PATAGONIAN LADIES. 253 



carried to my temporary home. As the sun set before 

 four o'clock, it was already dark before I was in- 

 stalled in my new quarters, and the evening was spent 

 under the hospitable roof of Dr. Fenton, from whom 

 I received much interesting information as to the 

 region which he has made his home, and the in- 

 digenous population. On my way to his house I saw 

 the first specimens of the Patagonian Indians, who at 

 this season frequent the settlement to dispose of skins, 

 chiefly gnanaco and rhca, and indulge in their ruling 

 passion for ardent spirits. Two ladies of large and 

 stout build, attired in shabby and torn European 

 dress, and both far gone in intoxication, were standing 

 at a door of a shop or store, and indulging in loud 

 talk for the entertainment of a circle of bystanders. 

 The language was, I presume, their native dialect, 

 with here and there a word of Spanish or English, 

 and the subject seemed to be what with us would be 

 called chaff, as their remarks elicited frequent peals of 

 laughter. I was suddenly reminded of a drunken Irish 

 basket-woman whose freaks had been the cause of 

 mingled alarm and amusement in my early childhood. 



During the day the streets of Punta Arenas were 

 deep in mud, but as I went home at night, the sky 

 was cloudless, a sharp frost had set in, and the mud 

 was hard frozen. I had not before enjoyed so fiqe 

 a view of the southern heavens. The cross was 

 brilliant, nearly in the zenith, and I made out clearly 

 the dark starless spaces that have been named the 

 coal-sacks. 



I was on foot before daylight on the nth of Junfc. 

 The benevolent German who managed Mr. Meidell's 



