JAN. 1769 INHABITANTS 61 



probably travel and stay but a short time at a place, so at 

 least it would seem from the badness of their houses, which 

 seem all built to stand but for a short time ; from their 

 having no kind of household furniture but what has a 

 handle, adapted either to be carried in the hand or on the 

 back ; from the thinness of their clothing, which seems little 

 calculated even to bear the summers of this country, much 

 less the winters ; from their food of shell-fish, which must 

 soon be exhausted at any one spot ; and from the deserted 

 huts we saw in the first bay we came to, which had plainly 

 been inhabited but a short time previously, probably this 

 spring. Boats they had none with them, but as they were 

 not sea-sick or particularly affected when they came on 

 board our ship, possibly they might have been left at some 

 bay or inlet, which passes partly, but not entirely, through 

 this island from the Straits of Magellan, from which place 

 I should be much inclined to believe these people have 

 come, as so few ships before ours have anchored upon any 

 part of Terra del Fuego. 



Their dogs, which I forgot to mention before, seem also 

 to indicate a commerce at some time or other with Europeans, 

 they being all of the kind that bark, contrary to what has 

 been observed of (I believe) all dogs natives of America. 



The weather here has been very uncertain, though in 

 general extremely bad ; every day since the first more or less 

 snow has fallen, and yet the thermometer has never been 

 below 38. Unseasonable as this weather seems to be in 

 the middle of summer, I am inclined to think it is generally 

 so here, for none of the plants appear at all affected by it, 

 and the insects which hide themselves during a snow blast 

 are, the instant it is fair again, as lively and nimble as the 

 finest weather could make them. 1 



1 Here follows a list of 104 phanerogamic and 41 cryptogamic plants 

 collected in Terra del Fuego. 



