212 TJEIIRA DEL FUEGO. . [chap. x. 



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now and then a pufF from the mountains, which made the ship 

 surore at her ancliors. 



December 2oth. — Close by tlie cove, a pointed hill, called 

 Ivater's Peak, rises to liie height of 1700 feet. The surronnd- 

 mg islands all consist of conical masses of greenstone, associated 

 sometimes with less regular hills of baked and altered clay-slate. 

 This part of Tierra del Fuegj may be considered as the extremity 

 "of the submerged chain of mountains already alluded to. Tlie 

 cove takes its name of '• AVigwam" from some of the Fuegian 

 habitations ; but every bay in the neighbourhood might be so 

 called witii equal propriety. The inliabitants, living cliiefly u])oii 

 shell -fish, are obliged constantly to change their place of resi- 

 dence ; but they return at intervals to the same spots, as is evi- 

 dent from the piles of old shells, which must often amount to 

 many tons in weight. These heaps can be distinguished at a 

 long distance by the bright green colour of certain plants, which 

 invariably grow on them. Among these may be enumerated the 

 wild celery and scurvy grass, two very serviceable plants, the 

 use of which has not been discovered by the natives. 



The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and dimensions, a 

 haycock. It merely consists of a few broken branches stuck in 

 the ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one side with a 

 few tufts of grass and rushes. The whole cannot be the work of 

 an hour, and it is only used for a few days. At Goeree Roads 

 I saw a place where one of these naked men liad slept, which 

 absolutely oifered no more cover than the form of a hare. Tlie 

 man was evidently living by himself, and York Minster said he 

 was " very bad man," and that probably he had stolen something. 

 On the west coast, however, the wigwams are rather better, for 

 they are covered with seal-skins. AVe were detained here several 

 days by the bad weather. Tiie climate is certainly wretched : 

 the summer solstice was now passed, yet every day snow fell ori 

 the hills, and in the valleys there was rain, accompanied by sleet. 

 Tlie thermometer generally stood about 45°, but in the night 

 fell to 38° or 40^*. From the damp and boisterous state of the 

 atn^iosphere, not cheered by a gleam of sunshine, one fancied the 

 climate even worse than it really was. 



While going one day on shore near "Wollaston Island, we 

 pulled alongside a canoe with .six Fuegians. These were the 



