WHERE THE TWO GREAT OCEANS MEET

Perhaps there is no section of the globe about which most well-informed persons know so little as the southern part of South America. Judged by the reports of early discoverers and explorers, this region until recently has been considered a desolate stretch of snow mountains, barren plains, and extensive morasses, sparsely inhabited by a few thousand human beings of the lowest type and worthless to civilized man.

Such a picture is but partly true. Many of the highest mountains are snow-capped throughout the year and are scored by immense glaciers which are constantly moving down their grooved sides; but there are also heavily forested slopes flanked by valleys and plains covered with rich grasses, making most excellent pasturage. The best land, comprising a large area, is now occupied as grazing grounds principally by sheep farmers.

In the early part of the sixteenth century it was rumored that a water passage traversed the southern part of South America. This rumor was proved true in 1520, when Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator in the service of Charles V of Spain, sailed through the strait which now bears his name. He called the passage Todos los Santos literally, “All Saints” but later the name was changed to commemorate the bold captain who discovered the route.

Magellan was the first not only to sail through the strait, but to cross the broad Pacific Ocean, which was so named by him on account of the quietness of its waters. Because he saw the fires built by the natives blazing on the islands along the south side of the channel, he called them Tierra del Fuego, meaning “Land of Fire.”

The Strait of Magellan varies from three to seventy miles in width. The scenery along its shores, low and treeless in the eastern part, elsewhere is mountainous and heavily wooded mainly with beech. In various places lofty precipices rise abruptly from the water’s edge; throughout most of its extent the shore line is rock-bound and studded with islets.

A more picturesque route, and one abounding in the grandest and most stupendous scenery in the world, is that from the Pacific by way of Smyth Channel, the entrance to which is four hundred miles north of the entrance to Magellan Strait. By this route one follows a series of channels and reaches the strait proper near Desolation Island. On account of the dangers besetting this course, underwriters refuse to insure vessels taking it.

It remained for a Hollander named Schouten to discover Cape Horn, in 1616, and thus find a safer way for sailing vessels going from the one great ocean to the other. Schouten named the cape “Hoorn,” from his native city in Holland. Afterward the name was shortened to Horn, which is applied both to the cape and to the island from which it projects. Since the western entrance to the strait is subject to rough, tempestuous weather and strong currents, very few modern sailing vessels take the shorter course, preferring to double the cape. Though doubling the cape is the safer route, yet this passage itself is beset by dangerous storms and tempestuous seas. Fortunate is the sailing master who rounds the Horn with pleasant weather.

Some of the smaller islands of the archipelago are densely wooded and practically unexplored. Gold has been found on the beaches of several of the islands in paying quantities, and these placers have been worked successfully for several years. On the islands are found wild strawberries of great size and fine flavor, wild raspberries, gooseberries, grapes, and celery; in the spring the pastures are covered with a variety of wild flowers. A profusion of ferns is seen almost everywhere. Wild geese and swans are found on the lagoons and lakes in large numbers.

Once upon a time Patagonia, as the southern part of the continent is popularly called, was regarded as a waste; now it is recognized as a wonderfully fertile region, and is being rapidly settled. European colonies have been established there, and they are highly prosperous. The native Indians are disappearing, hurried to extinction chiefly by King Alcohol, which, once tasted, seems to conquer them. Traders know the weakness of these savages, and exploit it for all they are worth. The articles which the Indians chiefly barter are skins, pelts, and ostrich feathers.

The Indians are well supplied with horses, the descendants of those brought to South America by Spanish explorers. They are wonderful riders and excel in the use of a peculiar lasso called the bolas. It consists usually of three balls of stone or metal covered with rawhide and attached to one another by twisted thongs of the same material. In fighting as well as in capturing wild animals, this instrument is indispensable. The operator, holding one of the balls, swings the others over his head and when sufficient momentum has been obtained lets them go. If well aimed, the connected balls circle around the legs of the animal to be caught, entangling and throwing it down.

The Indians of the mainland are strong and tall. Unlike most South American Indians, they go about well clothed. Occasionally they kill their horses for food, but their chief reliance for both food and clothing is the guanaco.

Although the Indians have inhabited this part of South America for centuries, they follow well-beaten trails. They live in a superstitious dread of evil spirits, who they believe dwell in the densely wooded mountain slopes of the Cordillera.

