566 



HEIGHTS— -WESTERN COAST. 



Strait of Magalhaens the average height may be taken at three 

 thousand feet ; though there are some mountains which may be 

 between six and seven thousand feet high. 



By a reference to the chart it will be seen that about the parallel 

 of 40° the coast begins to assume, and retains to its furthest extre- 

 mity, a very different appearance from that which it exhibits to 

 the northward, where the sea, which is kept at a distance from the 

 Cordillera by a belt of comparatively low land for continuous 

 intervals of some hundred miles, washes a long unbroken shore, 

 affording neither shelter for vessels nor landing for boats ; but, to 

 the southward of that parallel, its waters reach to the very base of the 

 great chain of the Andes, and, flowing as it were into the deep ravines 

 that wind through its ramifications, form numerous channels, sounds, 

 and gulfs, and, in many instances, insulate large portions of land. In 

 fact, the whole of this space is fronted by large islands and exten- 

 sive archipelagoes, of which the most conspicuous are the great 

 island of Childe, Wellington Island, the Archipelago of Madre de 

 Dios, Hanover Island, and Queen Adelaide Archipelago. The 

 last forms the western entrance of the Strait on its north side. 

 The land of Tres Montes, however, is an exception : it is a penin- 

 sula, and is the only part of the continent within the above limits 

 that is exposed to the ocean's swell. It forms the northern part of 

 the Gulf of Penas, and is joined to the main by the narrow isthmus 

 of Ofqui, over which the Indians, in travelling along the coast, 

 carry their canoes, to avoid the extreme danger of passing round 

 the peninsula. It was here that Byron and his shipwrecked com- 

 panions crossed over with their Indian guides : but it is a route 

 that is not much frequented ; for this part of the coast is very 

 thinly inhabited, and the trouble of pulling to pieces and recon- 

 structing the canoes,* an operation absolutely necessary to be 

 performed, is so great, that I imagine it is only done on occa- 

 sions of importance. In this way the piraguas which conveyed the 

 missionary voyagers to the Guaianeco Islands were transported 



* During our examination of this part, our boats ascended the river 

 San Tadeo, and endeavoured in vain to find any traces of the road ; an 

 almost impenetrable jungle of reeds and underwood lined the banks of 

 the river, and time was too valuable to admit of further delay, in search 

 of an object comparatively of minor importance. 



