The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-23

ground about them, and great ferns,
with leaves as long as your arm, ex-
| tend out in every bare and rocky spot.
| The ground is saturated with moisture.
| The mold and rotting wood Of centu-
ries covers 1t, and you sink in and
| stumble about more than you would
in an Irish bog. It is only on the high
| er parts Of the mountains that vegeta-
| ton ceases, and only there that the
climate Is such as to produce glaciers
and perpetual snow. The icebergs
which we saw in the channel came
from these glaciers. They are among
the great glaciers Of the world, many
! Of them surprising, it is said, the larg-
est glaciers of the Alps. In TERRA del
Fuego they line the channels in places
with walls of ice 1000 feet high, and
ships must sail carefully not to be
struck by the icebergs, which, in
chunks of 1000 tons and upward, break
off Of them, with a noise like thunder,
and fall into the sea. Icebergs often
fill Smyth's channel, SO that it is i'm
possible 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
I now am had It's bows crushed in by
the icebergs. This glacial ice is not
like that in our rivers and lakes. 1t is
as hard as a, rock and Of crystalline
green. During our second day in the
archipelago we stopped the steamer,
lassoed an iceberg and towed it up to
the ship. It was g. little berg, not big
ger than Washington city lot, but it
was of a beautiful opalescent green,
a top Of frosted silver. 1t had many
angles and projections, and it was with
crOwbars that the steward and boat
load of sailors attacked it and broke
off enough ice to last for the rest Of
-
chains used for hosting heavy cargo
was first coupled about the corner of
one Of these ice masses. Then a lever
in the engine room was pulled, and
section of an iceberg was raised by
steam, by means of a derrick, to the
deck OF the vessel. Some of these
blocks weighed many tons, and alto
gether we must have taken a hundred
tons of ice.
THE NAKED SAVAGES.
During our voyage through these
strange islands we saw but few ami
mails and birds. Now and then we
passed a small school Of seals, which
popped their heads out Of the water
and took a peep at the steamer as it
went by We saw half a dozen whales
in the different days of the trip, and
now and then an aTbatross and gull.
We had. however, a number Of visits
from the wild savages of the MagelIans,
the naked Indians of Patagonian chan
nels, who are perhaps the least known
Of the wild men Of the world. AS far
as I can learn. no ethnologist has ever
lived with them or made a study of
them. They are different from the
Onas and Yaghans Of TERRA del Fuego,
among whom missionaries have work.
ed, and several Of whom We're carried
years ago to England. These Indians
are known as the Alacalufes. There
are, all told, only about 500 Of them.
They have no chiefs or tribal relations.
Each family takes care of itself, living
in it's 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 some
times on land in little wigwams three
feet high, made by bending over the
branches Of trees and tying them to-
gether. They make q fire in front and
crawl into them for the night. Their
canoes are we'll constructed. They are
fifteen or more feet long and about
three or four feet wide, and perhaps
two feet deep. They are made Of bark
sewn together with sinew. They are
cross-ribbed, and so made that they
can be easily padded. In the center
Of each boat is fire built on some
earth, and about this sit such of the
family as are not padding the boat.
Queer looking people they are. They
wear no clothes whatever, in a state
Of nature, and are apparently comfort
able amid the SHOWS of winter with
only 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