. The Spanish-American republics . with a little vegetation along the waters edge alone, and surroundedby towering snow-clad mountains from 3000 to 4000 feet high. Onthe opposite shore we admired a still vaster glacier which had recentlybegun to slide, and remained a terrific wilderness of jagged and cha-otic blocks. In this region of wild mountains, snow fields, and glaciers,we witnessed a marvellous sunset. The sky overhead was clear blue ;on the eastern horizon a few light clouds; on the western horizon very 250 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN REPUBLICS. heavy clouds, with a central brazier of molten
. The Spanish-American republics . with a little vegetation along the waters edge alone, and surroundedby towering snow-clad mountains from 3000 to 4000 feet high. Onthe opposite shore we admired a still vaster glacier which had recentlybegun to slide, and remained a terrific wilderness of jagged and cha-otic blocks. In this region of wild mountains, snow fields, and glaciers,we witnessed a marvellous sunset. The sky overhead was clear blue ;on the eastern horizon a few light clouds; on the western horizon very 250 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN REPUBLICS. heavy clouds, with a central brazier of molten gold, in front of whichthe mountains stand out in successive planes, the nearer ones of deepindigo hue, the more distant ones bathed in an almost transparenthaze of bluish-rose, passing into the rich tones of gorge de pigeon. Asthe sun sinks, the golden light vanishes, the heavy clouds become vel-vety-black, with an under fringe of bright ruby-red, while a ruby glowsuffuses the opposite eastern sky, tips with rose the distant snow. CAPE PILLAR. peaks, and casts ruddy reflections over the glassy mirror of the calmwater. The same evening, by moonlight, we passed the black andbarren silhouette of Cape Froward, latitude 530 55 south, longitude710 19 west, the southernmost point of all the continents of the world,and the extreme end of the great mountain range of the Andes. CapeFroward itself measures only 1200 feet, but the summit of Mount Vic-toria, immediately behind it, rises to 2900 feet, which figure may betaken as the average of the higher summits seen in the Strait of Ma-gellan in the grand stretch of mountain and water scenery betweenCape Pillar and Cape Froward. The Strait of Magellan from CapePillar, latitude 52° 43 south, longitude 74° 41 west, to Cape Virgins,latitude 52° 20 south, longitude 68° 20 west, measures 317 miles; inthe narrowest part the width is two miles, and in the broadest reachesfrom ten to seventeen miles. SMYTHS CHANNEL AND THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN.
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