Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

SOUTHERN ABOKIGIXES. 137 always cleai'. The heats of summer are very great ; but in winter, though the days are not cold, the frosts at night are severe ; and at all times of the year, in the day-time, strong 'vinds sweep over the plains. The Yacana-kunny, natives of the north-eastern part of Tierra del Fuego, resemble the Patagonians in colour, stature, and clothing.* They seem to be now much in the condition in which the Patagonians must have been before they had horses.-f* Witli their dogs, with bows and arrows, balls (bolas), slings, lances, and clubs, they kill guanacoes, ostriches, birds, and seals. The north-eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego is a better country than Patagonia. The woody mountains of the south- western islands are succeeded, towards this north-east district, by hills of moderate height, partially wooded ; northward of which are level expanses, almost free from wood, but covered with herbage adapted to the pasturage of cattle. The climate is a mean between the extremes of wetness and drought, which are so much felt by the neighbouring regions and when a settlement is made, at some future day, in that part of the world, San Sebastian Bay, in the Yacana country, called by Narborough, King Charles South Land, would be an advantageous position for its site. J The Tekeenica, natives of the south-eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego, are low in stature, ill-looking, and badly proportioned. Their colour is that of very old mahogany, or rather between dark copper, and bronze. The trunk of the body is large, in proportion to their cramped and rather crooked limbs. Their rough, coarse, and extremely dirty black hair half hides yet heightens a villanous expression of the worst description of savage features. Passing so much time in low wigwams, or cramped in small * Excepting boots'. t See Magalhaens' first intervicAV. Burney, vol. i. p. 34. + Falkner says (p. 93, speaking of this country), " It is evident that this place has the conveniences of wood, water, and soil ; and, if there could be found a tolerable hai'bour, it would be much more convenient for a colony, and have a better command of the passage to the South Sea than Falkland's Islands."