A BOAT EXPEDITION.

"Well I am not sorry we are off again," Marion Renshaw said as the men
ran round with the capstan bars and the anchor came up from the shallow
water. "What a contrast between this and Rio!"

"It is, indeed," Mr. Atherton, who was standing beside her, replied. "I
own I should have liked to spend six months in a snug little craft going
up the La Plata and Parana, especially the latter. The La Plata runs
through a comparatively flat and--I will not say unfertile country,
because it is fertile enough, but--a country deficient in trees, and
offering but small attraction to a botanist; but the Parana flows north.
Paraguay is a country but little visited by Europeans, and ought to be
well worth investigation; but, as you say, I am glad enough to be out of
this shallow water. In a short time we shall be looking out our wraps
again. We shall want our warmest things for doubling Cape Horn, or
rather what is called doubling Cape Horn, because in point of fact we do
not double it at all."

"Do you mean we do not go round it?" Marion asked in surprise.

"We may, and we may not, Miss Renshaw. It will depend upon the weather,
I suppose; but most vessels now go through the Straits which separate
Cape Horn itself from Tierra del Fuego."

"Those are the Straits of Magellan, are they not?"

"Oh, no!" Mr. Atherton replied. "The Straits of Magellan lie still
further to the north, and separate Tierra del Fuego from the mainland. I
wish that we were going through them, for I believe the scenery is
magnificent."

"But if they lie further north that must surely be our shortest way, so
why should we not go through them?"

"If we were in a steamer we might do so, Miss Renshaw; but the channels
are so narrow and intricate, and the tides and currents run with such
violence, that sailing-vessels hardly ever attempt the passage. The
straits we shall go through lie between Tierra del Fuego and the group
of islands of which the Horn is the most southerly."

"Is the country inhabited?"

"Yes, by races of the most debased savages, with whom, I can assure you,
I have no desire whatever to make any personal acquaintance."

"Not even to collect botanical specimens, Mr. Atherton?" the girl asked,
smiling.

"Not even for that purpose, Miss Renshaw. I will do a good deal in
pursuance of my favourite hobby, but I draw the line at the savages of
Tierra del Fuego. Very few white men have ever fallen into their hands
and live