Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

SARMIENTO MODEIIN SUKVEYS. 565 Strait of Magalhaens) to the island of Chiloe, may be said to have been wholly unknown ; for since the time of Sarmiento de Gamboa nothing in the least descriptive of it had been pub- lished, with the exception of the brief notices of two missionary voyages in piraguas, from Chiloe to the Guiateca and Guaianeco islands. Every person conversant with South American geography, must be acquainted with the voyage of Sarmiento. From the deter- mined perseverance shown by that excellent and skilful navigator, through difficulties of no ordinary nature, we are possessed of the details of a voyage down the western coast, and through the Strait of Magalhaens, that has never been surpassed. His journal has furnished us with the description of a coast more difficult and dangerous to explore than any which could readily be selected — for it was at that time perfectly unknown, and is exposed to a climate of perpetual storms and rain : yet the account is written with such minute care and correctness, that we have been enabled to detect upon our charts almost every place described in the Gulf of Trinidad, and the channels to the south of it, particularly their termination at his Ancon sin Salida. It would be irrelevant to enter here into the history of Sar- miento's voyage, or indeed of any other connected with these coasts. Moderji surveys are made so much more in detail than those of former years, that little use can be made of the charts and plans that have been hitherto formed ; but the accounts of the voyages connected with them are replete with interesting and useful matter, and much amusement as well as information may be derived from their perusal, particularly Sir John Narborough's journal, and Byron's romantic and pathetic narrative of the loss of the Wager. The Cordillera of the Andes, which is known to extend from the northern part of the continent almost to its southern extremity, decreases in elevation near the higher southern latitudes. In the neighbourhood of Quito, Chimborazo and Pinchincha rear their summits to the height of nearly twenty-tAvo thousand feet above the level of the sea ; near Santiago de Chile the highest land is supposed to be foui'teen thousand feet ; farther south, near Con- cepcion, it is lower ; and near Chiloe there are few parts of the range exceeding seven thousand feet. Between Chiloe and the