284 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



point of view in a boat, and from looking along the 

 valley, and thus losing all the beauty of a succes- 

 sion of ridges. The mountains were here about 

 three thousand feet high, and terminated in sharp 

 and jagged points. They rose in one unbroken 

 sweep from the water's edge, and were covered to 

 the height of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet by 

 the dusky-coloured forest. It was most curious to 

 observe, as far as the eye could range, how level 

 and truly horizontal the line on the mountain side 

 was at which trees ceased to grow : it precisely 

 resembled the high- water mark of drift-weed on a 

 sea-beach. 



At night we slept close to the junction of Pon- 

 sonby Sound with the Beagle Channel. A small 

 family of Fuegians, who were living in the cove, 

 were quiet and inoffensive and soon joined our 

 party round a blazing fire. We were well clothed, 

 and though sitting close to the fire, were far from 

 too warm ; yet these naked savages, though further 

 off, were observed, to our great sui*prise, to be 

 streaming with pei'spiration at undergoing such a 

 roasting. They seemed, however, very well pleas- 

 ed, and all joined in the chorus of the seamen's 

 songs ; but the manner in which they were invari- 

 ably a little behindhand was quite ludicrous. 



During the night the news had spread, and ear- 

 ly in the morning (23d) a fresh party arrived, be- 

 longing to the Tekenika, or Jemmy's tribe. Sev- 

 eral of them had run so fast that their noses were 

 bleeding, and their mouths fi'othed from the rapid- 

 ity with which they talked ; and with their naked 

 bodies all bedaubed with black, white,* and red, 



* This substance, when dry, is tolerably compact, and of little 

 specific gravity. Professor Ehrenberg has examined it. He states 

 (Konig Akad. der Wissen : Berlin, Feb., 1845) that it is composed 

 of infusoria, including fourteen polygastrica and four phytolitha- 

 ria. He says that they are all inhabitants of fresh water. This is 



