The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-08-09
FUEGANS ARE DYING OUT.
One Of the Most Primitive Races
Fast Growing Extinct.

Horn. for q narrow passage Sople go
miles long cuts across II somewhat
farther north. says Valparaiso let
ter in the Pittsburg Gazette. \ 10
foot tide aces twice day into the
Atlantic entrance 81 this passage.
covering and uncuvcrin@ dangerous
shoals As 4 wild beast bears its bum.
On these shoals many a good ships
back had broken. .AS we adventure
to the west the waterway stretches
between twin ranges OF sp?;nlered
hills. covered TO the low snow line
in dipping forest OF Antartic birch,
its Sonlbcr green scared at short in
tervalS by bluc-wFite glaciers which
push their frozen hummocks 10 the
waters edge or discharge a cascade
from cliffs so high that on ly an icy
spray. touched with rainbow hue. falls
athWart the steamers deck.
Throughout all the year the roaring
southwest wind blusters past, bring
ing in its traill-save Tor some short,
deceptive calnl-shoWers OF rain and
sleet and cloak OF trailing mist.
Such are the famous Straits OF Ma
gellan. which guard the yet more
broken channels and islands terminal
ing in Cape Horn-a fit barrier OF the
wild races in that wild land 70 mark
mans farthest limit south.
Since Darwin published his famous
''Voyage of Naturalist made in H.
NJ. S. Beagle in 1884. Fuegans have
been generally classed as one tribe
the lowest step in the human ladder"
while popular credulity. based OF
the fears of ship captains, beating a
painful passage home, cheerfully
consented to dub them wreckers and
cannibals as we'll. Only Of late has
the mist of half-truth lifted so that
we may judge them fairly and the
task must be undertaken speedily, if
at all. During twenty years Of con-
tact with whites the numbers of the
Yaghan tribes, Of canoe dwellers,
have sunk from $500 to 200, and that
of the Onas from 1000 to 600 man.
woman and child. Should this rate
of decrease continue few if any.
members of either tribe will survive
the next decade. and fragment OF
the stone age Of intense human inter-
est will disappear altogether from
our ken
The Yaghans frequent chiefly the
shores OF the Beagle camel, a smell
tered passage of great bueaty but lit
tie practical use, lying as it does half
way between the Magellan Straits
and the Horn, its entrance blocked
at either hand by dangerous reefs
and racing tide rips. These tribes
men are true canoe dwellers, since
they must search forever the shores
OF otherwise barren islands for food
in the shape of naussels. fish, sea
'owl, or. perhaps. by great good
chance. stranded seal o. whale.
Till the South American mission es-
tablished itself among them they
braved the rigors OF the climate
naked save for small. fiat otter skin
slung from the neck to the side where
the wind happened to blow. The
women, usually two. padded the
canoe from the stern. The man
crouched in the bow. alert. harpoon
in hand In the center of the canoe
were piled among simple hunting
gear babies and slab of shingled
turf, on which s1noldered the fire.
brands carried to each fresh hating
place. For in the land OF the Horn
fire is first necessity of human life.
and from hundreds OF tiny smoke
drifts which lined the channels in the
days when Magellan and Drake pass
ed on t!:eir way around the world.
came the name Terra del Fuego, or
land of FIRE.
In their unceasing struggle with the
elements for brave existence the
Yaghans have been forced to aban
don all but the slightest mental equip
ment. They have evolved no faith.