GEORGE.  “But are they really giants, papa?”

MR. WILTON.  “Not exactly giants, my dear; not men who could travel in seven league boots:  but they are really large people; many of them seven feet high; and such men seen through a traveller’s microscope, would be magnified to huge giants!”

CHARLES.  “Now, here we are in the land of Fires! and yet it is very cold.  Emma, you are surely not going to name all these little bays?”

EMMA.  “Do not be alarmed, Charles:  I will not so far tax your patience; but we must see Terra del Fuego.  It is divided into three large islands,—­South Desolation, Clarence Island, and King Charles’s Southland; besides which there are hundreds of smaller isles, habited and uninhabited.”

MRS. WILTON.  “Having reached the southern extremity of the American continent, we may take an excursion to some of the neighboring islands; for although they are not all subject to America, still they are nearer to it than to any other country.  To the south of Patagonia there is a number of cold, barren, and mountainous islands; volcanoes which cannot melt, brighten and illumine the perpetual snow in these dismal regions.  Here it was that the sailors observed fires on the southern shores of the strait, for which reason the land on that side was called Terra del Fuego.”

GEORGE.  “Mamma, I wish to know why March is a favorable month for visiting Cape Horn?”

MRS. WILTON.  “Because midsummer takes place in February, and is the best time of the year.  July is the worst month, for then the sun does not rise until nine o’clock, and it sets at three, giving eighteen hours night; and then, also, snow and rain, gales and high winds are in abundance.  Charles, will you favor us with some account of the islands?”

CHARLES.  “Staten is a detached island, which may be considered as forming part of the archipelago of Terra del Fuego.  It was discovered by Lemaire.

“The Falklands are two large islands, separated from each other by a broad channel of the same name.  We are now nearly out of the Atlantic.”

MR. WILTON.  “Yes; we had now better clear the decks, and pipe to supper.”

GEORGE.  “One question more, dear papa.  Can any one tell the depth of the Atlantic?”

MR. WILTON.  “The depth is extremely various, and in many places wholly beyond the power of man to fathom.  The greatest depth that has ever been reached, was effected by Captain Scoresby in the sea near Greenland, in the year 1817, and was 7,200 feet.  Many parts of the Atlantic are thought to be three times this depth.  How much is that, my boy?”

GEORGE. “21,600 feet, papa.”

MR. WILTON.  “Well done!  Now go and discuss mamma’s realities, and try and remember as much as possible of our imaginary wanderings, that they may prove of real utility to you in your journey through life.”

CHAPTER VI.