26 o 
DESCENT OF GLACIERS 
CHAP. 
only 5600 to 7500 feet) and in central Chile 1 (a distance of only 
9 0 of latitude) is truly wonderful. The land from the south¬ 
ward of Chiloe to near Concepcion (lat. 37 0 ) is hidden by one 
dense forest dripping with moisture. The sky is cloudy, and 
we have seen how badly the fruits of southern Europe succeed. 
In central Chile, on the other hand, a little northward of 
Concepcion, the sky is generally clear, rain does not fall for the 
seven summer months, and southern European fruits succeed 
admirably ; and even the sugar-cane has been cultivated. 2 
No doubt the plane of perpetual snow undergoes the above 
remarkable flexure of 9000 feet, unparalleled in other parts of 
the world, not far from the latitude of Concepcion, where the 
land ceases to be covered with forest-trees ; for trees in South 
America indicate a rainy climate, and rain a clouded sky and 
little heat in summer. 
The descent of glaciers to the sea must, I conceive, mainly 
depend (subject, of course, to a proper supply of snow in the 
upper region) on the lowness of the line of perpetual snow on 
steep mountains near the coast. As the snow-line is so low in 
Tierra del Fuego, we might have expected that many of the 
glaciers would have reached the sea. Nevertheless I was 
astonished when I first saw a range, only from 3000 to 4000 
feet in height, in the latitude of Cumberland, with every valley 
filled with streams of ice descending to the sea-coast. Almost 
every arm of the sea, which penetrates to the interior higher 
chain, not only in Tierra del Fuego, but on the coast for 650 
miles northwards, is terminated by “ tremendous and astonishing 
glaciers,” as described by one of the officers on the survey. 
Great masses of ice frequently fall from these icy cliffs, and 
the crash reverberates like the broadside of a man-of-war, 
through the lonely channels. These falls, as noticed in the 
last chapter, produce great waves which break on the adjoining 
coasts. It is known that earthquakes frequently cause masses 
of earth to fall from sea-cliffs : how terrific, then, would be the 
1 Oil the Cordillera of central Chile, I believe the snow-line varies exceedingly in 
height in different summers. I was assured that during one very dry and long 
summer, all the snow disappeared from Aconcagua, although it attains the prodigious 
height of 23,000 feet. It is probable that much of the snow at these great heights 
is evaporated, rather than thawed. 
2 Miers’s Chile, vol. i. p. 415- It is said that the sugar-cane grew at Ingenio, 
lat. 32° to 33 0 , but not in sufficient quantity to make the manufacture profitable. In 
the valley of Quillota, south of Ingenio, I saw some large date-palm trees. 
