52 Cruise of the "Alert" 



remarkable for its exceeding toughness. Caulking is effected by 

 stuffing the seams with bark, over which a lacing is carried, and 

 the squarish holes are finally plugged with some vegetable pulpy 

 matter, of which moss is the chief constituent. Two oars, with 

 very large broad blades, are used for propelling the boat, and not 

 paddles, as in the case of the southern Fuegians. A young 

 woman, seated in the stern sheets, steers very dexterously with a 

 short paddle. Such rude boats leak, of course, a good deal, and 

 hence require constant baling out. This office is performed by 

 the old woman of the party, who, crouching amidships, bales out 

 the water with a bark bucket. 



Spears of two kinds are used, one for fishing, the other for 

 sealing. The one for sealing, which is rather a harpoon than a 

 spear, has an arrow-shaped bone head, which is movable, and 

 is attached by a slack line of hide to the spear shaft. The use of 

 the loose line is probably to facilitate the capture of the seal, into 

 which the movable arrow-head has been driven by the impetus 

 conveyed through the detachable shaft. A harpoon similarly 

 constructed is used by the Eskimo hunters for a like purpose. 

 The fish spear is a formidable weapon, having a long bone head 

 securely fixed to the shaft, and with many deep serrations along 

 one side. The shafts of both are about eight feet long, and are 

 made of the young stems of a coniferous tree, the Libocedrus 

 tetragonus. 



Every party that we met with was provided with an iron axe 

 of some kind. The axes are usually made of bits of scrap iron 

 which have been picked up from wrecks, or obtained by barter 

 from passing vessels. Sometimes, though rarely, an axe of civi- 

 lization pattern is seen. In other cases the piece of iron, having 

 been ground into a rude triangular shape, is fitted into a wooden 

 handle, as some of the old stone celts are supposed to have been ; 

 that is to say, the small end of the axehead is jammed into a 

 hole made near the end of a stout piece of stick. I may here 

 mention that, in spite of a most diligent search, I have once, but 



