TERRA DEL FUEGO. 127 
ugly race.* They have little or no idea of the relative value of 
articles, even of those that one would suppose were of the utmost use 
to them, such as iron and glass-ware. A glass bottle broken into 
pieces, is valued as much as a knife. Red flannel, torn into strips, 
pleases them more than in the piece; they wound it around their 
heads, as a kind of turban, and it was amusing to see their satis- 
faction at this small acquisition. 
The children were quite small, and nestled in the bottom of the 
canoe on some dry grass. The woman and eldest boy paddled the 
canoe, the man being employed to bale out the water and attend to 
the fire, which is always carried in the bottom of the canoe, on a few 
stones and ashes, which the water surrounds. 
Their canoes are constructed of bark, are very frail, and sewed 
with shreds of whalebone, sealskin, and twigs. They are sharp at 
both ends, and are kept in shape as well as strengthened by a 
number of stretchers lashed to the gunwale. 
These Indians seldom venture outside the kelp, by the aid of which 
they pull themselves along, and their paddles are so small as to be of 
little use in propelling their canoes, unless it is calm. Some of the 
officers thought they recognised a party on the Hermit Islands that had 
been on board ship at Orange Harbour. If this was the case, they 
* For their dimensions, see Table of Comparative Proportions, at the end of the work. 
