Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

1898. USELESS BAY NATIVES. 125 by bearings of Mount Tarn, crossed by angles from Mount Graves, Nose Peak, and Point Boqueron, our position, and the extent of this bay, were determined. As it affords neither anchorage nor shelter, nor any other advantage for the navi- gator, we have named it Useless Bay. It was too much exposed to the prevailing winds to allow of our landing to examine the country, and its productions, or to communicate with the Indians ; and as there was not much likelihood of finding any- thing of novel character, we lost no time in retreating from so ex- posed a place. Abreast of Point Boqueron the patent log gave for our run twenty-six miles, precisely the same distance which it had given in the morning ; so that from five o'clock in the morning until ten, and from ten o'clock until four in the after- noon, we had not experienced the least tide, which of itself is a fact confirmatory of the non-existence of a channel. From the fires of the natives in this part having been noticed at a distance from the beach, it would seem that they derive their subsistence from hunting rather than fishing; and as there are guanacoes on the south shore of the First Narrow, it is probable the people's habits resemble those of the Patago. nians, rather than the Fuegians ; but as they have no horses, the chase of so shy and swift an animal as the guanaco must be fatiguing and very precarious.* Sarmiento is the only person on record who has communicated with the natives in the neighbourhood of Cape Monmouth. He calls them in his narrative a large race (Gente grande). There it was that he was attacked by the Indians, whom he repulsed, and one of whom he made prisoner. We remained a night in Port Famine, and again set out in the Adelaide to survey some of the western parts of the Strait. * Falkner describes the Indians who inhabit the eastern islands of Tierra del Fuego, to be ' Yacana-cunnees,' and as he designates those who inhabit the Fatagonian shore of the Strait by the same name, it might be inferred that they are of the same race ; but however closely connected they may have been formerly, they certainly are not so now, for Maria (the Patagonian) spoke very contemptuously of them, and disclaimed their alliance; calling them ' zapallios,' which means slaves.