Chile and Her People of To-day: An Account of the Customs, Characteristics, Amusements, History and Advancement of the Chileans, and the Development and Resources of Their CountryWinter, Nevin O. (Nevin Otto)
History
Chile and Her People of To-day: An Account of the Customs, Characteristics, Amusements, History and Advancement of the Chileans, and the Development and Resources of Their Country
Winter, Nevin O. (Nevin Otto)
Chile; National characteristics, Chilean
One-fourth or more of the territory of Chile is made up of islands. The
largest of these, of course, is Tierra del Fuego, of which a little more
than one-half is Chilean territory. The coast from Puerto Montt to the
southern limits of the continent is notched and indented with fiords and
inlets, and scores of islands have been formed, probably by volcanic
action. Few of these have claimed any attention, and, of all those lashed
by the waves of the Antarctic seas, Tierra del Fuego is the only one
that has received any development. The sheep man has taken possession of
portions of that island, and hundreds of thousands of sheep now graze on
its succulent grasses. The island of Chiloé, near Puerto Montt, is one
of the most important of the islands, and several small foreign colonies
have been located on its rich soil. Some of the islands are very remote
from the mainland. The most isolated one is Pascua, or Easter, island,
which is at a distance of more than two thousand miles from the coast.
It is almost in the centre of the Pacific Ocean. The San Felix and San
Ambrosio groups, and that of Juan Fernandez, the reputed home of Robinson
Crusoe, are also at a distance of several hundred miles from the shores
of the republic.
From the northern boundary to Concepción, the coast line is generally
uniform and indentations are rare. There are only a few bays of any
considerable size, and only an occasional cape or promontory. From Chiloé
to Tierra del Fuego is a stretch of coast five hundred miles in length,
which a glance at the map will show is a perfect network of islands,
peninsulas and channels. This is the Chilean Patagonia. It provides
scenery as grandly picturesque as the famous fiords along the coast of
Norway, and greatly resembles that broken and rugged coast. The bays and
gulfs cut into the shores to the foothills of the Andean range. They
are of great depth. The Gulf of Las Peñas furnishes an entrance to this
labyrinth at the north, and the Straits of Magellan at the south. Some
of the passes are so narrow that they seem like gigantic splits in the
mountain ranges—grandly gloomy and narrow. Through these openings in the
rock the water rushes with terrific force owing to the action of the
tides. But, once within, the opening broadens out into little bays, where
the waters are as calm and serene as a mountain lake. These channels
are a vast Campo Santo, or God’s Acre, of wrecked vessels. Numerous as
the disasters have been the sight of a stranded boat is rare, for the
grave is usually hundreds of fathoms deep. In every case, however, the
wrecked vessel has given her name to the rock that brought disaster, and
the official charts are dotted with the names of rocks, which thus form
eternal headstones for the unfortunate vessels. One writer has given the
following account of these channels:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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