JAN. 1769 INHABITANTS 61 
probably travel and stay but a short time at a place, so at 
least it would seem from the badness of their houses, which 
seem all built to stand but for a short time; from their 
having no kind of household furniture but what has a 
handle, adapted either to be carried in the hand or on the 
back; from the thinness of their clothing, which seems little 
calculated even to bear the summers of this country, much 
less the winters; from their food of shell-fish, which must 
soon be exhausted at any one spot; and from the deserted 
huts we saw in the first bay we came to, which had plainly 
been inhabited but a short time previously, probably this 
spring. Boats they had none with them, but as they were 
not sea-sick or particularly affected when they came on 
board our ship, possibly they might have been left at some 
bay or inlet, which passes partly, but not entirely, through 
this island from the Straits of Magellan, from which place 
I should be much inclined to believe these people have 
come, as so few ships before ours have anchored upon any 
part of Terra del Fuego. 
Their dogs, which I forgot to mention before, seem also 
to indicate a commerce at some time or other with Europeans, 
they being all of the kind that bark, contrary to what has 
been observed of (I believe) all dogs natives of America. 
The weather here has been very uncertain, though in 
general extremely bad ; every day since the first more or less 
snow has fallen, and yet the thermometer has never been 
below 38°. Unseasonable as this weather seems to be in 
the middle of summer, I am inclined to think it is generally 
so here, for none of the plants appear at all affected by it, 
and the insects which hide themselves during a snow blast 
are, the instant it is fair again, as lively and nimble as the 
finest weather could make them.’ 
1 Here follows a list of 104 phanerogamic and 41 cryptogamic plants 
collected in Terra del Fuego. 
