(Essay by Maria del Carmen Munizaga, Age 14)

Punta Arenas is a town situated on the eastern side of the Brunswick peninsula. It faces the Straits of Magellan, and on the other side of the Strait you can see the big island of Tierra del Fuego. The city has about thirty or forty thousand inhabitants who mainly work in trade connected with the "estancias". The chief buildings are the Intendencia, where the Intendente lives and where the Post Office is, the Boys' High School, the Red Cross headquarters and the Municipality. There are also many large houses and shops. It has four avenues and many squares, the chief avenue being Colon and the principal square being Muñoz Gamero, where the statue of Hernando de Magallanes stands. The commercial streets, where most of the shops are, are Bories, Roca and Errázuriz.

At the back of the town is Cerro de la Cruz, where there is a cross and from where you can see the bay with big ships, schooners and small boats scattered around.

From Punta Arenas go in various directions the routes that join this town by land with Gallegos, Natales, Fort Bulnes and Rio Verde. Gallegos is a small town in Argentina, and Natales another one in Ultima Esperanza. Fort Bulnes is an ancient fort which was built when these territories were conquered, and it has been re-constructed. Rio Verde is at the other side of the peninsula, and is where you cross to Isla Riesco where some of the best coal of Magallanes is found.

In Tierra del Fuego there is another town called Porvenir, which as it is impossible to reach it by land is connected by sea and air to Punta Arenas.

(Essay by Thelma Yonge, Age 16)

Looking at our farm, from the top of a hill, one can see the red-roofed houses with their coloured masses of flowers enclosed in a beautiful dark green hedge. The sides of the houses are white with their windows gleaming in the sun against the clear blue sky. The hills, for miles around, look like an enormous green slightly rippled lake. Here and there can be seen a small streamlet draining the valleys. Their waters are clear, and if you go close to them, you can see the stony beds, with grey patches of soft, fine sand. To the right lies a beautiful stretch of blue water, with a few jagged rocks near the coasts, as sharp as a saw to tear the bottom off any unfortunate fishing-boat. In the distance you can see the white sails and gleaming masts of a yacht skimming over the waters only faintly rippled by the wind, as it nears the inlet. Still farther to the right can be seen very distinctly the clay-coloured cliffs on the shores, and farther still may be seen the blue, snow-capped mountain sides, rising and gently falling, enclosing the farm like the enormous arms of a giant.

Here and there you may come across a small patch of straw-coloured hay-stacks with their sweet smelling straw filling the air round them. If you walk, you will come across white flowers, clover and even animals with their coloured furs making it easy for them to escape their pursuers.

(Essay, based on a school trip, by Richard Dettleff, Age 13)

On Thursday the 9th April we went to the freezer. On arriving Mr. Jones and Mr. Robson showed us around. The first thing we saw was a machine for refining grease or tallow. Then we went to the killing floor, where it was very interesting to see how quickly they killed the sheep. Going to another section we saw where they took the tongues out, and separated the livers and hearts, and others were cleaning skins, and tripes in salt and water. We then went outside and saw a bullock whose job it was later on to take the skins in a cart to a place where they were hung on wires to dry. There we saw some men put the skins in a shed after being dried. The thickest skins took longest to dry. Later we saw the sheep hanging from rails, and each sheep had a stamp on its hind legs, showing it had been inspected. At the end of each rail there was a small board with the name of the farm from which the animals came.

From this point we saw the sheep being classed and weighed. Some were over-weight, and these were sent back on rails to another part of the building. Going downstairs we saw the hearts being placed in boxes, and so later we saw these boxes full of frozen hearts. The we passed along to the freezing chamber, where the meet is frozen. In these chambers it was so cold that my friends and I soon had to go outside, where it seemed like being in a tropical zone after being in the freezing chamber.

We then walked outside to see the pier. At the end there was a winch. The sea was calm and there were many sea-gulls flying about. In the engine-room there were many accumulators to produce current, and leaving the power house we went to the Staff house to enjoy a lovely tea with cakes. Mr. Butland thanked Mr. Jones in the name of us all, and after three hearty cheers we left the bus for Punta Arenas, feeling very happy.