NATURE 



577 



THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1892. 



THE YAHGAN. 

 Mission Scicntijique de Cap Horn. Tome VII. "Anthro- 

 pologic, Ethnographic." Par P. Hyades et J. Deniker. 

 (Paris: Gauthicr-Villars ct Fils, 1891.) 



THIS volume contains the record of an important part 

 of the work done by a French scientific Expedition 

 which spent a year at Tierra del Fuego. The Expedi- 

 tion was organized in June 1882 by a Commission 

 appointed by the Academy of Sciences ; and in Nov- 

 ember 1883, after its return to France, it presented to the 

 Academy its preliminary reports. Since the latter date, 

 its results have been embodied in a scries of volumes, 

 prepared under the control of the Commission, and pub- 

 lished under the auspices of the Ministries of Marine and 

 Public Instruction. The first volume contains a history 

 of the voyage, by the late L. F. Martial, the Commander 

 of the Romanche, in which the Expedition sailed. The 

 second volume, by L. Lephay, is devoted to meteorology ; 

 the third, by F. O. Le Cannellier, to terrestrial magnetism ; 

 the fourth, by P. Hyades, to geology ; the fifth, by Hariot, 

 Petit, Bescherelle, Massalongo, and Franchet, to botany. 

 It was originally intended that zoology should also be 

 dealt with in a single volume ; but the material obtained 

 by the Expedition was so rich and of so much scientific 

 importance that three volumes were found to be neces- 

 sary. The present volume, nominally the seventh, is 

 really the ninth, and completes the series. Although Dr. 

 Deniker is associated with Dr. Hyades as one of the 

 authors of this work, he did not accompany the Expedi- 

 tion. He has rendered, however, important service in 

 the working-up of the anthropological and ethnographical 

 data brought back from Cape Horn. 



The book is one in which serious students of anthropo- 

 logy will find much to interest them. It offers a great 

 mass of original observations, made, as Dr. Hyades 

 explains, without any preconceived idea ; and they are 

 not only arranged methodically, but set forth in a style of 

 admirable simplicity and clearness. The volume is also 

 enriched with numerous plates, some of which are finely- 

 executed heliogravures. 



The Fuegians are divided into three groups — the Ona, 

 the Alakalouf, and the Yahgan. The Ona inhabit the 

 great island of Tierra del Fuego from the southern coast 

 of the Strait of Magellan to near the northern shore of 

 Beagle Channel. They are probably a branch of the 

 Patagonians, and the Expedition had no opportunity of 

 seeing any of them. The islands and a part of the main- 

 land to the west of the Ona are inhabited by the Alakalouf, 

 to the south of whom arc the Yahgan. These two peoples 

 speak different languages, but seem to have essentially 

 the same racial characteristics. It was among the 

 Yahgan that Dr. Hyades carried on his studies, and to 

 them the volume almost wholly relates. 



The Expedition brought back the body of a Yahgan 

 who died while the Romanche was at Orange Bay, and 

 who during his lifetime had been subjected to various 

 careful measurements. They also brought the skeleton 

 of a woman and the skeletons of five children ; three 

 skulls (two of men, one of a woman) ; two incomplete 

 skeletons, and various detached bones. These remains 

 NO. I I 73, VOL. 45] 



are made the subject of a thorough anatomical study 

 which is the more valuable because the results at which 

 tlie authors have arrived are compared with those reached 

 by previous investigators. There is also an elaborate 

 chapter on morphological characters, setting forth various 

 classes of facts noted in the course of accurate observa- 

 tion of the physical qualities of living persons. The 

 Yahgan arc mesocephalic, the men having a tendency to 

 be dolichocephalic, the women to be brachycephalic. 

 Most of the South American aborigines are decidedly 

 brachycephalic ; but here and there tribes are found 

 whose skulls resemble those of the Yahgan. This is 

 especially true of the Botocudos, who are also like the 

 Yahgan in being rather below the average height of other 

 natives, and in the form of the face, the nose, and the 

 mouth. Various ancient skulls which have been found at 

 Lagoa Santa in Brazil, at Pontimclo in the Argentine 

 Republic, and elsewhere, have the same general struc- 

 ture as those of the Botocudos and the Yahgan. The 

 authors therefore conclude that these and some other 

 tribes are more or less pure remnants of a race which at 

 one time occupied the greater part of South America, 

 and were displaced by brachycephalic peoples, with 

 whom the survivors to some extent mingled. Of these 

 brachycephalic peoples, the Patagonians alone are very 

 tall, the rest being of moderate height. All, however, 

 whether tall or short, are of a different physical type from 

 the Yahgan. 



The Yahgan live chiefly on fish and mollusks. They 

 also eat any kind of bird they can catch, and are fond of 

 the flesh of the whale, the seal, and the otter. When 

 pressed with hunger, they will eat the fox, but never dogs 

 or rats, the latter being held in abhorrence. Fishing is 

 left entirely to the women, while the men hunt. They have 

 splendid powers of digestion, and assimilate their food so 

 readily that they sometimes become fat in the course of a 

 single day. Their huts are made of branches or of the 

 trunks of trees, the interstices being imperfectly filled up 

 with moss or bark, with fragments of canoes or with 

 sealskin. These slight dwellings are put together in a 

 few hours, and as they admit the wind freely, the air in 

 them is generally fresh. In the centre is a fire, around 

 which the inmates sleep at night, and at other times, 

 when they have nothing else to do, sit talking and laugh- 

 ing. The Yahgan lose early the attributes of youth, but 

 often retain their vigour to a great age. They are very 

 courageous, and enjoy games which test their physical 

 strength. 



Among the women intimate friendships are not un- 

 common, but men generally form attachments to one 

 another only if they have been brought up together. 

 Children are tenderly cared for by their parents, who in 

 return are treated by them with affection and deference. 

 Some men have two or more wives, but monogamy is the 

 rule. The girls do not choose their own husbands ; they 

 must take those whom their parents provide for them. 

 Before marriage they are allowed great liberty, but when 

 they become wives they have less freedom, the husbands 

 being extremely jealous, and being supported by public 

 opinion in punishing severely any departure from con- 

 jugal duty. This account differs from that of some other 

 observers, but Dr. Hyades is confident that his statements 

 on the subject are strictly accurate. Both girls and mar- 

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