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

24 FUEGIAN INDI.ANS. Jail. 1827. remarkable for the long hair, " like a lion's mane,"" grow- ing upon it. They appeared to be a most miserable, squalid race, very inferior, in every respect, to the Patagonians. They did not evince the least uneasiness at ]\Ir. SholFs presence, or at our ships being close to them ; neither did they interfere with him, but remained squatting round their fire while he staid near. This seeming indifference, and total want of curiosity, gave us no favourable opinion of their character as intellectual beings ; indeed, they appeared to be very little removed from brutes ; but our subsequent knowledge of them has convinced us that they are not usually deficient in intellect. This party was perhaps stupified by the unusual size of our ships, for the vessels which frequent this Strait are seldom one hundred tons in burthen. We proceeded next morning at an early hour. The Indians were already paddling across the bay in a northerly direction. Upon coming abreast of them, a thick smoke was perceived to rise suddenly from their canoes ; they had probably fed the fire, which they always carry in the middle of their canoe, with green boughs and leaves, for the purpose of attracting our attention, and inviting us to communicate with them. It was remarked that the country begins to be covered with trees at Cape Negro ; but they are stunted, compared with those at Freshwater Bay. Near this place, also, the coun- try assumes a more verdant aspect, becoming also higher, and more varied in appearance. In the neighbourhood of Rocky Point some conspicuous portions of land were noticed, which, fi-om the regularity of their shape, and the quantity as well as size of the trees growing at the edges, bore the appearance of having been once cleared ground ; and our pilot Robinson (possessing a most inventive imagination) informed us that they were fields, formerly cleared and cultivated by the Spaniards, and that ruins of buildings had been lately dis- covered near them. For some time his story obtained credit, but it proved to be altogether void of foundation. These ap- parently cleared tracts were afterwards found to be occasioned hy unusual poverty of soil, and by being oveiTun with thick