THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 209 



Gauchos also have frequently in the evening killed them, 

 by holding out a piece of meat in one hand, and in the other 

 a knife ready to stick them. As far as I am aware, there 

 is no other instance in any part of the world, of so small 

 a mass of broken land, distant from a continent, possessing 

 so large an aboriginal quadruped peculiar to itself. Their 

 numbers have rapidly decreased; they are already banished 

 from that half of the island which lies to the eastward of 

 the neck of land between St. Salvador Bay and Berkeley 

 Sound. Within a very few years after these islands shall 

 have become regularly settled, in all probability this fox 

 will be classed with the dodo, as an animal which has per- 

 ished from the face of the earth. 



At night (17th) we slept on the neck of land at the head 

 of Choiseul Sound, which forms the south-west peninsula. 

 The valley was pretty well sheltered from the cold wind; 

 but there was very little brushwood for fuel. The Gauchos, 

 however, soon found what, to my great surprise, made nearly 

 as hot a fire as coals; this was the skeleton of a bullock lately 

 killed, from which the flesh had been picked by the carrion- 

 hawks. They told me that in winter they often killed a 

 beast, cleaned the flesh from the bones with their knives, 

 and then with these same bones roasted the meat for their 

 suppers. 



j8th.—lt rained during nearly the whole day. At night 

 we managed, however, with our saddle-cloths to keep our- 

 selves pretty well dry and warm ; but the ground on which 

 we slept was on each occasion nearly in the state of a bog, 

 and there was not a dry spot to sit down on after our day's 

 ride. I have in another part stated how singular it is that 

 there should be absolutely no trees on these islands, although 

 Tierra del Fuego is covered by one large forest. The 

 largest bush in the island (belonging to the family of Com- 

 posite; ) is scarcely so tall as our gorse. The best fuel is 

 afforded by a green little bush about the size of common 

 heath, which has the useful property of burning while fresh 

 and green. It was very surprising to see the Gauchos,^ in 

 the midst of rain and everything soaking wet, with nothing 

 more than a tinder-box and a piece of rag, immediately make 

 a fire. They sought beneath the tufts of grass and bushes 



