2 74 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



of the great glacier of the Canal de los Tempanos. As we passed 

 down the canal, a big berg broke off from the glacier ahead of us 

 and plunged into the water, sending up a huge wave, which luckily 

 only touched us slightly. It was well we were no nearer. We 

 witnessed after this the fall of several lesser pieces of ice, the noise 

 of which resounded loudly among the gorges. 



Our return voyage was eventless. While Bernardo was 

 making our camp-fire upon landing, he called to me to come with 

 my rifle. He said he had been attacked by a large Cordillera 

 wolf, which snapped at his legs. He retaliated with an axe, but 

 it got away. Following in the direction he indicated, I caught a 

 glimpse of the animal crossing a patch of moonlight, and fired, 

 hitting it far back. 



There are many thousands of square miles of unexplored forest 

 in Patagonia. It is a region unknown and mysterious, which has 

 never been deeply explored by man. As has been said, no man 

 lives in them, and it is a question whether man has ever lived 

 there, for the one all-sufficient reason — the practical absence of 

 game on which he might subsist. 



1 well remember my first sight of the forests, and the intense 

 longing that took hold upon me to make my way into their virgin 

 fastnesses. It is one of the traveller's most unquenchable desires, 

 this hankering to go where no other man has yet been. It springs, 

 1 suppose, from the undefined thought that in the unknown every- 

 thing is possible, though few things perhaps come to pass. 



From afar the forests appear to rim the slopes and spurs of the 

 Cordillera with a seemingly impenetrable mass of blackness, reach- 

 ing towards and often running up into the snow-line ; as you 

 approach the colour assumes its true hue, a deep dense green, a 

 green that seems to have the quality of absorbing light, so that, 

 as you gaze upon the expanse of foliage stretching back into the 

 distances, fold beyond fold, where the valleys and mountain-sides 

 close in behind each other, an impression of gloom and mystery 

 lays hold upon your mind. Upon still nearer inspection you find 

 the trees ranked in heavy phalanxes, while between their close-set 

 trunks has grown up an under-tangle of thorn. Old storms have 

 overthrown many of the giants, so that they lie in tens and twenties, 



