cuoi'Eu] BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TRIBES OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO 7 



It is agreed that the Alacaluf have in recent times occupied the 

 following territory: Desolation, Ines, and Clarence Islands with the 

 adjacent islands south of the Strait, Dawson Island and the shores 

 of Magdalen and Admiralty Sounds and of Gabriel and Cockburn 

 Channels. In the Dawson Island and Admiralty Sound district, how- 

 ever, there has been considerable mingling, word-borrowing, and inter- 

 marriage between the Alacaluf and the Onas (Th. Bridges, 6, June 1, 

 1883, 139; Feb. 1, 1886, 33, cf. also Oct. 1, 1881, 226; 1% 234; Lovisato, 

 c, 720, citing Whaits), just as there has been much fusion with the 

 Yahgans in the border zone between Brecknock Peninsula and the 

 western end of Beagle Channel (Th. Bridges, h, Feb. 2, 1874, 26-27; 

 Oct. 1, 1881, 227; k, 234; Lovisato, c, 720; Spegazzini, a, 13). 



While Brecknock Peninsula w^as the natural dividing line between 

 the Yahgans and Alacaluf, it was not an absolute one. The Yahgans 

 went west of this line but rarely, it seems, but the Alacaluf were 

 pretty well established east of it, as the sources just quoted show. 

 It appears, too, that in Admiral Fitz-Roy's time the Alacaluf extended 

 as far east as the western end of Beagle Channel (Fitz-Roy, a, 132, 

 and the whole accomit of the loss of and search for the stolen whale- 

 boat in King). The natives met by Capt. Cook in Christmas Sound 

 in 1774 used the characteristic Alacaluf an expression pechera (J. Cook, 

 h, II, 183), although their spear shafts were angular (G. Forster, ii, 

 501), like those of the modern Yahgans. 



Accomits similar to those of Francis Fletcher show that Indians 

 using bark canoes formerly occupied the Strait as far east as Elizabeth, 

 Martha, and Magdalen Islands. These natives were in all probabihty 

 Alacaluf; although it is possible enough that Patagonians may have 

 ventured out at times on these islands. In fact, certain details in 

 some of the early accounts — for instance, van Noort's: the mention 

 of ostriches, ''la bout de la verge none d'un fil" (b, 21; de Brosses, 

 I, 298; cf. Ladrillero, 498) — suggest Patagonian rather than Fuegian 

 provenance. 



All the above-mentioned territory, except the Elizabeth Island 

 district, lies south of the Strait of Magellan. 



Do or did the Alacaluf extend north of the Strait ? This is ques- 

 tioned. Canoe-using Indians have occupied from early times, or 

 still occupy sporadically or at certain seasons, decimated and scat- 

 tered though they now are, the shores of Otway and Skyring Waters, 

 of Brunswick Peninsula, Riesco or King William IV Land, and 

 Mmioz Gamero Peninsula, the north shore of the Strait from Port 

 Famine and Cape Froward to the Pacific, and the archipelagos with 

 the neighboring fjords and inlets from the Strait to the Gulf of Penas. 

 Are these people to be classed as Alacaluf, or should they be con- 

 sidered as of a different tribe, non-Alacalufan, Chonoan, or "West 

 Patagonian" ? 



64028°— Bull. 63—17 2 



