THE FUEGIAN. 99 



TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



It consists merely of a few broken branches stuck in the 

 ground, and very rudely thatched on one side with a few 

 tufts of grass and rushes. The whole cannot be the work 

 of an hour, and it is only used for a few days. On the west 

 coast, however, the wigwams are rather better, for they are 

 covered with seal-skins. 



While going one day on shore near Wollastou 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. Among 

 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 harbor, not far distant, a woman 

 who was suckling a newly-born child came one day alongside 

 the vessel, and remained there, out of mere curiosity, while 

 the sleet fell and thawed on her naked bosom and on the 

 skin of her naked baby ! These poor wretches were stunted 

 in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white 

 paint, their skins filthy and greasy, their hair entangled, their 

 voices discordant, and their gestures violent. Viewing such 

 men, one can hardly make one's self believe that they are 

 fellow -creatures, and inhabitants of the same world. We 