The Indians of Tierra del Fuego archipelago are much inferior to those of the mainland. They go almost or entirely naked and subsist on fish. The canoe Indians, as those in the western part are called, build boats of bark sewn together with sinews. The boats are about fifteen feet long, and in the centre a quantity of earth is carried, upon which a fire is built. The canoe Indians have neither chief nor tribal relations; each family is a law unto itself. They spend most of their time during the day in rowing among the different channels where fish may be obtained. At night they generally go on shore to sleep. A hole scooped out of the ground or a sheltered rock with a few boughs bent down suffices for a house where all can huddle close together for warmth. Seldom do they sleep more than one night in a place, fearing that if they do not move on an evil spirit will catch them.

In the eastern part of Tierra del Fuego and on some of the other larger islands two tribes of Indians are found whose subsistence consists of sea food, guanacos, and such sheep as they can steal. These tribes are continually at enmity with the white settlers and will kill them whenever possible.

In spite of cloudy weather and cold winds, which are common a part of the year, the climate of Patagonia is milder than that of places much farther north, and the sheep require no feeding during the winter season. In the matter of sheep farms this section rivals Australia, since there is no fear of drought. The grass continues green the year around, and the sheep easily fatten upon it.

The drawbacks to successful sheep-growing are many and the business requires constant vigilance. Vultures, foxes, wild dogs, pumas, and Indians make serious inroads on the flocks. The wild dogs live in the surrounding forests and from time to time rush out in packs of from ten to thirty and attack the sheep. Notwithstanding all these troubles, however, the profits of sheep-growing are large.

Russians, Germans, French, Australians, English, and Scotch, many of whom have amassed large fortunes in a few years, are engaged in this lucrative business. As in all other sheep-raising countries, the collie is an invaluable aid to the shepherds. Not only are the principal islands chiefly devoted to sheep-raising, but a considerable part of the southern mainland is also devoted to this industry. On the island of Tierra del Fuego alone there are upward of a million sheep.

Most of the land is leased from the government for a long term of years. Many of the proprietors have enclosed their holdings with wire fences, thereby lessening the expense of caring for their flocks. Some of the holdings range from twenty-five thousand to more than two million acres.

Southern Patagonia has immense numbers of guanacos, or wild llamas. These animals frequent the Andean slopes and the adjacent pampas. During the winter season they come down to the lowlands to drink in the unfrozen lakes and feed upon the herbage. During severe winters sometimes hundreds are found dead from starvation in the valleys near the frozen lakes.

Thousands of wild cattle are found on the eastern slopes of the Andes, but they are difficult to capture; they are exceedingly wary and can scent a man far off. In agility in climbing the steep, rough places they equal the goat. If one of their number is killed the whole herd deserts the locality at night. When wounded they are fierce fighters, if forced into close quarters.

Punta Arenas, or “Sandy Point,” is on the north side of the Strait of Magellan and is Chilean territory. It is a new town cut out of the woods, and even yet many of the streets are diversified by the stumps of big beech trees. The place is an important coaling and provision station and, next to Honolulu, the most important ocean post-office in the world. It has a population of twelve thousand, and is the capital and centre of the great wool industry of the Territory of Magellan, which comprises a majority of the islands south of the mainland, together with the southern part of Patagonia.

A few years ago, in order to encourage the building up of Punta Arenas, the government offered a lot free to any one who would erect a building on it. Many accepted the offer, and to-day some of the lots in the business part of the town are very valuable. Although most of the buildings are constructed with regard to economy rather than beauty, yet some of the business blocks will compare favorably with those of the new cities in the United States.

Like several Australian cities, Punta Arenas was a convict colony. It was founded as such in 1843, and so remained until the European steamships began to thread the strait instead of doubling the Horn. Then it became a coaling station, a supply store, a half-way town, and an ocean post-office. All this business was previously carried on at the Falkland Islands, but the route through the strait settled the business for both places. The Falkland station was abandoned; Punta Arenas became a thriving town. A ticket-of-leave was given to each convict who consented to join the Chilean army.

The town forthwith blossomed into a typical frontier settlement banks and gambling dens, churches and saloons, schools and bullfights. Every race of people and almost every industry is represented there. The Spanish see to it that the Sunday bullfights are correct; the French insure the proper social functions; the Germans manage the banks; and the Americans take the profits of the railways, telegraph lines, and flour-mills. As to latitude, Punta Arenas is cold and inhospitable; but for business and social affairs, it is very, very warm, especially in the matter of social affairs.