NAMES OF FUEGIAN CHILDREN AT TILLY BAY.
| Alkeress. | Gounaco. |
| Ilchabesakodotis. | Gounaco Chikachikis. |
| Kelchuarkuss. |
We anchored at Port Gallant for three days in the latter end of January, and while we were there a bark canoe came alongside. It was of the kind which King describes as peculiar to the tribe inhabiting the western part of the Magellan Straits, and to whom he assigned the name "Pecherai," from their habit of frequently using that word. The canoe was much smaller and lighter than the plank canoes of the western channels, and was propelled entirely by paddles instead of oars. Two old women, who sat in the stern end, wore cloaks of deer skin, and were very noisy and talkative, so that we did not encourage them to come on board. The basket, in which they carried their stock of shell-fish, was much more elaborately plaited than were those of the "Channel Fuegians." We did not observe any difference in their hunting implements, except that bows and arrows were more abundant with them.
On the 25th, a large iron steamship, the Maranhense, came in from the westward and anchored near us. It appeared that about six months previously she had come out from Antwerp, bringing a cargo of arms for the Chilian Government, and that she was now homeward bound, carrying a general cargo. As she was coming down the Messier Channel, she had touched the ground in the English Narrows, and been so much injured in the bows that her collision compartment was full of water. Captain Leadbetter came on board to solicit the services of our diver, which were of course granted; and on an examination being made, it was found that there was a hole in her bows big enough for a man to crawl through. For several days subsequently ineffectual attempts were made to stop it up, and on the 30th of January both vessels moved up to Sandy Point. Here we met a German man-of-war, the Freia, whose crew rendered further assistance to the disabled vessel, but all in vain. At length, our diver was sent down to make a complete examination of her bottom, and he came up with the unpleasant news that there was another great hole in her bottom, 71⁄2 feet in length, under the after-hold, that the iron skin and part of the keel had been torn away, and that the cement alone, with which her bottom was lined, prevented the water from coming in. In view now of the possibility of the cement suddenly giving way, and the vessel sinking, steam was got up, the anchor was raised, and she was moved into shallower water further inshore, so that in the event of her sinking, the hull might not be entirely submerged. The master of the Maranhense now decided on sending to Monte Video for artificers and material to repair the bottom, and for a new crank-shaft for her engines, which had also recently come to grief.
On the 9th of February we bade good-bye to the officers of the Maranhense, and steamed back to Port Gallant.
Some days subsequently we moved westward to Playa Parda Cove in Crooked Reach, our boats having been meanwhile engaged in charting the coastline.
On February 18th a small party of us made a trip in the steam-cutter from Playa Parda Cove to visit a glacier which is situated about six miles to the eastward. We steamed round to the inlet, which is marked on the chart as Glacier Bay, and moored the cutter under a lofty cliff near the head of the bay. The land here was low and flat, covered with a dense forest, and bounded on either side by precipitous lofty cliffs, whose smooth faces exhibited planings and scorings due to the abrading action of old glaciers. I landed about the middle of the low muddy beach, which extended from cliff to cliff, and proceeded to penetrate the forest in the direction of the glacier. Here I at first found some difficulty in advancing, for after tearing my way through a dense prickly scrub of barberry bushes, I came upon an even more serious obstacle, in the shape of a broad and rapid torrent of mud-coloured water, which it was absolutely necessary to cross. This was one of the streams which flowed from under the glacier. Cautiously feeling my way, and steadying myself against the rushing water, I just managed to get across, finding the process rather cold; and now, after traversing a belt of forest, which was only half a mile in width, but which gave me forty-five minutes hard work, I emerged all at once from the gloomy shade of the beech trees to find my eyes dazzled by a glare of white light, and the foot of the glacier straight before me. The line of trees was separated from the snout of the glacier by a freshly-accumulating terminal moraine, of about one hundred yards in width; and where this moraine adjoined the sharply-defined edge of the forest, its advancing condition was evident from the piles of rubble which were in places shot in among the green trees, and from the overturned condition of many of those on the margin of the forest, as they gave way before the advancing piles of rubbish. It was a strange sight, standing in the middle of this terminal moraine, to see, on the one hand, a fresh evergreen forest abounding in the most delicate ferns and mosses; and, on the other, a huge mass of cold blue-veined ice, which was slowly and irresistibly gouging its passage downwards to the sea. The stones of the moraine were composed of syenite and greenstone, the former predominating, and mixed up with them I saw many trunks of trees, which were crushed, torn, and distorted out of all shape. These were probably the remains of a portion of the forest, which had at one time extended further up the valley, and which had been annihilated by the advance of the glacier; and this circumstance, with the other which I have mentioned, showed clearly that the glacier was now extending its limits and approaching the sea. A few days afterwards, we paid a second visit to Glacier Bay, when a good photo was obtained.
FOOT OF GLACIER AT GLACIER BAY, STRAITS OF MAGELLAN.
We stayed for a fortnight at Swallow Bay, a port in Crooked Reach, a few miles to the westward of Tilly Bay. It would seem that this locality had been greatly resorted to by the natives for catching fish, for we found several of their "stone weirs," in a more or less perfect state. The places selected for these weirs were usually small smooth-bottomed coves, and the weir, which consists of a sort of dam built of loose stones about three feet high, is placed across the mouth of one of these coves in such a manner, that when it is complete, any fish which may be inside it will be imprisoned. When it is low water, and the cove is almost dry, a gap is left in the centre of the weir through which the fish may enter with the rising tide; at high tide the gap is closed up, so that when the water flows away through the interstices of the dam with the falling tide, the fish remain imprisoned in a shallow pool where they can easily be caught. These shallow mud-bottomed coves are the favourite haunts of the grey mullets, who collect there in great numbers, and who sometimes on bright fine days may be seen resting on the mud with only a few inches of water over them, as they lie apparently basking in the sunshine.