416 



The great breadth, therefore, of the band of 

 snow that envelopes these Patagonian summits, 

 does not justify the idea formed of their height 

 by travellers, in 40° of south latitude. As we 

 advance towards the Island of Chiloe, the Cor- 

 dilleras draw near the coast ; and the Archipe- 

 lago of Chonos or Huaytecas appears like the 

 vestiges of an immense group of mountains 

 overwhelmed by the floods. Arms of narrow 

 seas (esteros) fill the lower vallies of the Andes, 

 and remind us of the fiords of Norway and 

 Greenland. We there find, ranged from south 

 to north *, the Nevados de Maca (lat. 45° 19'), 

 ofCuptana (lat. 44° 58'), ofYanteles (lat. 43° 

 52') of Corcovado, Chayapirca (lat. 42° 52') and 

 of Llebcan (lat. 41 0 49/). The peak of Cuptana 

 rises like the peak of Teneriff e, from the bosom 

 of the sea ; but being scarcely visible at 36 or 

 40 leagues distance, it cannot be more than 



sons, in the two hemispheres, on the same line, that the 

 mean temperature of the summers at Edinburgh is 14° 6', 

 and at the Malouine islands scarcely 11° 4'. Now, the 

 isotherm line (equal summer) from 11° to 12° passes in 

 our hemisphere, on the eastern coast of Westrobornie, in 

 64° of latitude, and it is known that these cold summers 

 correspond with a height of perpetual snows, of 750 to 800 

 toises. See my memoir on the Isotherm lines, p. 112. 



* Manuscripts and maps of Don Jose de Moraleda. (See 

 also Sir Charles Giesecke in Scoresby's voy. to West-Green- 

 land, p. 467.) 



