CHAP.X.] SCENERY OF THE MOUNTAINS. i$i 



understood anything which they had asserted. Their sight was remark- 

 ably acute ; it is well known that sailors, from long practice, can make 

 out a distant object much better than a landsman ; but both York and 

 Jemmy were much superior to any sailor on board ; several times they 

 have declared what some distant object has been, and though doubted 

 by every one, they have proved right, when it has been examined 

 through a telescope. They were quite conscious of this power ; and 

 Jemmy, when he had any little quarrel with the officer on watch, would 

 say, " Me see ship, me no tell." 



It was interesting to watch the conduct of the savages, when we 

 landed, towards Jemmy Button ; they immediately perceived the differ- 

 ence between him and ourselves, and held much conversation one with 

 another on the subject The old man addressed a long harangue to 

 Jemmy, which it seems was to invite him to stay with them. But 

 Jemmy understood very little of their language, and was, moreover, 

 thoroughly ashamed of his countrymen. When York Minster afterwards 

 came on shore, they noticed him in the same way, and told him he 

 ought to shave ; yet he had not twenty dwarf hairs on his face, whilst 

 we all wore our untrimmed beards. They examined the colour of his 

 skin, and compared it with ours. One of our arms being bared, they 

 expressed the liveliest surprise and admiration at its whiteness, just in 

 the same way in which I have seen the ourang-outang do at the 

 Zoological Gardens. We thought that they mistook two or three of 

 the officers, who were rather shorter and fairer, though adorned with 

 large beards, for the ladies of our party. The tallest amongst the 

 Fuegians was evidently much pleased at his height being noticed. 

 When placed back to back with the tallest of the boat's crew, he tried 

 his best to edge on higher ground, and to stand on tiptoe. He opened 

 his mouth to show his teeth, and turned his face for a side view ; and 

 all this was done with such alacrity, that I daresay he thought himself 

 the handsomest man in Tierra del Fuego. After our first feeling ol 

 grave astonishment was over, nothing could be more ludicrous than the 

 odd mixture of surprise and imitation which these savages every 

 moment exhibited. 



The next day I attempted to penetrate some way into the country. 

 Tierra del Fuego may be described as a mountainous land, partly 

 submerged in the sea, so that deep inlets and bays occupy the place 

 where valleys should exist. The mountain sides, except on the exposed 

 western coast, are covered from the water's edge upwards by one 

 great forest. The trees reach to an elevation of between 1,000 and 

 1,50x3 feet, and are succeeded by a band of peat, with minute alpine 

 plants ; and this again is succeeded by the line of perpetual snow, which, 

 according to Captain King, in the Strait of Magellan descends to 

 between 3,000 and 4,000 feet. To find an acre of level land in any 

 part of the country is most rare. I recollect only one little flat piece 

 near Port Famine, and another of rather larger extent near Goeree 

 Road. In both places, and everywhere else, the surface is covered by 

 a thick bed of swampy peat. Even within the forest, the ground is 



