about three o'clock doubled the weather-beaten Cape Horn. The evening
was calm and bright, and we enjoyed a fine view of the surrounding
isles. Cape Horn, however, demanded his tribute, and before night sent
us a gale of wind directly in our teeth. We stood out to sea, and on
the second day again made the land, when we saw on our weather-bow this
notorious promontory in its proper form--veiled in a mist, and its dim
outline surrounded by a storm of wind and water. Great black clouds
were rolling across the heavens, and squalls of rain, with hail, swept
by us with such extreme violence, that the Captain determined to run
into Wigwam Cove. This is a snug little harbour, not far from Cape
Horn; and here, at Christmas-eve, we anchored in smooth water. The
only thing which reminded us of the gale outside, was every now and
then a puff from the mountains, which made the ship surge at her
anchors.
December 25th.--Close by the Cove, a pointed hill, called Kater's Peak,
rises to the height of 1700 feet. The surrounding islands all consist
of conical masses of greenstone, associated sometimes with less regular
hills of baked and altered clay-slate. This part of Tierra del Fuego
may be considered as the extremity of the submerged chain of mountains
already alluded to. The cove takes its name of "Wigwam" from some of
the Fuegian habitations; but every bay in the neighbourhood might be so
called with equal propriety. The inhabitants, living chiefly upon
shell-fish, are obliged constantly to change their place of residence;
but they return at intervals to the same spots, as is evident from the
piles of old shells, which must often amount to many tons in freight.
These heaps can be distinguished at a long distance by the bright green
colour of certain plants, which invariably grow on them. Among these
may be enumerated the wild celery and scurvy grass, two very
serviceable plants, the use of which has not been discovered by the
natives.
The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and dimensions, a haycock. It
merely consists of a few broken branches stuck in the ground, and very
imperfectly thatched on one side with a few tufts of grass and rushes.
The whole cannot be the work of an hour, and it is only used for a few
days. At Goeree Roads I saw a place where one of these naked men had
slept, which absolutely offered no more cover than the form of a hare.
The man was evidently living by himself, and York Minster said he was
"very bad man," and that probably he had stolen something. On the west
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