XI 
PORT FAMINE 
247 
like the so-called giants, they were so thoroughly good-humoured 
and unsuspecting ; they asked us to come again. They seem to 
like to have Europeans to live with them ; and old Maria, an 
important woman in the tribe, once begged Mr. Low to leave any 
1 one of his sailors with them. They spend the greater part of the 
year here ; but in summer they hunt along the foot of the Cor¬ 
dillera ; sometimes they travel as far as the Rio Negro, 750 miles 
to the north. They are well stocked with horses, each man having, 
according to Mr. Low, six or seven, and all the women, and even 
children, their one own horse. In the time of Sarmiento (1 580) 
these Indians had bows and arrows, now long since disused ; they 
then also possessed some horses. This is a very curious fact, show¬ 
ing the extraordinarily rapid multiplication of horses in South 
America. The horse was first landed at Buenos Ayres in 1537, 
and the colony being then for a time deserted, the horse ran wild J 
in 1580, only forty-three years afterwards, we hear of them at the 
Strait of Magellan ! Mr. Low informs me that a neighbouring 
tribe of foot-Indians is now changing into horse-Indians : the tribe 
at Gregory Bay giving them their worn-out horses, and sending 
in winter a few of their best skilled men to hunt for them. 
June 1st .—We anchored in the fine bay of Port Lamine. It 
was now the beginning of winter, and I never saw a more cheer¬ 
less prospect ; the dusky woods, piebald with snow, could be 
only seen indistinctly through a drizzling hazy atmosphere. We 
were, however, lucky in getting two fine days. On one of these, 
Mount Sarmiento, a distant mountain 6800 feet high, presented 
a very notable spectacle. I was frequently surprised, in the 
scenery of Tierra del Luego, at the little apparent elevation of 
mountains really lofty. I suspect it is owing to a cause which 
would not at first be imagined, namely, that the whole mass, 
from the summit to the water’s edge, is generally in full view. 
I remember having seen a mountain, first from the Beagle 
Channel, where the whole sweep from the summit to the base 
was full in view, and then from Ponsonby Sound across several 
successive ridges ; and it was curious to observe in the latter 
case, as each fresh ridge afforded fresh means of judging of the 
distance, how the mountain rose in height. 
Before reaching Port Lamine, two men were seen running 
along the shore and hailing the ship. A boat was sent for them. 
1 Rengger, Natur. der Saeugethiere von Paraguay. S. 334. 
