of southern
Chile into two or more distinct earthquake areas.

Coast.

The coast of Chile is fringed with an extraordinary number of islands
extending from Chiloe S. to Cape Horn, the grouping of which shows
that they are in part the summits of a submerged mountain chain, a
continuation southward of the Cordillera Maritima. Three groups of
these islands, called the Chiloe, Guaytecas and Chonos archipelagoes,
lie N. of the Taytao peninsula (lat. 45 deg. 50' to 46 deg. 55' S.), and
with the mainland to the E. form the province of Chiloe. The largest of
these is the island of Chiloe, which is inhabited. Some of the smaller
islands of these groups are also inhabited, though the excessive
rainfall of these latitudes and the violent westerly storms render
them highly unfavourable for human occupation. Some of the smallest
islands are barren rocks, but the majority of them are covered with
forests. These archipelagoes are separated from the mainland in the
north by the gulfs of Chacao (or Ancud) and Corcovado, 30 to 35 m.
wide, which appear to be a submerged part of the great central valley
of Chile, and farther south by the narrower Moraleda channel, which
terminates southward in a confusing network of passages between the
mainland and the islands of the Chonos group. One of the narrow parts
of the Chilean mainland is to be found opposite the upper islands of
this group, where the accidental juxtaposition of Magdalena island,
which indents the continent over half a degree at this point, and the
basin of Lake Fontana, which gives the Argentine boundary a sharp
wedge-shaped projection westward, narrows the distance between the
two to about 26 m. The Taytao peninsula, incorrectly called the Tres
Montes on some maps, is a westward projection of the mainland, with
which it is connected by the narrow isthmus of Ofqui, over which the
natives and early missionaries were accustomed to carry their boats
between the Moraleda Channel and Gulf of Penas. A short ship canal
here would give an uninterrupted and protected inside passage from
Chacao Channel all the way to the Straits of Magellan, a distance of
over 760 m. A southern incurving projection of the outer shore-line of
this peninsula is known as Tres Montes peninsula, the most southern
point of which is a cape of the same name. Below the Taytao peninsula
is the broad open Gulf of Penas, which carries the co