FUEGIAN INDIANS. 



Jan. 18^7. 



remarkable for the long hair, " like a lion's mane,"" grow- 

 ing upon it. They appeared to be a most miserable, squalid 

 race^ very inferior, in every respect, to the Patagonians. They 

 did not evince the least uneasiness at Mr. SholFs presence, 

 or at our ships being close to them ; neither did they interfere 

 with him, but remained squatting round their fire while he 

 staid near. This seeming indifference, and total want of 

 curiosity, gave us no favourable opinion of their character 

 as intellectual beings ; indeed, they appeared to be very little 

 removed from brutes ; but our subsequent knowledge of them 

 has convinced us that they are not usually deficient in intellect. 

 This party was perhaps stupified by the unusual size of our 

 ships, for the vessels which frequent this Strait are seldom one 

 hundred tons in burthen. 



We proceeded next morning at an early hour. The Indians 

 were already paddling across the bay in a northerly direction. 

 Upon coming abreast of them, a thick smoke was perceived 

 to rise suddenly from their canoes ; they had probably fed the 

 fire, which they always carry in the middle of their canoe, 

 with green boughs and leaves, for the purpose of attracting 

 our attention, and inviting us to communicate with them. 



It was remarked that the country begins to be covered 

 with trees at Cape Negro ; but they are stunted, compared 

 with those at Freshwater Bay. Near this place, also, the coun- 

 try assumes a more verdant aspect, becoming also higher, 

 and more varied in appearance. In the neighbourhood of 

 Rocky Point some conspicuous portions of land were noticed, 

 which, from the regularity of their shape, and the quantity as 

 well as size of the trees growing at the edges, bore the 

 appearance of having been once cleared ground ; and our pilot 

 Robinson (possessing a most inventive imagination) informed 

 us that they were fields, formerly cleared and cultivated by the 

 Spaniards, and that ruins of buildings had been lately dis- 

 covered near them. For some time his story obtained credit, 

 but it proved to be altogether void of foundation. These ap- 

 parently cleared tracts were afterwards found to be occasioned 

 by unusual poverty of soil, and by being overrun with thick 



