THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



263 



46 0 50', in the Gulf of Penas. It is 15 miles long, and in 

 one part 7 broad and descends to the sea-coast. But even a 

 few miles northward of this glacier, in the Laguna de San 



46° 4G' 



Rafael, some Spanish missionaries 14 encountered " many ice- 

 bergs, some great, some small, and others middle-sized," in 

 a narrow arm of the sea, on the 22nd of the month corre- 

 sponding With our June, and in a latitude corresponding with 

 that of the Lake of Geneva ! 



In Europe, the most southern glacier which come9 down 

 to the sea i9 met with, according to Von Buch, on the coast 

 of Norway* in lat. 67°. Now, this is more than 20 0 of lati- 

 tude, or 1230 miles, nearer the pole than the Laguna de San 

 Rafael. The position of the glaciers at this place and in the 

 Gulf of Penas may be put even in a more striking point of 

 vifew, for they descend to the sea-coast within yyi" of lati- 

 tude, or 450 miles, of a harbour, where three species of 

 Oliva, a Voluta, and a Terebra, are the commonest shells, 

 within less than 9 0 from where palms grow, within 4^2° of 

 a region where the jaguar and puma range over the 

 plains, less than 2>4° from arborescent grasses, and (look* 



14 Agueros, Desc. Hist, de Chiloe, p. 227. 



