CURIOUS CREATURES. 43 



so much as the work of an hour, and it is only used for 

 a few days. ... At a subsequent period, the Beagle 

 anchored for a couple of days under Wollaston Island, 

 which is a short way to the northward. While going 

 on shore, 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 sealskins. Amongst the central tribes the 

 men generally possess 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. . . . These poor wretches 

 were stunted in their growth, their hideous faces be- 

 daubed with white paint, their skins filthy and greasy, 

 their hair entangled, their voices discordant, their ges- 

 tures violent and without dignity. Viewing such men, 

 one can hardly make oneself believe they are fellow- 

 creatures and inhabitants of the same world. ... At 

 night, five or six human beings, naked, and scarcely 

 protected from the wind and rain of this tempestuous 

 climate, sleep on the wet ground, coiled up like animals. 

 Whenever it is low water, they must rise to pick shell- 

 fish from the rocks ; and the women, winter and summer, 

 either dive and collect sea eggs, or sit patiently in their 

 canoes, and, with a baited hair line, jerk out small fish. 

 If a seal is killed, or the floating carcase of a putrid 

 whale discovered, it is a feast : such miserable food is 



