220 TIERRA DEL FUEGO chap. 



with the officer on watch, would say, " Me see ship, me no 

 tell." 



It was interesting to watch the conduct of the savages, 

 when we landed, towards Jemmy Button : they immediately 

 perceived the difference between him and ourselves, and held 

 much conversation one with another on the subject. The old 

 man addressed a long harangue to Jemmy, which it seems was 

 to invite him to stay with them. But Jemmy understood very 

 little of their language, and was, moreover, thoroughly ashamed 

 of his countrymen. When York Minster afterwards came on 

 shore, they noticed him in the same way, and told him he 

 ought to shave ; yet he had not twenty dwarf hairs on his face, 

 whilst we all wore our untrimmed beards. They examined 

 the colour of his skin, and compared it with ours. One of our 

 arms being bared, they expressed the liveliest surprise and 

 admiration at its whiteness, just in the same way in which I 

 have seen the ourang-outang do at the Zoological Gardens. 

 We thought that they mistook two or three of the officers, who 

 were rather shorter and fairer, though adorned with large 

 beards, for the ladies of our party. The tallest amongst the 

 Fuegians was evidently much pleased at his height being 

 noticed. When placed back to back with the tallest of the 

 boat's crew, he tried his best to edge on higher ground, and to 

 stand on tiptoe. He opened his mouth to show his teeth, and 

 turned his face for a side view ; and all this was done with 

 such alacrity, that I daresay he thought himself the handsomest 

 man in Tierra del Fuego. After our first feeling of grave 

 astonishment was over, nothing could be more ludicrous than 

 the odd mixture of surprise and imitation which these savages 

 every moment exhibited. 



The next day I attempted to penetrate some way into the 

 country. Tierra del Fuego may be described as a mountainous 

 land, partly submerged in the sea, so that deep inlets and bays 

 occupy the place where valleys should exist. The mountain 

 sides, except on the exposed western coast, are covered from 

 the water's edge upwards by one great forest. The trees reach 

 to an elevation of between looo and 1500 feet, and are 

 succeeded by a band of peat, with minute alpine plants ; and 

 this again is succeeded by the line of perpetual snow, which, 



