446 NATUKAL HISTORY OF 



They bartered shell and bone necklaces, slings, bows, 

 quivers of otter- skin, arrows, and spears, for knives and 

 tobacco. The spear-handles were formed of tapering poles 

 of Libocedrus, about eight feet long ; and the heads, apparently 

 fashioned out of the bones of Cetacea, were of two forms — 

 one which, in so far as we could learn, is employed for 

 harpooning porpoises, being attached by a leather thong to 

 the spear-handle in such a manner that, when the porpoise 

 is struck, it becomes detached, so as to leave the handle 

 floating on the water; while the other, armed with a serrated 

 edge, and permanently fixed into the handle, is used for the 

 capture of otters and fish. Our visitors entertained us with 

 what appeared to be national melodies, of a rather monotonous 

 character, and as usual imitated everything we said with the 

 utmost accuracy. 



The rain cleared off at about two p.m., and two more of 

 the boats were despatched on surveying work, shortly after 

 which the Fuegians left us, considerably to our relief, and 

 encamped on an open space on shore opposite the vessel, 

 proceeding to roof in some old wigwams with green branches, 

 as well as to construct a new one. I landed for a short 

 time in the afternoon, and did not meet with anything of a 

 noteworthy character ; but some of the officers who were 

 fishing met with a tolerable amount of success, capturing 

 several specimens of a handsome fish, with a very broad 

 head and rather large scales of a fine golden-yellow colour. 

 This was the Notothenia macrocephalus, described some years 

 ago by Dr. Giinther, from a stuffed specimen said to be from 

 the Falkland Islands, where, however, we did not encounter 

 the species ; and it is perhaps worth mentioning that 

 Fortune Bay, where it appeared to be rather abundant, was 

 the only locality in which it ever occurred to us. The 



