1832.] WRETCHED NATIVES. 215 



amount to many tons in weight. These heaps can be 

 distinguished at a long distance by the bright green colour 

 of certain plants which invariably grow on them. Among 

 these may be enumerated the wild celery and scurvy grass, 

 two very serviceable plants, the use of which has not been 

 discovered by the natives. 



The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and dimensions, 

 a haycock. It merely consists of a few broken branches 

 stuck in the ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one 

 side with a few tufts of grass and rushes. The whole can- 

 not be the work of an hour, and it is only used for a few days. 

 At Goeree Roads I saw a place where one of these naked 

 men had slept, which absolutely offered no more cover than 

 the form of a hare. The man was evidently living by him- 

 self, and York Minster said he was "very bad man," and 

 that probably he had stolen something. On the west coast, 

 however, the wigwams are rather better, for they are 

 covered with seal-skins. We were detained here several 

 days by the bad weather. The climate is certainly wretched : 

 the summer solstice was now passed, yet every day snow 

 fell on the hills, and in the valleys there was rain, accompanied 

 by sleet. The thermometer generally stood about 45°, but in 

 the night fell to 38° or 40°. From the damp and boisterous 

 state of the atmosphere, not cheered by a gleam of sunshine, 

 one fancied the climate even worse than it really was. 



While going one day on shore near Wollaston Island, 

 we pulled alongside a canoe with six Fuegians. These 

 were the most abject and miserable creatures I anywhere 

 beheld. On the east coast the natives, as we have seen, 

 have guanaco cloaks, and on the west they possess seal- 

 skins. Amongst these central tribes the men generally 

 have an otter-skin, or some small scrap about as large 

 as a pocket-handkerchief, which is barely sufficient to 

 cover their backs as low down as their loins. It is laced 



"■ across the breast by strings, and according as the wind 

 blows it is shifted from side to side. But these Fuegians 

 in the canoe were quite naked, and even one full-grown 

 woman was absolutely so. It was raining heavily, and 

 the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled down 

 her body. In another harbour not far distant, a woman, 

 who was suckling a recently-born child, came one day 

 alongside the vessel, and remained there out of mere 

 curiosity, whilst the sleet fell and thawed on her naked 



 bosom and on the skin of her naked baby I These poc 



