316 NATURAL HISTOEY OF 



generally the case with those of the Channel Indians, and 

 that they were upon the whole more degraded and repulsive- 

 looking than those people, there was nothing to distinguish 

 the two tribes in a marked manner, their language and mode 

 of life being much the same. Of the numbers of these 

 tribes it would be very difficult to form anything like an 

 accurate estimate, owing to their wandering habits. Fitzroy 

 estimates the Tekeenica as 500, the Alikhoolip as 400, the 

 Pecheray as 200, the Huemul as 100, and the Channel Indians 

 as 400 ; but as he does not furnish us with the data necessary 

 for arriving at these conclusions, they may be considered as 

 but of very doubtful value. None of the tribes encountered 

 by us appeared to have any fixed place of habitation, but 

 travelled about in their canoes from place to place, in search 

 of the shell-fish which constitutes their principal diet. The 

 Channel Indians have received the name of Chonos, from 

 the belief that they form a remnant of the tribes once in- 

 habiting the Chonos Archipelago, but driven out at the 

 time of the Spanish conquest. This may very possibly 

 have been the case, but I am not aware that there is any 

 unimpeachable authority for the statement ; and it appears 

 to me more probable that the Channel Indians, in common 

 with the other southern Fuegian tribes, have gradually 

 migrated southwards at a much more distant period, in 

 consequence of having been evicted from their original 

 territory by more powerful aboriginal nations. Of the beliefs 

 and ceremonial rites of these people our knowledge is very 

 limited. Fitzroy states, on the authority of Mr. Low, a seal- 

 ing captain, who had much intercourse with the Channel 

 Indians, that they are "by no means without ideas of a 

 superior Being. They have great faith in a good spirit, 

 whom they call Yerri Yuppon, and consider to be the 



