24 FUEGIAN INDIANS. Jan. 1827. 
remarkable for the long hair, “ like a lion’s mane,” grow- 
ing uponit. They appeared to be a most miserable, squalid 
race, very inferior, in every respect, to the Patagonians. They 
did not evince the least uneasiness at Mr. Sholl’s presence, 
or at our ships being close to them; neither did they interfere 
with him, but remained squatting round their fire while he 
staid near. This seeming indifference, and total want of 
curiosity, gave us no favourable opinion of their character 
as intellectual beings; indeed, they appeared to be very little 
removed from brutes ; but our subsequent knowledge of them 
has convinced us that they are not usually deficient in intellect. 
This party was perhaps stupified by the unusual size of our 
ships, for the vessels which frequent this Strait are seldom one 
hundred tons in burthen. 
We proceeded next morning at an early hour. The Indians 
were already paddling across the bay in a northerly direction. 
Upon coming abreast of them, a thick smoke was perceived 
to rise suddenly from their canoes ; they had probably fed the 
fire, which they always carry in the middle of their canoe, 
with green boughs and leaves, for the purpose of attracting 
our attention, and inviting us to communicate with them. 
It was remarked that the country begins to be covered 
with trees at Cape Negro ; but they are stunted, compared 
with those at Freshwater Bay. Near this place, also, the coun- 
try assumes a more verdant aspect, becoming also higher, 
and more varied in appearance. In the neighbourhood of 
Rocky Point some conspicuous portions of land were noticed, 
which, from the regularity of their shape, and the quantity as 
well as size of the trees growing at the edges, bore the 
appearance of having been once cleared ground ; and our pilot 
Robinson (possessing a most inventive imagination) informed 
us that they were fields, formerly cleared and cultivated by the 
Spaniards, and that ruins of buildings had been lately dis- 
covered near them. For some time his story obtained credit, 
but it proved to be altogether void of foundation. These ap- 
parently cleared tracts were afterwards found to be occasioned 
by unusual poverty of soil, and by being overrun with thick 
