26o NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



although not a professed naturalist, appears to be an 

 accurate observer. 



The Patagonian Indians who frequent Punta Arenas 

 to dispose of skins appear to be rapidly diminishing 

 in numbers, and one good observer believes that they 

 are now to be counted rather by hundreds than by 

 thousands. The chief cause is doubtless the destruc- 

 tive effect of ardent spirits. They commonly expend 

 nearly everything they gain in drink, but after re- 

 covering from a fit of beastly intoxication they usually 

 invest whatever money remains in English biscuits, 

 which they carry off to the interior. Here, as well 

 as at many other places in South America, I heard 

 curious stories showing the extraordinary estimation 

 in which Messrs. Huntley and Palmer are held by the 

 native population. Among the curious customs of 

 these Indians, Dr. Fenton told me that as soon as a 

 child is born one or more horses are assigned to it as 

 property, and if the child should die, as they often do, 

 prematurely, the horses are killed. He further says 

 that a childless Indian not rarely adopts a dog, the 

 ceremony being marked by assigning horses to the 

 dog as his property, and that, as in the case of the 

 human child, at the dog's death the horses are killed. 



Agreeing with most of those who have observed the 

 Fuegians in their native home. Dr. Fenton is sceptical 

 as to the possibility of raising that hapless tribe above 

 their present condition. All honour is due to the 

 devoted men who have laboured at the mission station 

 at Ushuaia in the Beagle Channel, and it may be that 

 some partial success has been obtained with children 

 taken at an early age. But, looking around at the 



