Evening star., 1898-10-22

saw in the channel came from these gla-
GERS. They are among the great glaciers
of the world many of them surprising, it
is said, the largest glaciers of the Alps. In
Iierra del Fuego they line the channels in
places with walls of ice thousand feet
! high. and ships must sail carefully not to
be struck by the icebcrsS which in chunks
of thousand tons and upward break off
of them, with a noise like thunder and fall
into the sea. 1cebergS often fill Smyths
channel, SO that 1t is impossible to get
through. This was the case last year, when
one of the steamers was forced to go back
and where the ship upon which / now am
had its bows crushed in by the icebergs
This glacial ice is not like that in our
rivers and lakes. 1t is as hard as q rock
and of a crystalline green. During our
second day in the archipelago we stopped
the steamer, lassoed an iceberg and towed
it UP to the ship. 1t was little berg, not
bigger than Washington city lot, but it
was of a beautiful opalescent green, with
Il top of frosted silver. 1T had many angles
and projections, and it with crowbars
that the steward and boat load of sailors
attacked 1t and broke off enough ice to last
for the rest of the voyage. One of the
great log chains used for hosting heavy
cargo was first coupled about the corner
of one of these ice ma sses Then a lever
in the engine room was pulled and a sec
ton of an iceberg was raised by steam by
means of a derrick to the deck of the YES
sci. Some of these blocks weighed many
/ tons and altogether we must have taken
Il nundred tons OF Ice.
Snvnges of the Ingcllans.
During our voyage through these strange
| islands we saw but few animals and birds
Now and then we passed a small school of
seals which popped their heads out of the
water and took peep at the steamer as it
went by. We saw half dozen whales in
the different days of the trip, and now and
then an albatross and gull. We had, how
ever, q number of visits from the wild
savages of the Magellans, the naked In
dams of Patagonian channels, who are per-
haps the least known of the wild men OF
the world AS far as | can learn, no eth
nolosist has ever lived with them made
a study of them. They are different from
the OaaS and Yaghans of TERRA del Fuego
among whom missionaries have worked,
and several of whom Were carried years
ago to England. These Indians are known
as the Alacalufes. There are, all told
only about 800 of them They have no
chiefs tribal relations. Each family
| takes care Of itself, living in its own canoe.
They are strictly canoe Indians, who live
almost entirely upon the sea. and who are
found only in these straits and off the
coasts of southern Patagonia. They sleep
sometimes land in little wigwams three
feet high made by bending over the branch
es of trees and tying them together. They
make fire in front and crawl into them for
the night. Their canoes are well constructed.
| They are fifteen or more feet long and
about three four feet wide, and DerhaD
two feet deep. They are made of bark sewn
together with snew. They are cross-rib-
! bed, and so made that they can be easily
padded. In the center of each boat is d
| fire built on some earth, and about this sit
such of the family not padding the
boat. Queer-looking people they are. They
wear no clothes whatever, in a state of
nature, and apparently comforts BILE
| amid the SHOWS of winter, with only a coat
| of seal or fish oil upon their skins. Since
| they have seen white men, however, they
! are glad to get such clothing as they can
| beg and they come about the ships and ask
| for cast-off garments food and tobacco.
Some whom we saw were as naked as
| Adam and Eve before the fall Others wore
| bits of old clothes.
One man. l remember, who was apparent
| ly the head of the almost naked family in
his canoe, had on only short vest, open
| at the front, and rag apron as big as a
| lady's handkerchief tied to a string about
I his waist. His favorite wife. clad in
| string of beads, sat in the boat near the
| fire. with a naked boy Of two sucking his
| fingers as he leaned against her naked legs,
! and his other wife. buxom girl in her
| teens, held naked baby to her breast
| with one hand while she padded the boat
with the other. I was shivering in my
they did not seem cold nor miserable.
Both men and women were rather
| under than diversified. They had faces
| somewhat like these of our Indians.
| The mems faces were dirty, evidently
| from paint, and the naked brave In
| the vest had thin black mustache. They
had black hair; that Of the women
leng, but put up In some way.
land that of the men cut of 50