Notes of a naturalist in South America by John Ball

Author:John Ball [Ball, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-08-26T22:00:00+00:00

HEAVY SEAS OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC.

In the afternoon, as the sea was running very high, the captain set the ship’s head to the wind. We saw him but once, and perceived an anxious expression on his usually jovial countenance. It afterwards came out that he apprehended the continuance of the gale, in which case he might not have ventured to put the helm round so as to enter the Gulf of Peñas. At nightfall, however, the wind fell off, and by midnight the weather was nearly calm, though the ship gave us little rest from the ceaseless rolling. During all this time sounds that issued at intervals from the cabin of the Peruvian lady and her children showed that what was merely a bore to us was to them real misery. I have often asked myself whether there is something about a sea-voyage that develops our natural selfishness, or whether it is because one knows that the suffering is temporary and has no bad results, that one takes so little heed of the really grievous condition of travellers who are unable to bear the movement of the sea. A voyage with sea-sick passengers, especially in bad weather, when one is confined to the saloon, is a good deal like being lodged in one of the prisons of the Spanish inquisition while torture was freely applied to the unhappy victims; and yet persons who are not counted as hard-hearted seem to bear their position with perfect equanimity, if not with something of self-satisfaction.

The morning of the 4th of June was so dark that we supposed our watches to have gone astray. Of course, the days were rapidly growing shorter as we ran to the southward, but the dim light on this morning was explained when we sallied forth. The wind had veered round to the north, and in these latitudes that means a murky sky with leaden clouds above and damp foggy air below. The change, however, was opportune. We were steering about due south-east, entering the Gulf of Peñas, with the dim outline of Cape Tres Montes faintly seen on our larboard bow.

I have already alluded to the peculiar conformation of the south-western extremity of the South American continent, which, from the latitude of 40° south to the opening of the Straits of Magellan, a distance of about nine hundred miles, exhibits an almost continuous range of high land running parallel to the southern extremity of the great range of the Andes. At its northern end this western range, under the names Cordillera Pelada and Cordillera de la Costa, forms part of the mainland of Chili, being separated from the Andes by a broad belt of low country including several large lakes, those of Ranco and Llanquihue being each about a hundred miles in circuit. South of the Canal de Chacao the range is continued by the island of Chiloe and the Chonos Archipelago, and then by the great mountainous promontory whose southern extremity is Cape Tres Montes. Here occurs the widest breach in the continuity of the range, as the Gulf of Peñas is fully forty miles wide.

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