220 TIEREA DEL FUEGO. [chap. x. 



for the fact of a body being invisible from its velocity would 

 perhaps be to him an idea totally inconceivable. Moreover, the 

 extreme force of a bullet, that penetrates a hard substance with- 

 out tearing it, may convince the savage that it has no force at 

 all. Certainly I believe that many savages of the lowest grade, 

 such as these of Tierra del Fuego, have seen objects struck, and 

 even small animals killed by the musket, without being in the 

 least aware how deadly an instrument it is. 



22d. After having passed an unmolested night, in what 

 would appear to be neutral territory between Jemmy's tribe and 

 the people whom we saw yesterday, we sailed pleasantly along. 

 I do not know anything which shows more clearly the hostile 

 state of the different tribes, than these wide border or neutral 

 tracts. Although Jemmy Button well knew the force of our 

 party, he was, at first, unwilling to land amidst the hostile tribe 

 nearest to his own. He often told us how the savage Oens men 

 " when the leaf red," crossed the mountains from the eastern 

 coast of Tierra del Fuego, and made inroads on the natives of 

 this part of the country. It was most curious to watch him 

 when thus talking, and see his eyes gleaming and his whole face 

 assume a new and wild expression. As we proceeded along the 

 Beagle Channel, the scenery assumed a peculiar and very mag- 

 nificent character ; but the effect was much lessened from the 

 lowness of the point of view in a boat, and from looking along 

 the valley, and thus losing all the beauty of a succession of ridges. 

 The mountains were here about three thousand feet high, and 

 terminated in sharp and jagged points. They rose in one un- 

 broken sweep from the water's edge, and were covered to the 

 height of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet by the dusky-coloured 

 forest. It was most curious to observe, as far as the eye could 

 range, how level and truly horizontal the line on the mountain 

 side was, at which trees ceased to grow : it precisely resembled 

 the high-water mark of drift-weed on a sea-beach. 



At night we slept close to the junction of Ponsonby Sound 

 with the Beagle Channel. A small family of Fuegians, who 

 were living in the cove, were quiet and inoffensive, and soon 

 joined our party round a blazing fire. We were well clothed, 

 and though sitting close to the fire were far from too warm ; yet 

 these naked savages, though further off, were observed, to our 



