The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-09

of which speak the same dialect The most wariike and dangerous Indians are
 those of the extreme southern island, known as Yahhans; while from Cape
 Froward northward. and up all the
 western channels to the Gulf of Fenas.
 the natives appear to he of the same family an both sides of the Straits of Magellan. or at least to maintain
 friendly relations with one another. These last mentioned are the celebrated Canoe Indians"-about the lowest type iof savages on the face of the earth, lower even than the dirt-eating Dig gers of the California peninsula.
 Though there are thousands of them, and they spend all the hours of daylight on the Water-each rude canoe contain ling a whole family. one or two men with their mother and several wives land as many children as can be crowd- ed in-returning to shore only when darkiess falls. where they build fire upon the rock and cuddle around it to keep from freezing, it is surprising how 1 few o4 them are ever seen by the nu-
 merous vessels that pass through the Straits. Still more astonishing it is to note how rapidly they will collect from all quarters-perhaps a hundred or
 more boat-loads of them iii a few min
 utes' time, all ready for robbery or mur-
 der whenever a strange vessel comes along, particularly if it be a small one,
 or in any way disabled. How the rem
 dezvous becomes known to so many In dians at once, when not wretched ca noe is in sight, remains a mystery; but
 many ship wrecked mariners have re- ported the same thing-that signal fires
 suddenly blaze up all along the coasts for miles. and from behind every shell 1 tered rock and out of every tiny creek
 canoes came shooting swiftly toward 1.-the rallying point
 Though the Fuegoan is essentially a
 waterman, his canoe is the rudest af-
 fair that can be made to float. Instead
 Of being hollowed out in good shape from the trunk of a tree, or made of
 bark like those of other Indians, these
 are rough blanks, obtained heaven knows how, tied together with fiber and 1 thongs, without the slightest regard to form, a long end sticking up in front like an exaggerated prov. In their mo-
 tion there is none of the graceful gliding
 of the North American or New Zealand
 canoes. for instead of being propelled 1 by paddles, these miserable craft are rowed with oars made by tying a piece
 of thick bark to the end of a pole. On
 the bottom of each boat, near the mid dle. some dirt is piled, and on it a small lfire of sticks iskept burning, for the par tia comfort of the native occupants.
 On all sides of this fire they huddle-
 six, eight or more in one boat, always
 sitting, chattering and apparently in the best of spirits, in spite of the weather land the constant necessity of taking iaurns in bailing out the water that flows in between the imperfectly joined blanks. Uglier-looking mortals never breathed They are the color of rusty liron, with flat noses. high cheek-bones, enormous chins and jaws, crocodile mouths filled with long, yellow teeth, low foreheads, extremely wide flat faces, over which coarse hair falls in Imatted Jumps; in figure squatty and lround shouldered, having the peculiarly
 bloated pot-bellied appearance of char ity orphans who have been raised on cabbage soup. Though big headed and Iround bodied, their legs are abnormally short, slender and crooked-a physical ldeformity probably due to spending lmost of their lives squatting in canoes. The women are more repulsive, if pos- Isible. than the men. and seem to care even less about covering their dirty bodies with any sort of raiment, and ltheir uncommonly numerous spawn look like young baboons. only the latter are Infinitely handsomer. Their intelligence
 seems to be confined to knowledge of boating and fishing. in both of which they are very skillful. Their fishing Hines are made of grass, their hooks of lfish-bones, their fishing-spears have a
 forked end made from the bone of a lsea-lion: and the womens implement is a long bone, notohed saw-tooth fashion on one edge for knocking limpets off the rocks. Their weapons are bows and lances, the former having strings made from the entrails of animals, and ar- lrows tipped with flint; and the lances are long, slender poles with tips of lsharpened bone They have knives, too, the blades of which are nussel-shells, a livery large species of which is found
 along these coasts. A shell four or five linches long has it's brittle edge clipped off, and a new edge formed by grinding the shell upon the rock, after which il Twill not only cut the hardest wood, but
 bones of fish and seals, and serve the
 Fuegoan for every purpose, even to the
 cutting of human throat. His meth. lod of procuring a fire is unique. Wher. lever he goes he carries along a bit oi iron pyrites. which is found upon the lmountain sides all over Tierra del F'ue. lgo- This, when struck by pebble will produce sparks The sparks arc icaught upon bit of dried moss or tho punk os a dead log; and when ignited
 the finder is placed within a ball ot ldried grass, and this being rapidly Iwhirled soon sets the grass in a blaze lThen it is only necessary to communi- lcate the blaze to bundle of sticks, an6 the work is done. But all this is a goo6 Ideal too much trouble for the lazy Fue. lgoan. Therefore he is every careful ol his fire, lighting one on shore at night lfall from the fire in his boat, and vice iversa in the morning. My first ac- Dquaintance with a boat-load of these Isavages came about while on the way
 to King Charles South Land in the mis-