Part Iii the Strait of Magellan(1)
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PART III THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN(1) CHAPTER I. THE STRAIT IN GENERAL(2). Section r . The topography of'the Strait etc. The Strait of Magellan is the waterway between the mainland of South America and the archipelago lying west of this on the one hand and the groups of islands which are usually described under the name of Tierra del on the other. The ' single Fuego mouth of the Strait towards the Atantic Ocean is most sharply marked on the north by Cape Virgins 3 ) . Patagonia's most south- easterly cape is really the much lower Cape Dungeness and there- fore the Strait is really separated from the Atlantic by a line drawn from the latter Cape to Cape Espiritu Santo (the most north- ( i ) The spelling usually used in works on international law and which is derived from the Spanish description of the Strait and the Province is used here instead of the Portuguese "Magelhaes" which is derived from the home of the dis- coverer. (2) The information given in this chapter as to the topography, history and economic and military conditions of the Strait is based principally upon Carl Martin: Linderkunde von Chile, 2nd Ed. Hamburg 1923 (the standard work) and Au- gustin Edwards: My native land, London 1928 Chapter XIII: Magellanes and Tierra del Fuego. Of other more modern works mention may be made of the standard Spanish work Pablo Pastell: El Describementio del Estrecho de Ma- gellanes, Madrid 1920 pubiished on the occasion of the 4ooth anniversary of the discovery of the Strait, Gustav Goedel: Durch die Magellanstrasse (in "Meeres- kunde" Year VIII, Part 7) and Jean Denuse: Magellan, Brussels, 1911. But other sources have been utilised such as Marineleitung: Handbuch der Ostkuste Sudamerikas. Edition 1902 p. 64z et seq., and Handbuch der Magellanstrasse (1930). (3) Spanish "Cabo de las onze mil Virgenes" i, e. the Cape of the i i,ooo Virgins as Magellan called it after the patron saint of the day on which he reached it (October 21set) i. e. St. Ursula, who with her i i,ooo maidens suffered martyr- dom at the hands of the Huns during the siege of Cologne. 4 easterly cape in the principal island of Tierra del Fuego) which lies right opposite. It is separated from the Pacific Ocean by a line drawn from Cape Victoria (I) to Cape Pillar (2). The Strait, which has been aptly compared with an "accent circonflexe" ( 3 ) is in form like a triangle placed off the southermost part of the continent of South America, Brunswick Peninsula, round the southern point of which, Cape Froward, it winds from' south-east to north-east so that it is divided into an eastern and a western part. The "base" of - the triangle i. e. the line Cape Virgins Cape Victoria is as the crow flies only 240 nautical miles(5) long but its "sides" are re- spectively r 6o nautical miles (the eastern one) and ISO nautical miles ( the western one). Thus the total length of the Strait is 310 nautical miles or about s7 s kilometres. In the eastern part of the Strait quite small "narrows" alternate with broad stretches which are as much as 40 km wide. The coasts consist of low hills partly grass-covered and separated by exten- sive plains. For the whole length from the eastern entrance to the Elisabeth Peninsula i. e. immediately before the Second Narrows there is not a tree to be seen. The depth of this part of the S,trait is not more than 80 metres. The western part is different. Here it is . narrow and the coasts consist of very rugged rocks, alternating with precipitous mountains partly covered with forest, from vwhase snow-clad summits the glaciers made their way down to the Strait which is some several hundred metres deep. The eastern part gives an open and friendly impression but the western gives an impres- - sion of desolate and inhospitable gloom "a Bocklin picture" as it has been called(6) of which names such as Useless Bay, Punta (1) The most south westerly of the Queen Adelaide group of islands. (2) This Magellan called El Cabo Deseado (i. e. "what was most longed for"). It is the most north-westerly point of Desolation Island. Some authors however e. g. Abribat at p. r 5 considerthat the outlet of the Strait in the Pacific is better shewn by a line drawn from some small islands, the so-called Evangelist Islands right out in the Chilean skerries to Cape Pillar. (3) Abribat p. 13. (4) It is really at the point - Cape Forward - where the oceans meet cf. Goedel I. c. p, 151("Die Amerika-Achse"). (5) The line from Cape Virgins to Cape Victoria follows the 52nd parallel of lati- tude so exactly that if we imagine a vessel sailing out of one mouth of the - Strait and continuing round the earth on this parallel of latitude which would - be impossible without obstructions caused by the land it would arrive at the other mouth. (6) Goedel loc. cit. p. 5. The Magellan landscape has, according to Edwards loc. cit. inspired some lines in the poem "El encanto de las Lluvias" ("The rain's enchant- ment") by the Chilean poet Francisco Contreras which have been rendered by .