1828. USELESS BAY—NATIVES. 125 
by bearings of Mount Tarn, crossed by angles from Mount 
Graves, Nose Peak, and Point Boqueron, our position, and 
the extent of this bay, were determined. As it affords neither 
anchorage nor shelter, nor any other advantage for the navi- 
gator, we have named it Useless Bay. It was too much exposed 
to the prevailing winds to allow of our landing to examine the 
country, and its productions, or to communicate with the 
Indians; and as there was not much likelihood of finding any- 
thing of novel character, we lost no time in retreating from so ex- 
posed a place. Abreast of Point Boqueron the patent log gave 
for our run twenty-six miles, precisely the same distance which 
it had given in the morning; so that from five o’clock in the 
morning until ten, and from ten o’clock until four in the after- 
noon, we had not experienced the least tide, which of itself is 
a fact confirmatory of the non-existence of a channel. 
From the fires of the natives in this part having been noticed 
at a distance from the beach, it would seem that they derive 
their subsistence from hunting rather than fishing ; and as 
there are guanacoes on the south shore of the First Narrow, it 
is probable the people’s habits resemble those of the Patago_ 
nians, rather than the Fuegians ; but as they have no horses, 
the chase of so shy and swift an animal as the guanaco must 
be fatiguing and very precarious.* 
Sarmiento is the only person on record who has communicated 
with the natives in the neighbourhood of Cape Monmouth. He 
calls them in his narrative a large race (Gente grande). There 
it was that he was attacked by the Indians, whom he repulsed, 
and one of whom he made prisoner. 
We remained a night in Port Famine, and again set out in 
the Adelaide to survey some of the western parts of the Strait. 
* Falkner describes the Indians who inhabit the eastern islands of 
Tierra del Fuego, to be ‘ Yacana-cunnees,’ and as he designates those 
who inhabit the Patagonian shore of the Strait by the same name, it might 
be inferred that they are of the same race ; but however closely connected 
they may have been formerly, they certainly are not so now, for Maria 
(the Patagonian) spoke very contemptuously of them, and disclaimed their 
alliance; calling them ‘ zapallios,’ which means slaves. 
