1839.] THE FUEGIANS. 73 



of the American Exploring Squadron. The line of perpetual 

 snow descends as low as three thousand feet ; yet, notwith- 

 standing the unfriendliness of the climate, the scenery of the 

 island is in many respects grand and imposing. " There is 

 a degree of mysterious grandeur," says Mr. Darwin, in his 

 Journal of a Voyage round the World," in mountain behind 

 mountain, with the deep intervening valleys, all covered by 

 one thick, dusky mass of forest. The atmosphere, likewise, 

 in this climate, where gale succeeds gale, with rain, hail, and 

 sleet, seems blacker than anywhere else. In the Strait of 

 Magellan, looking due southward from Port Famine, the 

 distant channels between the mountains appeared from their 

 gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this world." 



(7.) Guanacoes, wolves, foxes and otters, are the only wild 

 animals of importance found in Tierra del Fuego. Fish and 

 seals are quite numerous. Among the birds are the cape 

 pigeon, the petrel, and the albatross. Wild fowl, geese, 

 ducks, and plover, are also plenty. The cape pigeons are of 

 a white and lead color ; they fly in large flocks, and seem 

 much attached to each other ; their flesh is equal to that of 

 the American teal. The albatross resembles a goose, and its 

 feathers, down, and quills, are equally valuable ; its meat is 

 dark-colored but not unpalatable ; by sailors, it is considered 

 as a rara avis, indeed, from the fact that it has no gizzard, 

 — and many of them look upon it with the same abhorrence 

 with which the Mussulman regards pork. 



(8.) The Fuegians are elevated by only a few degrees 

 above the brute creation. They have small low foreheads, 

 prominent brows, iliminutive eyes, large mouths, wide nos- 

 trils, thick lips, black lank hair, and long and slender arms. 

 Their bodies are large in comparison with their extremities, 

 but they are rarely over five feet in height. On the eastern 

 coast, the natives wear guanaco skins, and on the western, 

 seal skins. The central tribes have otter skins. Sometimes 

 a small scrap takes the place of a whole skin, and where this 

 is the case, or the skin is too small to protect the whole per- 

 son, it is laced across the breast by strings, and shifted from 



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