The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-23
hidden and we could look over the clouds at
the green and snow above
..... -.

green trees and a mass OF dense green veg
citation in midwfnter. amid the SHOWS and
glaciers. That is what we have here. The
glaciers slice down into the green, and the
snow falls and meits upon 1t all winter
long. In many places the green is clear, in
others IL is snow-dusted, and in others
loaded with snow masses. On the highest
peaks only it is all snow and ice Even in
the jungles of India 1 have not seen so
dense a growth of trees and plants as along
the west coast of Patagonia. We had
chance to go lon shore every afternoon
when we anchored for the night. Pushing
our way into the country was, however,
impossible. The trees are evergreens, gen
orally small, but so dense that you could
walk on their tops on snow shoes. A bed
of moss as deep as your waist covers the
ground about them, and great ferns, with
leaves as long as your arm, extend out III
every bare and rocky spot. The ground is
saturated with moisture. The mold and rot
ting wood of centuries covers 1t, and you
sink in and stumble about more than you
would in an Irish bog. 1t is only on the
higher 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, il is said, the largest
glaciers of the Alps. In TERRA del Fuego
they line the channels in places with walls
of ice thousand feet high. ard ships must
sail carefully not to be struck by the ice
bergs which in chunks of a thousand tons
and upward break off of them, with a noise
like thunder, and fall into the sea. Ice
horO Cnnu4h'G channel that il
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 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 rock and of a crystalline green.
During our second day in the archipelago
we stopped the steamer. lassoed an iceberg
and lowed it up to the ship. 1t was little
berg, not bigger than Washington city lot,
but it was of a beautiful opalescent green,
with a top of frosted silver. 1t had many
angles and projections, and it was with
crowbars that the steward and boatload of
sailors attacked it 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 masses. Then 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
altogether we must have taken hundred
tons of ice.
SAvAGES OF THE NIAGELLANS.
During our voyage through these strange
islands we saw but few animals and birds.
Now and then we passed 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 dozen whales in
the different days of the trip. and now and
then an albatross and gull. We had, how
ever, a 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
nologist has ever lived with them made
a study of them. They are different from
the Onas 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 500 Of them. They have no
chiefs or tribal relations. Each family
takes care of itself, living in its own canoe,
They are strictly 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 on land in little wigwarms three
feet high, made by bending over the
branches of trees and tying them together.
They make a fire in front and crawl into
them for the night. Their canoes are well
constructed They are fifteen or more feet
IL
haps two feet deep. They are made of bark
sewn together with sinew. They 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 are not padding the
boat. Queer looking people they are They
wear no clothes whatever. in a state of
nature. and are apparently comfortable
amid the SHOWS of winter, with only coat
of seal or fish oil upon their skins Since
they have 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, / remember, who was apparent
ly the head of the almost naked family in
his canoe, had on only a short vest, open
at the front, and rag apron big
lady's handkerchief tied to a string about
his waist. His favorite wife, clad in
string of beads, sat in the boat near the
fire, with naked boy of two sucking his
fingers as he leaned against her naked legs,
and his other wife, a buxom girl in her'
teens held a naked baby to her breast with
one hand while she padded the boat with
the other. l shivering in my overcoat
as 1 looked at these people, but they did
not seem cold nor miserable The children
were fat The young mother at the end of
the boat had on nothing but a cast-off sack
coat. which she had thrown over her Shout
ders to partially cover herself and her baby.
Az she padded this kept falling off, and her
person and that of the baby were exposed.
Understood PEOPLE.
Both men and women were rather under
than diversified. They had faces somewhat
like those of our Indians. The mems faces
were dirty. evidently from paint. and the
naked brave in the vest had a thin black
mustache. They had black hair; that of
the women long. but put up in some way,
and that of the men cut off so that it just
covered the ears and fell down in a thick
black fringe or bank over their eyes. The
skins were of a brown coffee color. and all
had very white teeth which they showed