We will now make a flying leap over the Andes, and accompany Dr. Bronson and his nephew in their voyage from Buenos Ayres through the Strait of Magellan.
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
STRAIT OF MAGELLAN.—FALKLAND ISLANDS.—A PENGUIN CITY.—SANDY POINT.—HUNTING THE OSTRICH AND GUANACO.—PATAGONIAN GIANTS.
The voyage southward from Buenos Ayres was uneventful, as the ocean was calm and the steamer kept well out to sea. There was an agreeable change in the temperature; it became delightfully cool on the day following their departure, and continued so until the coast of Patagonia was sighted, near the entrance of the Strait of Magellan.
Fred was disappointed with his first view of Patagonia. He knew it was a desolate region, but was hardly prepared for the total absence of all vegetation on the shore which he scanned through his glass. It was the shore of the Red Sea without its warmth of sunshine, and the rosy tints for which its name was given. Coming from the rich verdure of the Amazon and the Rio de La Plata, he found the gray, barren landscape of Patagonia doubly forbidding, and his desire for a journey through the country was by no means great.
The entrance to the Strait of Magellan is about twenty-two miles wide; the northerly, or, rather, the northeasterly, point around which the steamer took its course is called Cape Virgens, and the southeastern Cape Espiritu Santo. Almost due east, and about three hundred miles distant, are the Falkland Islands, which belong to Great Britain, and are of more political than practical value. There is excellent pasturage on the islands, and considerable numbers of cattle and sheep are raised there, but the climate is not favorable to agriculture.
