es of ice, sometimes larger than a ship, are
continually breaking off, with a noise like thunder, and falling into
the water, sending huge waves across to the opposite shore, and
sometimes completely blocking up the channels. Some of these glaciers,
composed entirely of blue and green ice and the purest snow, are
fifteen and twenty miles in length. They are by far the finest we
have, any of us, ever seen; and even those of Norway and Switzerland
sink into comparative insignificance beside them. The mountains here
are not so high as those of Europe, but they really appear more lofty,
as their entire surface, from the water's edge to the extreme summit,
is clearly visible. At this end of the Straits they terminate in
peaks, resembling Gothic spires, carved in the purest snow; truly
'virgin peaks,' on which the eye of man has but seldom rested, and
which his foot has never touched. They are generally veiled in clouds
of snow, mist, and driving rain, and it is quite the exception to see
them as distinctly as we now do.

After leaving Mayne's Channel, and passing through Union and
Collingwood Sounds, we found ourselves beneath the shadow of the
splendid Cordilleras of Sarmiento--quite distinct from Mount
Sarmiento, already referred to--along the foot of which extended the
largest glacier we have yet seen.[5] With Tarleton Pass on our right
hand, and Childer's Pass on the left, we came in sight of Owen's
Island, one extremity of which is called Mayne Head, and the other
Cape Brassey, these places having all been so named by Captain Mayne,
during his survey in the 'Nassau,' in 1869. Near the island of
Esperanza, the clouds having by that time completely cleared away, and
the sun shining brightly, we had a splendid view of another range of
snowy mountains, with Stoke's Monument towering high in their midst.
The numerous floating icebergs added greatly to the exquisite beauty
of the scene. Some loomed high as mountains, while others had melted
into the most fanciful and fairy-like shapes--huge swans, full-rigged
ships, schooners under full sail, and a hundred other fantastic forms
and devices. The children were in ecstasies at the sight of them.

[Footnote 5: I should explain that the names of places in these
Straits frequently occur in duplicate, and even triplicate, which is
rather confusing.]

As we gradually opened out our anchorage--Puerto Bueno--we found a
steamer already lying there, which proved to be the 'Dacia,' tel