314 NATUKAL HISTORY OF 



gonia, they form a branch of the Fuegian race, resembling 

 the other tribes to be met with farther south both in their 

 language and mode of life. They extend throughout the 

 Channels from the Gulf of Peiias to the Strait of Magellan, 

 where they appear to be replaced by a closely allied tribe, the 

 *' Pecheray " Indians of voyagers. Fitzroy, when in command 

 of the well-known survey of the southern parts of South 

 America, in which Mr. Darwin was associated with him as 

 naturalist, did his best to collect all the information that 

 was available to him concerning the aborigines of Pata- 

 gonia and Fuegia, and has methodised it in two interesting 

 chapters in his valuable narrative of the " Beagle's " cruise. 

 He there recognises six tribes, all of which appear to belong 

 to the Fuegian stock, and these he names the Yacana, the 

 Tekeenica, the Alikhoolip, the Huemul, the Pecheray, and the 

 Chonos or Channel Indians. To the Yacana, or inhabitants of 

 the northern portion of the large eastern island of Tierra del 

 Fuego, I have had occasion to refer several times, in the 

 account of our work in the eastern part of the Strait ; and I 

 would merely reiterate the remark that they appear to be a 

 very distinct tribe from any of those encountered by us to the 

 westward, inhabiting a district similar in its climate, features, 

 and productions, to the plains of Eastern Patagonia, and resemb- 

 ling the Patagonians in their stature, dress, and general mode of 

 life. The second tribe, or Tekeenica, are natives of the south- 

 eastern portion of Fuegia, according to Fitzroy, who states that 

 they are " low of stature, ill-looking, and badly proportioned ;" 

 that " their colour is that of old mahogany, or rather between 

 dark copper and bronze ;" and that "their rough, coarse, and ex- 

 tremely dirty black hair, half hides, yet heightens, a villanous 

 expression of the worst description of savage features." It is, 

 I believe, to the civilising and christianising of this tribe in 



