To a passenger on one of these ships that seems to be the most important question to be asked and answered. Speculation as to the time of reaching port, of remaining in port, of departing, of the length of the cruise, as to the routine or even unusual work to be accomplished--all these seem to be of minor importance to the question as to when the mail will come. The American man-o'-warsman surely does love his home and people. "God's country and God's people!" is the way he puts it. Apparently what he cares for most in all the world is mail from God's country and God's people. But there will be no mail for the ships here at Punta. There used to be a hidden post office in the straits for sailormen. It was where the Indians could not find it. Letters and papers were left there to be mailed and reading matter was dropped behind for another vessel to pick up. It is said that never was that strange mail box trifled with and never robbed. But all that was years ago. Now there is a modern city of something like 12,000 people here, with a Chilean post office to see that things are managed properly; but the mails are irregular, for they still depend for their despatch more or less on the irregular calls of steamers. Of course there are certain vessels which make regular trips, but these are few and far between, and you never know when you mail a letter here how long it will be before it reaches its destination. If you don't find the old sea post office here there is one thing you do find, and it exists nowhere else in the world. Did you ever hear about the willywaws? No? Well, you see 'em here when the season's right. Did you ever see a hobgoblin? No? Well, a willywaw isn't a hobgoblin. Neither is it anything like a willy-boy. Any one who knows what willywaws are knows they are a thousand times worse. Well, what is a willywaw? We'll save that for another article. You see there might not be much else to write about. CHAPTER VII PUNTA ARENAS THE WORLD'S JUMPING-OFF PLACE Pleasant and Busy Life in City of Perpetual Winter--Wealthy and Well Ruled--Millions Made in Wool, Mutton and Furs--One Splendid Mansion Amid Many Corrugated Iron Buildings--Famine in Postal Cards--Jack on Horseback--Officers Found More Fun in Social Gatherings Than Out in the Wilds--Surreptitious Traffic of a Free Port. _On Board U. S. S. Louisiana, U. S. Battle Fleet_, PUNTA ARENAS, Feb. 7. Punta Arenas is known commonly as the jumping-off place of the earth. The generally accepted meaning of that characterization is that it is not only the southernmost settlement of any size of civilized people in the world, but that it is the most forlorn, dreary, desolate place that any one could find in which to live.