THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 



409 



of closing it altogether; and countless bays and havens are scooped into its 

 rocky shores, as if the sea in a thousand different places had striven to open 

 a new passage to her waters. 



The western entrance of this remarkable strait is formed by Queen Cathe- 

 rine's Foreland (Cape Virgins) and Point Dungeness, the latter having been 

 thus named from its resemblance to the well-known Kentish promontory at the 

 eastern mouth of the channel. Although it rises at most nine feet above low- 

 w^ater mark, the snow-white breakers which the tides are constantly dashing 

 over its sides render it visible from a great distance. It is generally the resort 

 of a number of sea-lions. When the wind comes blowing from the north-east, 

 the passing mariner — who, from the shallow nature of the shore, is obliged to 

 keep at some distance from the Ness — hears their hoarse bellowing, which har- 

 monizes well with the wild and desolate character of the scene. Albatrosses 

 and petrels hover about them, while rows of grave-looking penguins seem to 

 contemplate their doings with philosophic indifference. 



Beyond these promontories the strait widens into Possession Bay, which at 

 Punta Delgada and Cape Orange contracts to a narrow passage. This leads 

 into a wide basin, to which the Spaniards have given the name of Saint Philip's 

 Bay, and which again terminates in a second narrow passage or channel, a 

 formation resembling on a small scale the Sea of Marmora, which, as we all 

 know, has likewise the semblance of a lake, receiving and discharging its wa- 

 ters through the Dardanelles and the Strait of Constantinople. During the 

 rising of the flood, a strong current flows through all these bays and narrows 

 from the west, so as to allow ships an easy passage, even against the wind ; 

 but during ebb tide the current turns to the east, so that at this time a ves- 

 sel, even when favored by the wind, makes but little progress, or is even 

 obliged to anchor to avoid losing ground. When Magellan, after sailing round 

 Cape Virgins, penetrated into the strait, this circumstance at once convinced 

 that great navigator that he was not in an inclosed bay, but in an open chan- 

 nel, which would lead him into another ocean. Thus far the country on both 

 sides of the strait consists of nearly level plains, like those of Patagonia ; but 

 beyond the second ^^arrows the land begins to assume the more bold and pic- 

 turesque appearance which is characteristic of Tierra del Fuego. Mountains 

 rise above mountains with deep intervening valleys, all covered by one thick, 

 dusky mass of forest; while farther to the east scarcely a bush clothes the 

 naked soil. The trees reach to an elevation of between 1000 and 1500 feet, 

 and are succeeded by a band of peat, with minute Alpine plants, and this again 

 is succeeded by the line of perpetual snow, which, according to Captain King, 

 descends to between 3000 and 4000 feet. 



The finest scenery about the Strait of Magellan is undoubtedly to the east 

 of Cape Froward, the most southerly point of the mainland of South America. 

 This promontory, which consists of a steep mass of rock about 800 feet high, 

 abutting from a mountain chain of about 2000 or 3000 feet in height, forms 

 the boundary between two very different climates, for to the east the weather 

 is finer and more agreeable than to the west, where wind and rain are almost 

 perpetual. 



