to the Strait of Magellan. 99 



or rather dried ^rass,, which serve at once for chairs and 

 beds. When their fire is extinguished, they kindle it again 

 with a flint ; and, for tinder, make use of the feathers of birds. 



Their furniture and utensils consist of several skins of seals, 

 deer, and a few of the hima or guanacos, which they cer- 

 tainly obtain from the Patagonians, as none of these animals 

 are found in this part of the strait ; a number of baskets made 

 of rushes, and others of a species of sparto ; several jars 

 of one f oot and one and a half foot in circumference, made of 

 the same bark with which they construct their canoes, having 

 the bottoms sewed in, in the same way: they are worked with 

 some skill and neatness, and capable of holding any liquid, 

 without its running through. They likewise possess some small 

 bags made of skins or of guts of fish, in which they keep their 

 different powders for painting themselves, where we may no- 

 tice that scarlet is their favourite colour ; the strings of beads or 

 necklaces made of small shells or bones ; the stones from 

 which they extract fire ; and other little articles of this nature. 



Such are the contemptible goods of these iJl-fated mortals, 

 which they carry about with them, when they change their 

 place of abode. 



Their boats or canoes are made of the bark of the 

 tree producing resin, whose greatest thickness does not ex- 

 ceed one inch. They are formed of three pieces; one in 

 the middle, forming the bottom and the keel, and the 

 other two pieces the sides. Their patience and application are 

 admirable in stripping the bark of those trees, having for the 

 purpose no other instrument than a flint somewhat shaped and 

 sharpened, with which they make an incision round the trunk 

 at each end, and then another lengthways, to join them ; after- 

 wards, with vast patience and management, they strip off the 

 whole bark of the tree in one entu-e piece, of the proper 

 length for the intended canoe, which, in some, including the 

 bend of the middle-piece, which forms the stem and stern as 

 well as the keel and bottom, is from 30 to 32 feet ; and the true 

 length of this frail boat, when finished, is from 24 to 26 feet; 

 the greatest breadth four feet, and the depth from two to 

 three feet. 



In order to make this bark acquire the proper curvature and 

 shape, and lose what it has on the tiee, they lay it on the 

 ground, with the inside downwards, and on each end place a 

 heap of stones, leaving it so for two or three days, in which 

 time it dries and becomes fit for being employed. Then they 

 place the side-pieces almost perpendicular to that in the middle, 

 joining them together with seams of dry rushes, and caulking 



