1828. 



USELESS BAY NATIVES. 



125 



by bearings of Mount Tarn, crossed by angles from Mount 

 Graves, Nose Peak, and Point Boqueron, our position, and 

 the extent of this bay, were determined. As it affords neither 

 anchorage nor shelter, nor any other advantage for the navi- 

 gator, we have named it Useless Bay. It was too much exposed 

 to the prevailing winds to allow of our landing to examine the 

 country, and its productions, or to communicate with the 

 Indians ; and as there was not much likelihood of finding any- 

 thing of novel character, we lost no time in retreating from so ex- 

 posed a place. Abreast of Point Boqueron the patent log gave 

 for our run twenty-six miles, precisely the same distance which 

 it had given in the morning ; so that from five o'clock in the 

 morning until ten, and from ten o''clock until four in the after- 

 noon, we had not experienced the least tide, which of itself is 

 a fact confirmatory of the non-existence of a channel. 



From the fires of the natives in this part having been noticed 

 at a distance from the beach, it would seem that they derive 

 their subsistence from hunting rather than fishing; and as 

 there are guanacoes on the south shore of the First Narrow, it 

 is probable the people''s habits resemble those of the Patago. 

 nians, rather than the Fuegians ; but as they have no horses, 

 the chase of so shy and swift an animal as the guanaco must 

 be fatiguing and very precarious.* 



Sarmiento is the only person on record who has communicated 

 with the natives in the neighbourhood of Cape Monmouth. He 

 calls them in his narrative a large race (Gente grande). There 

 it was that he was attacked by the Indians, whom he repulsed, 

 and one of whom he made prisoner. 



We remained a night in Port Famine, and again set out in 

 the Adelaide to survey some of the western parts of the Strait. 



* Falkner describes the Indians who inhabit the eastern islands of 

 Tierra del Fuego, to be ^ Yacana-cunnees,' and as he designates those 

 who inhabit the Patagonian shore of the Strait by the same name, it might 

 be inferred that they are of the same race ; but however closely connected 

 they may have been formerly, they certainly are not so now, for Maria 

 (the Patagonian) spoke very contemptuously of them, and disclaimed their 

 alliance; calling them ' zapallios,' which means slaves. 



