262 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



AN 



Photograph by Harriet Chalmers Adams 

 ARAUCANIAN MOTHER 



These women have powerful physiques and strong features, re- 

 minding one of the Maoris. After their children, massive silver orna- 

 ments, such as this woman displays, are their dearest possessions. 

 They sometimes pawn, but seldom sell, these treasures. 



bound along the inland waterway from 

 navigating the open sea. South of Taitao 

 the scenery changes. The islands termi- 

 nate in abrupt cliffs and glaciers come to 

 the sea. Even at this great distance from 

 the Equator, the trees are evergreen and 

 the temperature rarely falls below zero. 



AT THE} STRAIT OF MAGELLAN 



We came, at last, in our voyaging to 

 that winding, river-like channel, that cleft 

 in the Andes which the great Portuguese 

 navigator, in the service of Spain, discov- 

 ered in 1520. To the north lay the South 



American mainland ; 

 to the south the Fue- 

 gian archipelago. I 

 see still those majestic 

 cliffs shading from 

 gray into violet ; those 

 mysterious glaciers 

 slipping into a leaden 

 sea ; those storm- 

 petrels winging their 

 way overhead ! 



These western 

 reaches of the Strait of 

 Magellan are treacher- 

 ous. The Pacific is mis- 

 named. Mariners usu- 

 ally find a gale off Cape 

 Pilar. Punta Arenas 

 has been the goal of 

 many a missing ship. 



If you will consult 

 the map (see page 



22 3)> y° u will see 

 that practically all but 

 one of the islands 

 south of the Strait be- 

 long to Chile. The 

 largest island of the 

 group is divided be- 

 tween Chile and Ar- 

 gentina. 



PUNTA ARENAS PROS- 

 PERITY BASED ON 

 SHEEP 



The Chilean city of 

 Punta Arenas, on the 

 mainland facing the 

 Strait, is the metropo- 

 lis of this region ; but 

 the Argentine town 

 of Ushuaia, in Tierra 

 southernmost perma- 

 the world. 

 From Cape Pilar to Punta Arenas we 

 looked on a virgin country — huge masses 

 of rock, a land suited neither to agricul- 

 turist nor shepherd ; but from Punta 

 Arenas on to the Chilean boundary, both 

 sides of the Strait are well adapted to 

 agriculture. 



For its population, which is about 

 24,000, Punta Arenas is the most com- 

 mercially successful of all Chilean cities. 

 It owes its recent prosperity to the growth 

 of the sheep industry. Exports to the 



del Fuego, is the 

 nent settlement in 



