Native Canoes tmder Sail. 



65 



line, stopping at Puerto Bucno about mid -winter, captured three 

 or four in the immediate vicinity of the anchorage. We our- 

 selves never met with any, although we saw doubtful indications 

 of their presence ; but further south we obtained portions ot 

 a deer from • a native canoe. I was led to form the above- 

 mentioned idea from comparing the great number of deserted 

 wigwams which we encountered in our wanderings about these 

 channels, with the small number of natives actually seen. The 

 huts alluded to, moreover, bore indications of having been in 

 use not many months previously, when they were probably 

 inhabited temporarily by parties of natives on their way to 

 the outer coasts. Fitzroy would seem to have entertained the 

 same belief with reference to tribes about Smyth's Channel, 

 from the fact that a party of men from his ship, when survey- 

 ing Obstruction Sound in the sinnincr-tiim, discovered a large 

 deserted encampment containing many huts and canoes, and 

 showing signs of its being the site of a great periodical gathering 

 of the clans. 



FUEGIANS OFFERING THEIR CHILL)RE>4 FOR BARTER (/. 74). 



