ravenous bird itself ever devoured its prey. It was
but a light breakfast, however. After being skinned, the bird was
divided into ten portions, and every man cooked his own as he thought
fit, but each did not receive above three mouthfuls. Nevertheless it
strengthened them enough to enable them to return to the ship, where
they were received by their anxious friends with much joy and
thankfulness.

The month of December is the middle of summer in the land at the extreme
south of South America.

That land occupies much about the same position on the southern half of
this world that we occupy on the northern half; so that, when it is
winter with us, it is summer there. The climate is rigorous and stormy
in the extreme, and the description given of the natives shows that they
are a wretched and forlorn race of human beings. Captain Cook visited
one of their villages before leaving the coast. It contained about a
dozen dwellings of the poorest description. They were mere hovels;
nothing more than a few poles set up in a circle and meeting together at
the top, each forming a kind of cone. On the weather side each cone was
covered with a few boughs and a little grass. The other side was left
open to let the light in and the smoke out. Furniture they had none. A
little grass on the floor served for chairs, tables, and beds. The only
articles of manufacture to be seen among the people were a few rude
baskets, and a sort of sack in which they carried the shell-fish which
formed part of their food. They had also bows and arrows, which were
rather neatly made--the arrows with flint heads cleverly fitted on.

The colour of those savages resembled iron-rust mixed with oil; their
hair was long and black. The men were large but clumsy fellows, varying
from five feet eight to five feet ten. The women were much smaller, few
being above five feet. Their costume consisted of skins of wild
animals. The women tied their fur cloaks about the waists with a thong
of leather. One would imagine that among people so poor and miserably
off there was not temptation to vain show, nevertheless they were fond
of making themselves "look fine"! They painted their faces with various
colours; white round the eyes, with stripes of red and black across the
cheeks, but scarcely any two of them were painted alike. Both men and
women wore bracelets of beads made of shells and bones, and, of course,
they were greatly delighted with the b