126 EXCURSIONS ROUND LONDON. 



Guinea, confides to him the care of his 



flocks. 



The Laplander and the Samoiede have 

 conquered the rein-deer ; and this single con- 

 quest insures to them innumerable advanta- 

 ges. They possess immense herds of them, 

 from which they derive many of the comforts 

 and necessaries of life. 



It is likewise by the faculty of reason, 

 that man has acquired dominion over the 

 element of fire. The Ostiachs, the Sa- 

 moiedes, and the Greenlanders, keep up a 

 constant fire in their subterranean abodes. 

 The people whom the celebrated Bougain- 

 ville has described as being the most mise- 

 rable savages on the face of the globe, and 

 who inhabit Terra del Ftiego, on the south- 

 ern coast of the straits of Magellan, had 

 fires in their canoes when this navigator 



o 



first fell in with them. In all the islands* of 

 the Pacific Ocean where navigators have 

 landed, the use of fire has been found es- 

 tablished. It is often by means of fires 



kindled 



