TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 165 



requested the Captain to give him two hottles of rum, not, as he explained, for 

 the tribe, hut as a gift from chief to chief. Capt. Mayne took the trouble to 

 measure several of the men ; he found one who was 6 ft. lO^ ins. high, and several 

 reached 6 ft. 4 ins., but the average of those met with was 5 ft. 10 ins. or 5 ft. 11 ins., 

 which is some 4 or 5 inches taller than the middle height of Englishmen. The 

 women are nearlj' as tall in proportion. Tall as the Patagonians are, their costume 

 adds gi-eatly to their apparent size ; their robes of guanaco skin being as decep- 

 tive an addition to their stature as a woman's dress would be to a man of our 

 own race. Their habit of standing on the cliffs, beside their diminutive houses, to 

 gaze on passing ships, further explains the exaggerated accounts of the early voy- 

 agers. The Patagonians are entii'ely confined to the eastern portion of the Straits, 

 never going fm-ther west than the Chilian settlement of Pimta Arena ; they have 

 no canoes, and much dislike going ailoat. Wonderful is the difference between 

 them and the natives of the mountainous and wooded coimtry further west, and 

 even those of the eastern part of the southern islands, from whom they are sepa- 

 rated only by a narrow strait. These are the Fuegians ; those of this race who live 

 on the east being finer physically than their western relatives, probably owing to 

 a more abundant diet of guanaco meat ; but both sections, unlike the Patagonians, 

 are untrustworthy. The western Fuegians extend even up the western channels 

 and inhabit both sides of the Strait. They differ in almost every respect from the 

 Patag-onians, being usually small, badly shaped, and ugly in features ; but they 

 have one advantage, in their dislike of wine and spirits. Capt. Mayne often tried 

 them, and could never get them to taste a second time, whereas any Patagonian 

 would drink as much as he could get. Among the ethnological points the expe- 

 dition was asked to notice was, whether these people ever smiled. Not only did 

 they frequently smile, but they laughed outright wlienever anything amused them. 

 But mimicking was their peculiar /o/-/e ; they would repeat whatever was said to 

 them, and hum tunes after the men, though whistling rather bothered them. They 

 were much amused at the officers walking up and down the deck two and two, 

 and frequently joined hands and walked after them, looking over their shoulders 

 to hit the right time of turning. Sometimes their mimickiy was rather annoy- 

 ing, as when they repeated the remark, "Why have not these people left the 

 ship ?" at times when they had stayed too long aboard. The new Chilian settle- 

 ment in the Straits, at Pimta Ai-ena, now nimibers 800 souls, and signs of civi- 

 lization are rapidly rising around it. Coal having been foimd in the neighbour- 

 hood, it promises soon to become a coaling-station for steamers, and will take 

 away all trade from the Falkland Islands, which lie too far to windward of the 

 Straits to be of importance in the new era of navigation of the Cape, which has 

 now set in. During the survey, the ' Nassau ' entered a small bay in an island 

 called Sta. Magdalena, 12 miles from Punta Arena, which had never before been 

 visited. The vessel was immediately suiTounded by himdreds of seals, phmging 

 about the ship in the utmost astonishment at this invasion of their haunts, and 

 the clifts were covered with thousands of penguins, looking on in an absiu'dly sedate 

 manner. None of these and other animals which swarmed around the bay were 

 afraid of the approach of man, whom they had not yet learnt to consider as their 

 enemy, and the penguins in particular, when the cliffs were climbed, swarmed round 

 and attempted to peck the legs of their visitors. 



Scheme for a Scientific Exploration of Australia. By Dr. G. Neitmatee. 



On the Kifai and Kara Kitai. By Dr. Gfstav Oppeet. 



The author described the Kitai, a people who once ruled over Central Asia and 

 China, but whose descendants now live in an humble condition in the Russian 

 Government of Derbend, near the Caspian and in the Siberian district of Hi, or 

 Kuidja. They are a very industrious race, living in Derbend mostly as husband- 

 men, and in Kuidja as clever artisans. The author went into some details to 

 establish the identity of Yelintashe with Prester John of medieval writers. 



