370 NATIVES—BIRD-CATCHING. Dec. 1829. 
advantage of their weak state to beat the coxswain and take 
away some of his clothes ; therefore after my return I went in 
search of them. They had however taken the alarm, and were 
all gone away. This party consisted of about twenty persons, 
eight of whom were men, and the rest women and children. 
When some of our officers went to their wigwams they appeared 
armed with clubs, spears, and swords, which seemed to have 
been made out of iron hoops, or else were old cutlasses worn 
very thin by frequent cleaning. They must have obtained these, 
and many trifles we noticed, from sealing vessels. By the visits 
of those vessels, I suppose, they have been taught to hide their 
furs'and other skins, and have learned the effects of fire-arms. 
The chief part of their subsistence on this island appeared to 
be penguins, seal, young birds, and petrel which they take in 
a curious way. Having caught a small bird they tie a string 
to its leg and put it into a hole where blue petrels lay eggs. 
Several old birds instantly fasten upon the intruder, and are 
drawn out with him by the string. 
“‘ We weighed and worked out of the bay, increasing our 
depth of water very gradually as we left the shore, but having 
always the same bottom, fine speckled sand. I can safely recom- 
mend this bay asa good anchorage for shipping, and two cable’s 
lengths N.N.W. of the Beagle’s berth as the best place. Wood 
and water are not to be found so close to the anchorage as in 
other Fuegian harbours, but they may be obtained with very 
little trouble, and in any quantity, by going up the passage 
(between the islands) to one of many streams which run from 
the high land. There is plenty of water also very near the 
best berth, on the south side, but frequently a surf breaks on 
that beach. Two particular advantages which this roadstead * 
possesses, consist in the ease with which a vessel can enter or 
leave it, during any wind; and in its situation being well 
pointed out by a remarkable headland, named Cape Inman (in 
compliment to the Professor), which is high, with perpendicular 
cliffs, and almost detached from other land; so that a vessel, 
* A small vessel may moor between the islands, instead of lying in the 
outer road. 
