18 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
more northerly channels. The temperature of the air followed in a 
general way that of the water. 
While there was a great deal in the way of birds and flowers to 
suggest familiar objects, our surroundings in other respects were 
strange. The trees of the forest, the smaller forms of sea shore life, 
the utterly barbarous look of the natives, the wildness of the scenery, 
left strong impressions. Even the constellations were altogether un- 
familiar. The navigating officer pointed out the Southern Cross, the 
beautiful nebulous mass called the Cloud of Magellan, the “ Coal Sack,” 
that dark starless area close to the Milky Way, and the bright stars 
Canopus and Achenas. 
I know of no more forbidding headland than Cape Froward, the 
southern point of the continent. The scenery reminds one in many 
ways of the inland passage of Alaska and is probably finer, as there are 
more high cliffs of exposed rock. As in Alaska, the vegetation of the 
forest comes uniformly down to sea level, and here we find it actually 
overhanging and touching the surface at high tide. 
After passing through Magellan Straits and turning northward into 
Smythe Channel and the series of inland passages beyond, the channels 
become narrower and the scenery wilder. ‘The evergreen coniferous 
forests of the north are here replaced by evergreen beeches, which give 
anew and strange aspect. There are, however, the same high, tumbling 
waterfalls in the foreground with snow-topped ranges beyond. 
No ordinary description can convey a clear idea of the generally 
impenetrable character of the forests, which are more tangled and diffi- 
cult than those of the tropics. Fallen trees and branches cover deeply 
the whole forest floor, these in turn being mostly concealed with mosses 
and large plants, the whole always saturated as if by a recent rain- 
storm. After clambering over decayed logs, heavily blanketed with 
mosses, one may land waist deep in boggy vegetation. Progress is pos- 
sible only by constant and laborious climbing over obstructions. 
In this western section of nearly four hundred miles, the open ocean 
is seen only once, so completely is the long stretch of coast protected by 
the lofty islands of the archipelago. Passing gradually northward, 
glimpses of lofty snow ranges become more frequent, and at the mouth 
of the last narrow channel the white Andes are exposed to full view 
and may be enjoyed during the forty-mile voyage across the Gulf 
of Penas. 
Before leaving Eyre Sound we made fast to one of the small icebergs 
drifting away from adjacent glaciers terminating in tide water, and 
took on board seven tons of ancient Andean ice for our voyage north- 
ward to the Galapagos Islands in the tropical Pacific. 
