44 Cruise of the "Alert" 



one, about twenty feet long and two and a half feet wide, formed 

 the bottom, while the other four, each one and a half foot in 

 width, formed the sides. The bottom plank was turned up at 

 the ends, so as to form a flat bow and stern of nearly similar 

 shape ; and to this plank, as well as to each other, the side 

 pieces were secured by a lacing passed through rude square- 

 shaped holes about an inch in area, which were made in an 

 even row close to the edges of the planks. The lacing used 

 for this purpose is the tough stem of a bignoniaceous creeper 

 (the Campsidum chilense), which is commonly seen twining round 

 the tall forest trees, forming festoons from branch to branch, 

 and again extending from the horizontal branches vertically 

 downwards like the cordage of a ship. Caulking was effected 

 by stuffing the seams with moss and strips of the winter's bark 

 (bark of the Drimys winteri), over which the lacing was carried ; 

 and the square-shaped holes were plugged with some pulpy 

 vegetable matter, of which moss seemed to be the chief con- 

 stituent. The oars were made of young stems of the Libocedrus 

 tetragonus, to one end of which elliptical pieces of wood were 

 lashed by way of blades. These oars were used in the ordinary 

 way, the loom resting on crescentic-shaped crutches, fashioned 

 out of a single piece of wood, and lashed to the gunwale. The 

 everlasting Fuegian fire, from which Tierra del Fuego derives 

 its name, burned in the middle of the boat, resting on a bed 

 of clay; and the half-decomposed head of a seal, which either 

 the natives or the dogs had recently been gnawing, completed 

 the furniture of this crazy vessel. The hut in which the women 

 were shut up was a haycock-shaped arrangement, composed of a 

 skeleton framework of boughs, over which were thrown several 

 old. skins of the sea-lion (Otaria jubata). The chief of this party, 

 who was, by the way, the tallest Fuegian ever seen by us, we 

 found by measurement to be five feet four inches in height. One 

 hut accommodated the entire party, consisting, as I have said, 

 of four men, four women, and five dogs. 



