INDIAN TRIBES. 



261 



W. wind ; fair. 



12:30 p. m. San Julian ; 

 B. 29.80; F. 49; light 

 N. E. wind ; cloudy. 



No midday observations. 



No midday observations. 



No midday observations. 



No midday observations. 



5 p. m. San Julian ; B. 

 29.77 ; F. 45 ; light N. 

 E. wind ; rain. 



4:30 p. m. Darwin Sta- 

 tion ; B. 29.54; F. 45 ; 

 light S. W. wind ; fair. 



6 p. m. San Julian ; B. 

 29.46; light S. W. 

 wind ; fair. 



5:30 p. m. San Julian ; 



B. 29.62 ; light S. W. 



wind ; fair. 

 No evening observations. 



The author realizes that such statistics as those given in the above table 

 are of very little interest or value to the general reader. It has been com- 

 piled and inserted to meet the requests of a number of persons who have 

 written asking for such tabulated information. 



The Native Indian Tribes. 



The Indians living in this region belong to four distinct tribes, each in- 

 habiting a certain limited area and differing from the others in language, 

 customs, physical development, and especially in the activities necessary 

 to, and the mechanical appliances employed in, the gaining of a livelihood. 



Owing to the natural barriers to social or commercial intercourse pre- 

 sented by the topography of the region, communication between the dif- 

 ferent tribes is now and always has been extremely limited. This long 

 period of comparative isolation has, with one exception, permitted each 

 tribe to remain practically uninfluenced by the others, and has doubtless 

 contributed to produce those linguistic and sociologic features at present 

 so distinctive of each. 



The TeJmelches. — Commencing with the mainland we shall first con- 

 sider the Tehuelches, that so-called race of giants, made famous by the 

 exaggerated accounts of them brought home by the early travellers, from 

 Magellan's time to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Of splendid 

 physique, they are abundantly able to withstand the rigorous climate of 

 the bleak, treeless plains of eastern Patagonia, where they live and find 



