ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Tierra del Fuego. Having finished with Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, it describes the author's first arrival in Tierra del Fuego. Tierra del Fuego may be described as a mountainous land, partly submerged in the sea, so that deep inlets and bays occupy the place where valleys should exist. The mountain sides, except on the exposed western coast, are covered from the water's edge upwards by one great forest. The trees reach to an elevation of between 1000 and 1500 feet, and are succeeded by a band of peat, with minute alpine plants. To find an acre of levelland in any part of the country is most rare. In Tierra del Fuego, until some chief shall arise with power sufficient to secure any acquired advantage, such as the domesticated animals, it seems scarcely possible that the political state of the country can be improved.
