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Show 236 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. Dec. 1832. ably the same question may be asked with respect to these barbarians. At night, five or six human beings, naked and scarcely protected from the wind and rain ~f this te.mpestuous climate, sleep on the wet ground cml~d up ~ke animals. Whenever it is low water, they must nse to piCk shell-fish from the rocks ; and the women, winter and summer, either dive to collect sea eggs, or sit patiently in their canoes, and, with a baited hair-line, jerk out small fish. If a seal is killed, or the floating carcass of a putrid whale discovered, it is a feast: such miserable food is assisted by a few tasteless berries and fungi. Nor are they exempt from famine, and, as a consequence, cannibalism accompanied by parricide. The tribes have no government or head, yet each is surrounded by other hostile ones, speaking different dialects ; and the cause of their warfare would appear to be the means of subsistence. Their country is a broken mass of wild rock, lofty hills, and useless forests : and these are viewed through mists and endless storms. The habitable land is reduced to the stones which form 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 wretched canoes. They cannot know the feeling of having a home, and still less that of domestic affection ; unless indeed · the treatment of a master to a laborious slave can be considered as such. How little can the higher powers of the mind be brought into play ! · What is there for imagination to picture, for reason to compare, for judgment to decide upon ? to knock a limpet from the rock does not even require cunning, that lowest power of the mind. Their skill in some respects may be compared to the instinct of animals; for it is not improved by experience : the . canoe, their most ingenious work, poor as it is, has remained the same, for the last two hundred and fifty years. Whilst beholding these savages, one asks, whence have they come ? What could have tempted, or what change compelled a tribe of men to leave the fine regions of Jan. 1833. INHABITANTS. 237 the north, to travel down the Cordillera or backbone of America, to invent and build canoes, and then to enter on one of the most inhospitable countries within the limits of the globe ? Although such reflections must at first occupy one's mind, yet we may feel sure that many of them are quite erroneous. There is no reason to believe that the Fuegians decrease in number; therefore we must suppose that they enjoy a sufficient share of happiness (of whatever kind it may be) to render life worth having. Nature by making habit omnipotent, and its effects hereditary, has fitted the Fuegian to the climate and the productions of his country. JANUARY 15TH, 1833.-The Beagle anchored in Goeree Roads. Captain FitzRoy having determined to settle the Fuegians, according to their wishes, in Ponsonby Sound, four boats were equipped to carry them there through the Beagle channel. This channel which was discovered by Captain FitzRoy during the last voyage, is a most remarkable fe~ture in the geography of this, or indeed of any other country. Its length is about 120 miles with an average breadth, not subject to any very great variations, of about two miles. It is throughout the greater part so extremely straight, that the view, bounded on each side by a line of mountains, gradually becomes indistinct in the perspective. This arm of the sea may be compared to the valley of Lochness in Scotland, with its chain of lakes and entering friths. At some future epoch the resemblance perhaps will become complete. Already in one part we have proofs of a rising of the land in a line of cliff, or terrace, composed of coarse sandstone, mud, and shingle, which forms both shores. The Beagle channel crosses the southern part of Tierra del Fuego in an east and west line ; in its middle, it is joined on the south side by an irregular channel at right angles to it, which has been called Ponsonby Sound. This is the residence of J emmy Button's tribe and family. JANUARY 19TH.-Three whale boats and the yawl, with a |