RIVERS INDIANS GRAVES, 



581 



high water, may be easily entered, but at low water the banks are 

 dry to a great extent ; a channel, however, is left on its south side, 

 of sufficient depth for a small vessel : the tide rises forty-six feet, 

 and the stream is very strong. 



Port Desire, in 47° 45' south latitude, has a narrow entrance 

 with strong tides ; but affords in the offing very good anchorage 

 as well as shelter from the prevailing winds, which are off shore, 

 or westerly. The inlet extends up the country, nearly in a west 

 direction, for eighteen miles; but the land is dry and parched, 

 and very unsuitable for the establishment which the Spanish 

 government formed there not many years since, and of which 

 evident traces remain to this day. 



St. George's Gulf, called in the old charts ' Bahia sin Fondo,* 

 or Deep-Sea Gulf, was formerly considered to be a deep sinuosity 

 of the coast, into which a river emptied its waters after winding 

 through a large tract of country ; for, until the Descubierta and 

 Atrevida's voyage of discovery, very vague accounts had been given 

 of this, or indeed of any other part of the coast. The Gulf, upon 

 that examination, was found to possess no river or creek in any 

 part excepting on the north side, where there are several deep 

 bays and coves, which are, and have been frequented by our seal- 

 ing vessels. The country about is dry and parched, although 

 partially covered with small shrubs, and a wiry grass on which 

 large herds of guanacoes feed. 



According to Falkner (the Jesuit missionary, who resided many 

 years among the Indian tribes inhabiting the country about Buenos 

 Ayres), the eastern coast between the latitudes of 41° and 3P is 

 frequented by the natives for the purpose only of burying the 

 dead : they have, however, been occasionally met with travelling 

 along the coast, apparently without any particular object in view. 

 Near Port Desire I have seen the graves of the Indians on the 

 summit of the hills, but the bodies had been removed, probably 

 by the Indians themselves ; for we are informed by Falkner, that, 

 after the dead have been interred twelve months, the graves are 

 visited by the tribe, for the purpose of collecting the bones and 

 conveying them to their family sepulchres, where they are set up 

 and adorned with all the beads and ornaments the friends and 

 family of the deceased can collect for the occasion. The ceremony 



