24 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



would be able to return on board ; and Mr. Buchan, a 

 fourth, who had just recovered from fits, seemed threatened 

 with them again. They had wandered so far, that they 

 were now distant a long day's journey from the ship ; and 

 they had not provisions left sufficient to afford a single meal. 



On the 17th, in the morning at day-break, nothing pre- 

 sented itself to view but snow all around ; and the blasts 

 of wind were so violent and frequent, that their journey was 

 rendered impracticable, and there was much reason to dread 

 perishing with cold and famine. They therefore returned 

 to the ship, which, to their great astonishment and satisfac- 

 tion, they reached in about three hours.* 



On the 20th, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander made another 

 excursion into the country. After walking for some time, 

 they arrived at a small town, consisting of about a dozen 

 miserable huts, constructed without art or regularity, in the 

 form a sugar loaf, with a place left open, which answers 

 the double purpose of a door and chimney. Mr. Banks 

 observed some European articles amongst them, from 

 whence it was judged that they travelled at times to the 

 north ; as no ship had touched at this part of Tierra del 

 Fuego for some years. 



These people appeared upon the whole to be the outcasts 

 of human nature ; their only food was shell-fish ; and they 

 were destitute of every convenience arising from the rudest 

 art.f Nevertheless they seemed content ; so little does 

 refinement or luxury promote happiness 1 



* On more than one occasion, parties employed on expeditions 

 in search of Franklin in the Arctic Seas, have been placed in a 

 similar position, but happily no life was ever lost. Sir R. M'Clure 

 was himself in great peril, when he ascertained the junction of the 

 Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic, through the waters of Barrow Straits. 

 It was on a sledge journey when " every now and then one of their 

 party would experience a severe fall into some deep cleft, or over 

 some huge hummock, and then, thoroughly jaded, they would sit 

 down and feel inclined to drop off into a sleep from which they 

 never would have awakened in this world. Captain M'Clure, 

 however, was aware of this danger ; and his voice aroused them to 

 exertion." Capt. Sherard Osborn's narrative of M'Clure's Voyage. 



On another occasion a man named Whitfield was very nearly lost, 

 having strayed from the ship, and was found " stiff and rigid as a 

 corpse." 



Dr. M'Cormick also had a very narrow escape. He passed a 

 whole day and night without food or shelter, beyond what the snow 

 drift afforded, about seven miles from his ship, in a dense fog and 

 snow storm. 



t Mr. Parker Snow, in his deeply interesting narrative of a Two 

 Years Cruise off Tierra Del Fuego, etc., describes the natives as 

 '* perfectly nude, wild and shaggy in appearance, with long spears 

 in their hands " " they were indeed, in appearance, like so many 

 fiendish imps." 



