120 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



exhibited symptoms of improvement in the course of that 

 evening, and on the morning of the 7th, finding that the wind 

 had gone down, we rose at an early hour, and having struck 

 the tent and packed up our gear, embarked, and proceeded 

 down the coast, by and by perceiving the " Nassau " in the 

 distance, lying between Dungeness Spit and Cape Virgins, 

 as well as another vessel, which we subsequently learned was 

 a Yankee, the " Pensacola," passing along near the Fuegian 

 shore. Both wind and sea got up before long, and we had in 

 consequence a rather rough passage between Mont Dinero 

 and Dungeness. Numbers of a large black petrel were flying 

 about, and on the gravelly beach of the last-named locality 

 great flocks of gulls, terns, and cormorants were assembled, 

 and took wing on our approach. As we observed a party 

 of human beings on the Spit, we landed to see who they 

 were, and found, to our surprise, that two of the three ofiicers 

 who had been engaged in surveying the Fuegian coast, and 

 whom we had not expected to see for some time, were among 

 the number. From them we learned that their expedition 

 had not been so fortunate as could have been desired, as 

 they had had a fray with Fuegian Indians, who had attempted 

 to help themselves to various articles in the boats, and on 

 being repulsed, had attacked our friends with their bows and 

 arrows, one of the officers receiving a rather severe wound 

 from an arrow in the back of his shoulder. This circum- 

 stance, I need hardly state, was a matter of general regret to 

 us all, as we regarded it as an inauspicious beginning to our 

 work on the Fuegian side ; and so the event proved, for the 

 natives of that portion of the Fuegian coast steadily avoided 

 holding any intercourse with us on subsequent occasions, 

 while, at the same time, they kept a sharp look-out on all our 

 movements, which necessitated the use of caution in landing 

 surveying parties. 



