The Springdale news., 1888-08-03

of sufficient size ever to be utilized for navigation, there is large number of small rivers and watercourses, which carry off the rains and melted snow 1 from the mountains, and thus assist to irrigate the lower plains.
 Travellers reports as to the inhabit- ants of Tierra del Fuego have been conflicting. Some visitors have re- ported the natives to be stalwart. fine | looking men, and others have described them as small and abject beings. l Darwin, whose scientific investigations were confined to the south of the coun- l try, says that " one can hardly believe l them to he felloW-creatures and inhab- l itants of the same world On the other hand, other explorers in the l north and northeast describe the Fue- 1 gians as powerful men of large stature and warlike instincts This apparent discrepancy seems to be due 10 the fact that the land is inhabited by 1 two very distinct races of Indians Alr. Brydges, whose long residence in tho country enables him to speak with authority on this point, assures us that there are two separate and distinct tribes dwelling in Tierra del Fuego. He calls them, as they call themselves, Onas and Yahgans, the for l mer living i'll the north and the lat ter in the south. The Onas seem to be almost identical in character, manners and language with the Tuehelehe In- dians of Patagonia. Like them, they nse bows and arrows in tho chase, and are muscular, active and well formed. Their number is now much reduced; an epidemic of measles having been very fatal among them few years ago, and the whole tribe probably docs not now number more than five hundred per sons. They are nomadic, and live prin l eipally in portable tents, covered with guanaeo skins. Mir. Pepper did not form a high opinion of their intellec- tual faculties, judging from the primi- l tive nature of their implements. He describes their tools as consisting for i the most part of pieces of iron. taken 1 from some vessel cast on shore, and tied to pieces of wood by leather thongs. They have no canoes. and do not fish. though they pick Up on the shore such fish as are left behind after heavy tides. Their only water-vessels are large shells; but they display some ingenuity in making arrows and bas- kets
 The Yaghans. who inhabited the southern portion of Tierra del Fnego. are an altogether different people from the Onas, and have, with some reason. been considered d. the most miserable species of humanity in the Western Hemisphere. They are quar- relsome and treache1-ous. and are gov erned entirely bg their desires and passions. Very deXterous in the man agement of canoes they live largely 1 by fishing, hut arc very destitute even Of the simplest appliance for cooking and comfort. Some of the tribes are of fair size, but others are extremely diminutiye and ahjeet looking. Mir. Brydges, however, who has lived among them nearly quarter of q century, says they are not so de- graded aS they have been represented. and he particularly fepndiates the charge of cnnibaiism which has been made against them. They have | been found capable of some small measure of civilization. but, like the Onas, have suffered severe ly from epidemies. especially from smallpox. Their number Is now con siderabl4 below three thousand Mr. l Brydges describes their language as soft, rich and very full;' how rich and full may he inferred from his al- most incredible statement that he has accumulated vocabulary of no fewer than S0,6oo words To find such. a wealthy language among so low a race is curious circumstance and one worthy of consideration by ethnolo. gists.
 Such are few of the latest partien- lafs about this little-known territory. Even the name by which if is known is q misnomer, 1t being q land of frost rather than land Of fire. It receives the latter title from its diseoverer, Magellan, who, when passing its northern coasts, noticed night after night succession of small fires, which he supposed to be due to some myster- ieus natural causes. In reality, they were beaeons lighted by the natives
 but the original mistake has given 3 permanent name to the country, and is typical of many other mistakes which
 have since been made about it. C7tdDa. 1 L.-..i In,Lrtnt