INDIAN GRAVE. 217 



Bpot where we bivoviacked, we were surrounded 

 by bold clifts, and steep pinnacles of porphyry. I 

 do not think I ever saw a spot which appeared 

 more secluded from the rest of the world than this 

 rocky crevice in the wide plain. 



The second day after our return to the anchorage, 

 a party of officers and myself went to ransack an 

 old Indian grave which I had found on the summit 

 of a neighbouring hill. Two immense stones, each 

 probably weighing at least a couple of tons, had 

 been placed in front of a ledge of rock about six 

 feet high. At the bottom of the gi-ave, on the hard 

 rock, there was a layer of earth about a foot deep, 

 which must have been brought up from the plain 

 below. Above it a pavement of flat stones was 

 placed, on which others were piled, so as to fill up 

 the space between the ledge and the two great 

 blocks. To complete the grave, the Indians had 

 contrived to detach from the ledge a huge frag- 

 ment, and to throw it over the pile so as to rest on 

 the two blocks. We undermined the grave on 

 both sides, but could not find any relics, or even 

 bones. The latter probably had decayed long since 

 (in which case the gi-ave must have been of ex- 

 treme antiquity), for I found in another place some 

 smaller heaps, beneath which a very {"ew cnimbling 

 fragments could yet be distinguished as having be- 

 longed to a man. Falconer states, that where an 

 Indian dies he is buried, but that subsequently his 

 bones are carefully taken up and carried, let the 

 distance be ever so great, to be deposited near the 

 sea-coast. This custom, I think, may be accounted 

 for by recollecting, that before the introduction of 

 horses, these Indians must have led nearly the same 

 life as the Fuegians now do, and therefore gener- 

 ally have resided in the neighbourhood of the sea. 

 The common prejudice of lying where one's an- 

 T 



