242 CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS OF [emar. x1. 
deep that no anchorage could be found. We were in consequence 
obliged to stand off and on in this narrow arm of the sea, during 
a pitch-dark night of fourteen hours long. 
June 10th—In the morning we made the best of our way 
into the open Pacific. The Western coast generally consists of 
low, rounded, quite barren hills of granite and greenstone. Sir 
J. Narborough called one part South Desolation, because it is 
“ so desolate a land to behold :” and well indeed might he say so. 
Outside the main islands, there are numberless scattered rocks on 
which the long swell of the open ocean incessantly rages. We 
passed out between the East and West Furies; and a little far- 
ther northward there are so many breakers that the sea is called 
the Milky Way. One sight of such a coast is enough to make a 
landsman dream for a week about shipwrecks, peril, and death ; and 
with this sight we bade farewell for ever to Tierra del Fuego. 
The following discussion on the climate of the southern parts 
of the continent with relation to its productions, on the snow- 
line, on the extraordinarily low descent of the glaciers, and 
on the zone of perpetual congelation in the antarctic islands, may 
be passed over by any one not interested in these curious sub- 
jects, or the final reeapitulation alone may be read. I shall, 
however, here give only an abstract, and must refer for details 
to the Thirteenth Chapter and the Appendix of the former 
edition of this work. : 
On the Climate and Productions of Tierra del Fuego and 
of the South-west Coast.—The following table gives the mean 
temperature of Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, and, for 
eomparison, that of Dublin :— 
e Samm Wi 
Latitude. “pomp, = Temp) and Winter 
Tierra del Fuego. . 53° 38'S. 50° 33°°08 41°°54 
Falkland Islands . . 51 3058, 51 — ae 
Dublin s = « « SS SiN, 59 +54 39 °2 49°37 
Hence we see that the central part of Tierra del Fuego is 
colder in winter, and no less than 9}° less hot in summer, than 
Dublin. According to Von Bueh the mean temperature of 
July (not the hottest month in the year) at Saltenfiord in Nor- 
way, is as high as 57°.8, and this place is actually 13° nearer 
