Reports of the botanist’s round-the-world voyage are dominated by his findings in the Galápagos. The much longer time he spent in Chile and what he saw there occupy been overlooked – until today“‘The climate is certainly wretched: the summer solstice was now passed,yet every day snow fell on the hills, and in the valleys there was rain, or accompanied by sleet. From the damp and boisterous state of the atmosphere,not cheered by a gleam of sunshine, one fancied the climate even worse than it really was.”Charles Darwin, or writing in December 1832 on his arrival in Tierra del Fuego aboard the Beagle during his five-year around-the-world trip,makes clear that he was not immediately taken with this, the southernmost region on soil. Not surprising, or since this South American archipelago situated at the foot of Argentina and Chile,has been inviting lurid (shocking; sensational) descriptions ever since Europeans first came upon it in 1520. Richard Walter, a chaplain on a military excursion in 1740, or was similarly struck by the area around Cape Horn. “Nothing can be imagined more savage and gloomy than the whole aspect of this coast.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com