FIRST PASSING THROUGH HELLGATE 271 



Fjord, or, as it is locally known, to Lake Rica. By doing this, 

 moreover, we should complete our circumnavigation of Lake 

 Argentino. Before we left, reliable news came up from the settle- 

 ments with some belated Christmas and other papers. We were 

 very relieved to learn that the Franco- Russian combination was 

 no more than a camp-scare, nor was Russia advancing on India, as 

 the last rumours had told us. When one has lost so large a slice 

 of the general history of the world as we did during the months 

 passed on our expedition, it is hopeless to imagine one can ever 

 make up the loss. The events of that period must always remain 

 blurred and hazy in the mind, only a few ever attaining an accurate 

 outline. And then how greedy one becomes of news after an 

 abstinence so prolonged as ours from that daily mental excitement 

 of civilisation ! It is difficult to describe how one grips the strayed 

 journal or periodical when one has been cut off for months from 

 these " curses of modern life." 



On April 1 1 we left Cow Monte Harbour and steamed west- 

 wards down the Punta Bandera Channel. In a short time the 

 pump broke down and we had some trouble in putting it right again. 

 In defence of our engineering skill I must say that we had against 

 us the fact that a part of the pump had been taken away for repairs 

 to Buenos Aires by the Commission. We camped at the mouth 

 of a river coming down out of Mount Avellaneda. Above us the 

 bare volcanic summits of the mountains rose starkly out of their 

 circling forests, that were now turning crimson with the brilliant 

 colours of autumn. We could also see the great glacier on the 

 western side of the Canal de los Tempinos. Many deer-tracks 

 were visible, but we saw only one huemul buck in the edge of the 

 forest. 



We made an early start next day, which luckily was calm, for 

 the pump gave us a good deal of bother. We proceeded down a 

 smaller fjord lying under Mount Avellaneda, which took us in a 

 westerly direction, but presently curved southwards and ended in a 

 large mountain covered with forest, which I named Mount Millais. 

 The chief hindrances in these winding passages were the constantly 

 veering winds that we encountered. Day and night we were 

 obliged to keep up a constant struggle against them. This was all 



