RED MOUNTAIN WOLF (CANIS MONTANUS)
CHAPTER XIX
FIRST PASSING THROUGH HELLGATE
Rumour of important undiscovered river—Wish to settle question—Dr. Moreno's description of Lake Argentino—Start for Hellgate—Description of Hellgate—Squall—Sunshine—Scenery—Icebergs—Danger-dodging—Absence of life on banks—West channel of North Fjord—Events of voyage—Giant's Glacier—Camera—Second glacier—Deep water—End of west channel—Return to North Fjord—Icebergs—In difficulties with launch—Escape from a reef—Land on peninsula—Guanaco—Fish—Fish and fariña—Heavy gales—Photographs—One more attempt to go up North Fjord—Driftwood—Driven back—Return to Cow Monte Harbour—South Fjord—Storms—Mount Avellaneda—Small fjord—Trouble with launch—Squalls—Launch driven ashore—On fire—Fine weather—Glacier calves—Thousands of square miles of forest unexplored.
"An important river flows into the end of the north fjord (of Lake Argentino) with clear waters—a sure sign that it proceeds from another great lake still unknown."
In these words, taken from the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society for September 1899, under the head of "Explorations in Patagonia," by Dr. Moreno, you have the idea which was the spring of all our efforts in bringing down the launch to Lake Argentino and the aim of the subsequent voyages made in her.
The opening to the north passage or fjord is locally known as Hellgate, so called on account of the rough weather which usually prevails there. The spot is the opening of a long winding channel that, running up between beetling cliffs and forested mountain-sides as it were into the heart of the Andes, becomes simply a vast funnel through which the winds and storms discharge themselves upon the lake at all times and seasons. I cannot give a better description of Lake Argentino than by using the following extract from Dr. Moreno's account:
"Lake Argentino ... extends sixty miles to the west; and the fjords of the extreme west divide into three arms, which receive the waters of large glaciers from Mount Stokes up to the vicinity of Lake Viedma. An important river flows into the end of the north fjord, with clear waters—a sure sign that it proceeds from another great lake still unknown. The western end is closed by the main chain of the Cordillera with its glaciers, which cross to the Pacific fjords of Peel Inlet and St. Andrew's Sound, and one can distinguish peaks more than 10,000 feet, as Mount Agassiz (10,597 feet)."
