THE STKAIT OF MAGELLAN. 3l7 



author of all good ; him they invoke iu time of distress 

 and danger. They also believe in an evil spirit, called 

 Yaccyma, who they think is able to do all kinds of mis- 

 chief, cause bad weather, famine, illness, etc. ; he is sup.- 

 posed to be like an immense black man." He also informs 

 us that, according to Mr. Low, they appear to have regular 

 places for depositing their dead, caves being sometimes made 

 use of for the purpose. I greatly regret that, despite a most 

 diligent search for Indian graves in all those localities visited 

 by us, I never succeeded in meeting with any, either of 

 those of the Channel or the Magellanic tribes. The latter 

 are said to carry the corpses of their deceased friends a 

 long way into the woods, where they lay them upon broken 

 boughs or pieces of solid wood, and then pile a great quantity 

 of branches over them. This, according to Fitzroy, is the 

 course pursued alike by the Tekeenica, Alikhoolip, and 

 Pecheray. 



For more minute information regarding the manners and 

 customs of these people, I must refer the reader to Fitzroy's 

 interesting narrative, as well as to the reports of the South 

 American Mission. 



On the morning of the 13th of March the survey of ShoU 

 Bay, begun on the afternoon of the previous day, was 

 designed to have been carried on, but tremendous rain fell 

 without intermission throughout the day, with occasional 

 furious squalls by way of variety, and we were all confined 

 to the ship, where we felt rather rueful as to our prospects, 

 for though we had heard various reports of the rainy cha- 

 racter of the region where our work for some time to come 

 lay, we had not pictured anything quite so bad, or so utterly 

 dreary, as we were now encountering. We had no awning at 

 this time, and it was therefore almost impossible to take 



