Nature — rock, ice, 

 snow, wind, and water, all warring with each other, yet 

 combined against man — here reign in absolute sovereignty." 

 Here, if anywhere, is the Mystery of Life likely to reveal Itself 

 to man. "Nothing meets the eye but only God." Alone, with 

 none but these mighty voices of the Creator thundering in his 



