190 THE FUEGIANS. 



grass and rushes. The whole cannot be so much as the work 



of an hour, and it is only used for a few days At a 



subsequent period, the Beagle anchored for a couple of days 

 under Wollaston Island, which is a short way to the north- 

 ward. While going on shore, we pulled alongside a canoe 

 with six Fuegians. These were the most abject and misera- 

 ble creatures I anywhere beheld. On, the east coast, the 

 natives, as we have seen, have guanaco cloaks, and on the 

 west, they possess sealskins. Amongst the central tribes the 

 men generally possess an otter skin, or some small scrap 

 about as large as a pocket-handkerchief, which is barely 

 sufficient to cover their backs as low down as their loins. It 

 is laced across the breast by strings, and according as the 

 wind blows, it is shifted from side to side. But these 

 Fuegians in the canoe were quite naked, and even one full 

 grown woman was absolutely so. It was raining heavily, 

 and the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled down 

 her body. . . . These poor wretches were stunted in 

 their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white paint, 

 their skins filthy and greasy, their hair entangled, their 

 voices discordant, their gestures violent and without dignity. 

 Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe they 

 are fellow- creatures and inhabitants of the same world. ";;-. 

 At night, five or six human beings,, naked, and scarcely pro- 

 tected from the wind and rain of this tempestuous climate, 

 sleep on the wet ground coiled up like animals. Whenever 

 it is low water, they must rise to pick shell-fish from the 

 rocks ; and the women, winter and summer, either dive to 

 collect sea eggs, or sit patiently in their canoes and, with a 

 baited hair line, jerk out small fish. If a seal is killed, or 

 the floating carcase of a putrid whale discovered, it is a 

 feast: such miserable food is assisted by a few tasteless 

 berries and fungi. Nor are they exempt from famine, and, 

 as a consequence, cannibalism accompanied by parricide." 



