The sterile mountainous districts in this rigorous climate of Tierra del Fuego furnish no animal fit for food, and without proper clothing or nourishment the people are reduced to a state of complete barbarism. Hunting yields them hardly any game, fishing is almost equally unproductive of results; they are obliged to depend upon the storms which now and then fling some huge cetacean on their shores, and upon such salvage they fall tooth and nail, not even taking the trouble to cook the flesh.
In 1828 Henry Foster, commanding the Chanticleer , received instructions to make observations on the pendulum, with a view to determining the figure of the earth. This expedition extended over three years, and was then--i.e. in 1831--brought to an end by his violent death by drowning in the river Cha
