IN THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN 



ii 



arrows, or rough paddles for ship biscuit and misfit clothing. They 

 were even willing to trade their children. The canoe was apparently 

 the only article not for sale. It seems to represent home and fireside, 

 the few brush and leaf-covered bowers we saw on shore being merely 

 hastily made night camps and wet ones at that. The canoe conveys the 

 people from mussel bank to sea-bird rookery in the continual search for 

 food. It is not likely that they often get seals, as their spears appear 

 too rude — merely short poles with the bark on, the bone points being 

 tied on in the roughest manner. Besides there never seemed to be 

 enough seal skins to provide each member of the group with a cover 

 for his shoulders. Naked children huddled close to their mothers for 

 shelter from wind and rain. We made no measurements, but my recol- 

 lection is that none of these savages exceeded five feet in height. The 

 faces of the adults were all utterly barbarous. We saw but one dog 

 among these people, where he may have been of more importance as 

 possible food than as an aid in the capture of food. It is not unlikely 

 that the natives get plenty of young seals during the season when the 

 animals are breeding on the outlying rocks. 



In Punta Arenas I purchased from a trader a rough Fuegian basket, 

 but did not ascertain from what tribe it was derived. 



Our photographs show Fuegians with clothing, but we had supplied 

 it. We had at last found primitive man. It is doubtful if he exists in 

 greater simplicity anywhere else to-day. 



The natives of Fuegia are quite different from the Patagonian 

 tribes and are known as the Onas, inhabiting the interior of Tierra del 

 Fuego proper and subsisting largely by the hunt of the wild guanaco; 



Fuegians. Otter Bay, Straits of Magellan. 



