probably travel and stay but a short time at a place, so at least it would seem from the badness of their houses, which seem all built to stand but for a short time; from their having no kind of household furniture but what has a handle, adapted either to be carried in the hand or on the back; from the thinness of their clothing, which seems little calculated even to bear the summers of this country, much less the winters; from their food of shell-fish, which must soon be exhausted at any one spot; and from the deserted huts we saw in the first bay we came to, which had plainly been inhabited but a short time previously, probably this spring. Boats they had none with them, but as they were not sea-sick or particularly affected when they came on board our ship, possibly they might have been left at some bay or inlet, which passes partly, but not entirely, through this island from the Straits of Magellan, from which place I should be much inclined to believe these people have come, as so few ships before ours have anchored upon any part of Terra del Fuego.
Their dogs, which I forgot to mention before, seem also to indicate a commerce at some time or other with Europeans, they being all of the kind that bark, contrary to what has been observed of (I believe) all dogs natives of America.
The weather here has been very uncertain, though in general extremely bad; every day since the first more or less snow has fallen, and yet the thermometer has never been below 38°. Unseasonable as this weather seems to be in the middle of summer, I am inclined to think it is generally so here, for none of the plants appear at all affected by it, and the insects which hide themselves during a snow blast are, the instant it is fair again, as lively and nimble as the finest weather could make them.[1]
- ↑ Here follows a list of 104 phanerogamic and 41 cryptogamic plants collected in Terra del Fuego.
