THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



227 



rounding isles. Cape Horn, however, demanded his tribute, 

 and before night sent us a gale of wind directly in our teeth. 

 We stood out to sea, and on the second day again made the 

 land, when we saw on our weather-bow this notorious prom- 

 ontory in its proper form — veiled in a mist, and its dim 

 outline surrounded by a storm of wind and water. Great 

 black clouds were rolling across the heavens, and squalls 

 of rain, with hail, swept by us with such extreme violence, 

 that the Captain determined to run into Wigwam Cove. 

 This is a snug little harbour, not far from Cape Horn ; and 

 here, at Christmas-eve, we anchored in smooth water. The 

 only thing which reminded us of the gale outside, was every 

 now and then a puff from the mountains, which made the 

 ship surge at her anchors. 



December 25th. — Close by the Cove, a pointed hill, called 

 Kater's Peak, rises to the height of 1700 feet. The sur- 

 rounding islands all consist of conical masses of greenstone, 

 associated sometimes with less regular hills of baked and 

 altered clay-slate. This part of Tierra del Fuego may be 

 considered as the extremity of the submerged chain of 

 mountains already alluded to. The cove takes its name of 



Wigwam " from some of the Fuegian habitations ; but every 

 bay in the neighbourhood might be so called with equal 

 propriety. The inhabitants, living chiefly upon shell-fish, are 

 obliged constantly to change their place of residence; but 

 they return at intervals to the same spots, as is evident from 

 the piles of old shells, which must often amount to many 

 tons in weight. These heaps can be distinguished at a long 

 distance by the bright green colour of certain plants, which 

 invariably grow on them. Among these may be enumerated 

 the wild celery and scurvy grass, two very serviceable plants, 

 the use of which has not been discovered by the natives. 



The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and dimensions, 

 a haycock. It merely consists of a few broken branches 

 stuck in the ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one 

 side vnth. a few tufts of grass and rushes. The whole cannot 

 be the work of an hour, and it is only used for a few days. 

 At Goeree Roads I saw a place where one of these naked 

 men had slept, which absolutely offered no more cover than 

 the form of a hare. The man was evidently living by him- 



