, on that account, the name it still bears. At
last they started into the interior, and began their exploration of the
wide region of the Pampas. Game was plentiful, and the fowling-pieces of
the party brought down numerous victims. As they advanced they came into
occasional contact with the Patagonians, and her observations of their
physical character are important and valuable in relation to the
marvellous accounts which we find in the old voyagers. "I was not so
much struck by their height," she says, "as by their extraordinary
development of chest and muscle. As regards their stature, I do not
think the average height of the men exceeded six feet, and, as my
husband stands six feet two inches, I had a favourable opportunity for
forming an accurate estimate. One or two there were, certainly, who
towered far above him, but these were exceptions. The women were mostly
of the ordinary height, though I noticed one who must have been quite
six feet, if not more."

Lady Florence speaks of the features of the pure-bred Tchuelche, or
Patagonian aboriginal as extremely regular, and by no means unpleasant
to look at. "The nose is generally aquiline, the mouth well-shaped and
beautified by the whitest of teeth, the expression of the eye
intelligent, while the form of the whole head indicates the possession
of considerable mental capabilities. But such is not the case with the
Tchuelches in whose veins is a mixture of Fuegian or Araucanian blood.
Of these latter the flat noses, oblique eyes, and badly proportioned
figures excite disgust, and they are as different from a pure-bred
Tchuelche as a racer is from an ordinary cart-horse. Their long coarse
hair is worn parted in the middle, and is prevented from falling over
their faces by means of a handkerchief, or fillet of some kind, bound
round the forehead. They suffer no hair to grow on the face, and some
extract even their eyebrows. Their dress is simple, consisting of a
'chiripa' or piece of cloth round the loins, and the indispensable
guanaco cape, which is hung loosely over the shoulders and held round
the body by the hand, though it would obviously seem more convenient to
have it secured round the waist with a belt of some kind. Their
horse-hide boots are only worn, for reasons of economy, when hunting.
The women dress like the men except as regards the chiripa, instead of
which they wear a loose kind of gown beneath the cape, which they fasten
at the neck with a silver bro