XI PORT FAMINE 247 



like the so-called giants, they were so thoroughly good-humoured 

 and unsuspecting ; they asked us to come again. They seem to 

 like to have Europeans to live with them ; and old Maria, an 

 important woman in the tribe, once begged Mr. Low to leave any 

 one of his sailors with them. They spend the greater part of the 

 year here ; but in summer they hunt along the foot of the Cor- 

 dillera ; sometimes they travel as far as the Rio Negro, 750 miles 

 to the north. They are well stocked with horses, each man having, 

 according to Mr. Low, six or seven, and all the women, and even 

 children, their one own horse. In the time of Sarmiento (i 580) 

 these Indians had bows and arrows, now long since disused ; they 

 then also possessed some horses. This is a very curious fact, show- 

 ing the extraordinarily rapid multiplication of horses in South 

 America. The horse was first landed at Buenos Ayres in 1537, 

 and the colony being then for a time deserted, the horse ran wild ;^ 

 in 1580, only forty-three years afterwards, we hear of them at the 

 Strait of Magellan ! Mr. Low informs me that a neighbouring 

 tribe of foot-Indians is now changing into horse-Indians : the tribe 

 at Gregory Bay giving them their worn-out horses, and sending 

 in winter a few of their best skilled men to hunt for them. 



June \st. — We anchored in the fine bay of Port Famine. It 

 was now the beginning of wint-er, and I never saw a more cheer- 

 less prospect ; the dusky woods, piebald with snow, could be 

 only seen indistinctly through a drizzling hazy atmosphere. We 

 were, however, lucky in getting two fine days. On one of these. 

 Mount Sarmiento, a distant mountain 6800 feet high, presented 

 a very notable spectacle. I was frequently surprised, in the 

 scenery of Tierra del Fuego, at the little apparent elevation of 

 mountains really lofty. I suspect it is owing to a cause which 

 would not at first be imagined, namely, that the whole mass, 

 from the summit to the water's edge, is generally in full view. 

 I remember having seen a mountain, first from the Beagle 

 Channel, where the whole sweep from the summit to the base 

 was full in view, and then from Ponsonby Sound across several 

 successive ridges ; and it was curious to observe in the latter 

 case, as each fresh ridge afforded fresh means of judging of the 

 distance, how the mountain rose in height. 



Before reaching Port Famine, two men were seen running 

 along the shore and hailing the ship. A boat was sent for them, 



1 Rengger, Natur. der Saeiigethiere von Paraguay. S. 334. 



