STARVATION BEACH.
The Fuegian is about as inhospitable as his country and climate can well make him. The region is subject to heavy rains and severe cold; the snow-line on the mountains is only four thousand feet above the sea, and Mr. Darwin says it is difficult to find an acre of level ground in the whole country. The lowland is covered with peat swamps and forests of beeches, and some of the scenery is quite pretty, but the general aspect is forbidding and desolate. There are glaciers along the sides of the mountains, and there are fresh-water lakes in the interior, frequented by great flocks of ducks and other aquatic birds. Along the coast are islands which are the resort of fur seals, and occasionally a rich haul is made by enterprising sealers.
The natives live in conical huts or wigwams built from the branches of trees over holes dug in the ground. In addition to shell-fish and other sea products, they live on a fungus that grows on the beech-trees. A picture of a Fuegian and his food is given on the next page. The reader will observe the fungus growing in a cluster a few feet above the base of the tree and just where the limbs diverge. It is an article of food not adapted to the European palate, but the natives seem to be fond of it—perhaps because they are obliged to be.
A FUEGIAN AND HIS FOOD.
"Why was the country named Tierra del Fuego?" Fred inquired, as he watched the coast of that forbidding region while the ship was steaming away from Sandy Point.
"It was so named by Magellan," replied the Doctor, "in consequence of the numerous fires he saw along the coast."