178 



FOOD DOCTOIl. 



why the Fuegians are always so dispersed among the islands 

 in small family parties, why they never remain long in one 

 place, and why a large number are not seen many days in 

 society. They never attempt to make use of the soil by any 

 kind of culture ; seals, birds, fish, and particularly shell-fish, 

 being their principal subsistence; any one place, therefore, soon 

 ceases to supply the wants of even one family ; hence they are 

 always migratory. 



In a few places, where the meeting of tides causes a constant 

 supply of fish, especially porpoises, and where the land is 

 broken into multitudes of irregular islets and rocks, whose 

 shores afford an almost inexhaustible quantity of shell-fish, a 

 few families may be found at one time, numbering altogether 

 among them from twenty to forty souls; but even those 

 approaches towards association are rare, and those very families 

 are so migratory by nature, that they do not remain many 

 months in such a spot, however productive it may be, but go 

 wandering away among the numerous secluded inlets or sounds 

 of their country, or repair to the outer sea-coast in search 

 of seals, a dead whale, or fragments of some wrecked ship. 

 During the summer they prefer the coast, as they then obtain 

 a great quantity of eggs and young birds, besides seal, which 

 come ashore to breed at that season ; and in the winter they 

 retire more into the interior waters in search of shell-fish, and 

 the small but numerous and excellent fish which they catch 

 among the sea- weed (kelp). 



The substitutes for clothing, the arms, canoes, and dwell- 

 ings of the Fuegians have been so often described already, 

 that I will not tire the reader by a repetition. Some of their 

 customs, hitherto not related, may be more interesting. 



There is no superiority of one over another, among the 

 Fuegians, except that acquired gradually by age, sagacity, 

 and daring conduct ; but the ' doctor-wizard' of each party has 

 much influence over his companions. Being one of the most cun- 

 ning, as well as the most deceitful of his tribe, it was not surpris- 

 ing that we should always have found the ' doctor' concerned 

 in all mischief and every trouble arising out of our intercourse 



