i 3 o 
ARTEFACTS COLLECTED 
50 mm.) which the tube would no longer accommodate. 
Before being crushed it would just have held the largest of 
the beads retained (the bulk has gone to Australia). Verneau 
(op. cit., p. 14) figures and describes similar beads of stone 
and shell, though none is as small as the largest of the 
present examples. No doubt the beads were for stringing 
together to form a necklet. That the group collected by 
Spencer was so used is indicated by the polishing of the outer 
margins as contrasted with the dull appearance of the flat 
surfaces, which, being in close contact, would have escaped 
much friction and weathering. 
(2) Collection made in Fuegia. 
The ethnological and archaeological specimens (other 
than human skeletal remains) collected during the period 
spent upon Navarin Island and some of the neighbouring 
islands of the southern group, are mainly referable to the 
^ aghan culture. According to recent accounts a bare seventy 
Y aghans still survive, and it seems probable that ere long 
the tribe will become extinct. The culture of the surviving 
remnant has undergone modification and many of the old- 
time characteristic appliances are no longer, or but rarely 
used. The study of their indigenous material culture be¬ 
comes increasingly an archaeological concern, and is more 
and more restricted to objects of non-perishable materials. 
Still, certain characteristic types of appliances are even yet 
being made and used, and details of their functions may still 
be obtained. The T aghans occupy the most southerly area 
of the Fuegian group, and are therefore the southernmost 
autochthonous natives in the world. The 55th parallel of 
south latitude cuts through their inclement habitat. Being 
almost entirely dependent upon the sea for their food-supply, 
the l aghans live to a great extent in their canoes—like their 
westerly neighbours the Alacaluf, but in contrast to the 
