A Native ''Portage.'' 59 



for hauling up their canoes. On walking through the long rank 

 grass, which encroached on the beach, we tripped over some logs 

 which seemed to have been arranged artificially, and we then 

 discovered that we were at the extremity of a " portage," intended 

 for conveying boats ovciland. On tracing it up, we found a sort 

 of causeway leading into the forest ; and after following it for 

 about three hundred yards, we ascertained that we had crossed a 

 narrow isthmus, of whose existence we were previously unaware, 

 and had reached the shore of an arm of the sea (probably Delgado 

 Bay), which communicates with the Trinidad Channel not many 

 miles to the eastward of Port Henry. It was evident that by 

 means of this "portage" the natives were able to proceed from 

 Concepcion Channel, via Tom Bay, towards the outer coasts, 

 without undertaking the much longer and more hazardous journej- 

 through the main channels round Point Brazo. The logs forming 

 the "portage" were partly imbedded in the ground, and were 

 arranged parallel to each other, like the sleepers of a railway, and 

 at a distance of about two feet apart. There was, however, no 

 appearance of the natives having recently visited the place. We 

 had reason to believe that these " portages" were of frequent 

 occurrence, and were largely used by the natives, and that it was 

 owing to the facilities thus afforded them for crossing isthmuses 

 and the necks of promontories that they were enabled to surprise 

 sailing vessels at anchor, approaching them unobserved from the 

 landlocked side of bays and inlets at a time when the attention of 

 the sailors on "look-out" was naturally only directed towards the 

 entrance of the harbour which had previously seemed to them to 

 be untenanted. The " portages" are so concealed by a lu.xuriant 

 growth of grass and brushwood that they readily escape observation. 

 The brackish lagoons, which are fed continuously by fresh- 

 water streams, and receive an influ.x of sea water while the flood 

 tide is making, are a peculiar feature of this Patagonian archi- 

 pelago, and we usually found that the outlets were excellent places 

 for catching fish. Our fishing parties were in the habit of placing 



