56 Cruise of the u Alert ^ 



gonia, between the parallels of 47 and 52 , and whom Fitzroy 

 denominates the Chonos or Channel Fuegians. In Fitzroy's 

 account of the Fuegians, he naturally selected as his type the 

 people with whom he was best acquainted, viz., the Tekeenicas, 

 who inhabit the shores of the Beagle Channel. These people 

 build conical wigwams, which are made of large poles leaning 

 to from a circular base, with their upper ends meeting in a 

 point. Their canoes are built of bark, and are small and skiff- 

 shaped. They also use bows and arrows, and stone slings, and 

 in this respect are considerably in advance of the Channel 

 Fuegians. 



In their methods of disposing of the dead, the Fuegian tribes 

 differ somewhat strangely. Fitzroy tells us that among the 

 Tekeenicas, Alikhoolips, and Pecherays, the bodies of the dead 

 are carried a long way into the interior of the forest, where they 

 are placed upon broken timber, and then covered up with 

 branches. On this subject some information has recently been 

 obtained from the missionaries, who have now for some years 

 maintained a settlement at a place called Ushuwia, in the 

 Beagle Channel. We heard, on the authority of these gentlemen, 

 that a form of cremation is now commonly practised among the 

 Tekeenicas, and that charred human bones may often be found 

 among the embers of the funeral pyre. The Fuegians of the 

 Western Channels, as I have mentioned already, deposit their 

 dead in caves. 



To continue with Tom Bay. The month of January is here 

 the breeding season with most of the water birds. About the 

 middle of the month the steamer-ducks {Tachyeres cinereus) and 

 the kelp geese (Bemicla antarcticd) were paddling about with their 

 young ones ; and the oyster-catchers {Hcematopus leucopus, and ater), 

 with their young broods, occupied the small low rocky islets, 

 where they made themselves conspicuous by their shrill piping 

 cry. We remarked that the kelp geese, which, as a rule, never 

 wet their feet, except with the damp seaweed of the fore-shore, 



