12 



The National Geographic Magazine 



The sea is usually considered as the 

 great international highway, belonging 

 equally to all nations; this, however, is 

 no longer true. The real political bound- 

 aries of states are no longer defined and 

 restricted by the land, but involve such 

 portions of the high seas as a nation can, 

 by her commercial and naval vessels, and 

 her submarine cables, reach out and se- 

 cure. In this great sea division, which is 

 so surely taking place, probably there are 

 no better guides to boundaries than the 

 submarine cable net-works which lie in its 

 great depths. Since each in general uses 

 the shortest path between two points, the 

 general commercial sailing lines are also 

 the general direction of cable lines. 



The United States will be wise if, in 

 the great Pacific where she has such para- 



mount natural advantages, both for com- 

 merce and for maritime strength, she pur- 

 sues a broad, vigorous, and even lavish 

 " cable policy." We should be able at the 

 earliest date to manufacture upon Ameri- 

 can soil deep-sea cables of the first class ; 

 be able to lay, maintain, and repair them 

 in time of peace or war by ships flying 

 the American flag, and be prepared to 

 adequately protect them upon the high 

 seas, and at their landing places by mili- 

 tary and naval force. 



The cable question is one of the most 

 important of the present hour, unique in 

 that American commerce, diplomacy, and 

 sea-power — in fact the most efficient 

 means of advancing and securing the 

 benefits of civilization itself — happily con- 

 spire in demanding its early solution. 



THE INDIAN TRIBES OF SOUTHERN PATA 



GONIA, TIERRA DEL FUEGO, AND 



THE ADJOINING ISLANDS 



By J. B. Hatcher 



Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg 



IT is the purpose of this paper to 

 record some observations made by 

 the writer among the Indian tribes 

 of Southern South America, during the 

 three years of exploration conducted by 

 him in that region in behalf of Princeton 

 University. The country occupied by the 

 people under discussion embraces that 

 part of South America lying beyond the 

 forty-sixth parallel of south latitude, in- 

 cluding the mainland and the adjoining 

 islands as far south as Cape Horn. The 

 people living in this region belong to four 

 distinct tribes, each inhabiting a certain 

 limited area and differing from the others 

 in language, customs, physical develop- 

 ment, and especially in the activities nec- 



essary to, and the mechanical appliances 

 employed in, the gaining of a livelihood. 



Owing to the natural barriers to social 

 or commercial intercourse, presented by 

 the topography of the region, communi- 

 cation between the different tribes is now 

 and always .has been extremely limited. 

 This long period of comparative isolation 

 has, with one exception, permitted each- 

 tribe to remain practically uninfluenced 

 by the others, and has doubtless contrib- 

 uted to produce those linguistic and socio- 

 logic features at present so distinctive of 

 each. 



Commencing with the mainland we 

 shall first consider the Tehuelches, that 

 so-called race of giants, made famous 



