THE TEHUELCHE INDIANS. 265 



hundred horses, thus necessitating the selection of a site near abundant 

 grazing lands. 



The coming of the Spaniard among the Tehuelches has resulted in the 

 disappearance of still other implements than the bow and arrow. Scat- 

 tered about the old village sites are numerous pieces of broken pottery, 

 though the manufacture of pottery is now a lost art with the Tehuelches. 

 Upon examination of many of the more perfect of these earthen vessels, 

 it was found that they were punctured with a series of small holes in the 

 bottom, and that the inner surface, over the bottom and a considerable 

 portion of the sides also, was blackened and charred, thus bearing unmis- 

 takable evidence of having been subjected to the continued action of fire. 

 It occurred to me that such earthen vessels were used for conveying fire 

 from one encampment to another, when on the march. Upon enquiry, I 

 was pleased to hear this theory confirmed by an aged Tehuelche woman, 

 who remembered distinctly that, in her childhood, fire was frequently 

 transported with them, when on the march. 



The Tehuelches find their chief employment in hunting the guanaco and 

 rhea, or South American ostrich. The region inhabited by them extends 

 northward from the Strait of Magellan, along the western border of that 

 part of the county at present occupied by the prosperous Patagonian 

 sheep farmers, which lies adjacent to the Atlantic coast. This sheep- 

 farming district extends westward from the coast for an average distance 

 of about thirty miles. Between this thirty-mile strip and the Andes is the 

 home of the Tehuelche. Of all the habitable portions of the earth's sur- 

 face it is, perhaps, the most sparsely settled. Notwithstanding its natural 

 resources, over thousands of square miles it is entirely uninhabited. For 

 the most part, it is indeed comparatively barren, especially in the lava beds 

 of the central interior region, but to the westward, over the lower slopes 

 of the Andes and in the valleys entering the mountains, there are exceed- 

 ingly fertile areas, capable of supporting considerable populations, but 

 at present quite unoccupied by either Indians or Europeans. The writer, 

 with Mr. O. A. Peterson, spent five months of travel, during the summer 

 of 1896 and 1897, in the country between the sources of the Santa Cruz 

 and Desire Rivers, without meeting either whites or natives. 



The Tehuelche is and always has been a plainsman. His methods and 

 the implements employed by him in the chase are designed for a level 

 and open country and are not adapted to rough, mountainous, or wooded 



