THEIB APPEAEA'N’CE ON THE COAST. 
297 
at the latter the Cordilleras rise abruptly, and fill the whole 
space as far as Cape Victoria (lat. 52° 22'). Tbe region 
between Cape Horn and the southeru extremity of the 
continent somewhat resembles the origin of the Pyrenees 
between Cape Creux (near tbe gulf of Eosas) and tbe 
Col des Perdus. The height of the Patagonian chain is not 
known ; it appears, however, that no summit south of the 
parallel of 48^ attains the elevation of the Canigou (1430 
toises), which is near the eastern extremity of the Pyre- 
nees. In that southern coimtry, where the summers are so 
cold and short, the limit of eternal snow must^ lower at 
least as much as in the northern hemisphere, in b«orway, in 
lat. OS'" and 64°; consequently below 800 toises. The great 
breadth, therefore, of the band of snow that envelopes these 
Patagonian summits, does not justify the idea which tra- 
Tellers form, of tbeir height in 40 south latitude. As 
we advance towards the island of Chiloe, the Cordilleras 
draw near the coast ; and the archipelago of Chonos or 
Huaytecas appears like the vestiges of an immense group of 
mountains overwhelmed by water. Narrow estuaries fill 
the lower vallies of the Andes, and remind us of the fjords 
of Norway and Greenland. We there find, running from 
south to north, the Nevados de Maca (lat. 45 )i 
Cuptano (lat. 44° 58'), of Yanteles (lat. 43° 52 ), of Cor- 
eovudo, Chayapirca (lat. 42° 52') and of Llebean (lat. ^ 
49'). The peak of Cuptana rises like the peak of leneritte, 
from the bosom of the sea; but being scarcely visible at 
thirty-six or forty leagues distance, it cannot be more than 
1500 toises high. Corcovado, situated on the coast of the 
continent, opposite the southern point of the island ot 
Chiloe, appears to be more than 1950 toises high; it is 
perhaps the loftiest summit of the whole globe, south of the 
parallel of 42° south latitude. On the north of ban Carlos 
do Chiloe, in the whole length of Chile to the desert ot 
Atacama, the low western regions not having been over- 
whelmed by fioods, the Andes there appear farther from the 
coast. Tlie Abbe Molina affirms that the Cordilleras ot 
Chile form three parallel chains, of which the intermedwy 
is the most elevated ; but to prove that this division is tar 
from feneral, it suffices to recollect the barometric suwey 
madefy blM. Bauza and Espinosa, in 1794, between Men* 
