428 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



are partly to be sought for in the nature of the land, and partly in their political 

 state. The perfect equality among the individuals in each tribe must retard 

 their civilization ; and until some chief shall arise with power sufficient to se- 

 cure any acquired advantage, such as the domesticated animals, it seems scarce- 

 ly possible that their condition can improve. But the chief causes of their 

 wretchedness are doubtless the barrenness of their country and their constant 

 forced migrations. 



With the exception of the eastern part, the habitable land is reduced to 

 the stones on the beach. In search of food they are compelled to wander from 

 spot to spot ; and so steep is the coast that they can only move about in their 

 canoes. Whenever it is low water, winter or summer, night or day, they must 

 rise to pick limpets from the rock; and the women either dive to collect sea- 

 eggs, or sit patiently in their boats, and with a baited hair-line, without any 

 hook, jerk out little fish. If a seal is killed, or the floating carcass of a putrid 

 whale discovered. It is a feast; and such miserable food is assisted by a few 

 tasteless berries, chiefly of a dwarf arbutus, or by a globular bright yellow fun- 

 gus ( Cyttaria Darwini), which grows in vast numbers on the beech - trees. 

 When young, it is elastic, with a smooth surface ; but, when mature, it shrinks, 

 becomes tougher, and has its entire surface deeply pitted or honey-combed. 

 In this mature state it is collected in large quantities by the women and chil- 

 dren, and is eaten uncooked. It has a mucilaginous, slightly sweet taste, with 

 a faint smell like that of a mushroom. 



The necessity of protecting themselves against the extremity of cold, and of 

 obtaining their food from the sea, or by the chase of the reindeer or the white 

 bear, forces the Esquimaux to exert all their faculties, and thus they have 

 raised themselves considerably higher in the scale of civilization than the Fue- 

 gians, whose mode of life requires far less exertion of the mind. To knock a 

 limpet from the rock or to collect a fungus does not even call cunning into ex- 

 ercise. Living chiefly upon shell-fish, they are obliged constantly to change 

 their abode, and thus they hardly bestow any thought on their dwellings, which 

 are more like the dens of wild beasts than the habitations of human beings. 

 The Fuegian wigwam consists of a few branches stuck in the ground, and very 

 imperfectly thatched on one side with a few tufts of grass and rushes. The 

 Avhole can not be the work of an houi", and it is only used for a few days. At 

 intervals, however, the inhabitants of these wretched huts return to the same 

 spot, as is evident from the piles of old shells, often amounting to several tons 

 in weight. These heaps can be distinguished at a distance by the bright green 

 color of certain plants, such as the wild celery and scurvy grass, which invari- 

 ably grow on them. 



The only articles in the manufacture of which the Fuegians show^ some 

 signs of ability are a few ornaments and their weapons, which again are far 

 inferior to those of the Esquimaux. Their bows are small and badly shaped, 

 their arrows, which are between two and three feet long, feathered at one end 

 and blunted at the other. The j^oints are only attached when the arrow is 

 about to be used, and for this purpose the archer carries them about with him 

 in a leathern pouch. The shaft of their larger spears is about ten feet long, 



