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Updated: May 9, 2025
Not wishing to seem to cast any disparagement on his wares, I became the helpless recipient of this favor. The article in question was far too large for my watch-pocket, and had a persistent habit of holding its mouth wide open like a too weary shell-fish.
The whole external trade of these islands is carried on by three or four ships which come there annually from Peru and Chili, by which they receive wine, brandy, tobacco, sugar, herb of Paraguay, salt, and European goods, for which they give in exchange red cedar boards, timber of different kinds, ponchos of various qualities, hams, pilchards, dried shell-fish, white-cedar boxes, embroidered girdles, and a small quantity of ambergris which is found on their shores.
The cause of this dreadful malady must be sought in the insalubrity of the climate, the miasma from the marshes, which are overflowed with sea-water every flood tide, the neighbourhood of the burial-places, which are badly kept, and perhaps also to the consumption of shell-fish which these natives devour greedily. All the houses, whether inland or on the coast, are built on piles.
You already know how we lived luxuriously on cocoa-nuts and shell-fish, and about the clear fountain which rushed up out of the rock in the centre of our island, and how our ship came back after some weeks to water at that very fountain, and found us safe and well; and so I will bring my yarn to an end."
The Frenchman again shrugged his shoulders, hoped that he had not given offence, and walked away, humming a tune. He continued, however, as polite and obliging as at first. He declared that we wanted a good dinner after our labours, and insisted on cooking it. He outshone himself, and with some shell-fish we had picked up, and two birds I had shot, produced some wonderfully delicious dishes.
Their stock of provisions was quite exhausted, and even the shell-fish began to get scarce, so that they had now to choose between starving to death or venturing into the interior of the island, where, perhaps, some huge three-headed dragon or other horrible monster had his den.
Besides the fungi I have spoken of, the Fuegians live chiefly on fish and the shell-fish they gather on the rocks, though they eat birds and grubs of all sorts and, I fancy, nothing comes amiss to them. We observed that a platform of clay was placed in each canoe, on which to place a fire.
Limpets were gathered from the pools disclosed between the rocks below high tide, after the pack-ice had been driven away. It was a cold job gathering these little shell-fish, as for each one the whole hand and arm had to be plunged into the icy water, and many score of these small creatures had to be collected to make anything of a meal.
"Stop here, my boy," said the sailor; "we have to prepare an encampment, and to try and find rather better grub than these shell-fish. Our friends will want something when they come back. There is work for everybody." "I am ready," replied Herbert. "All right," said the sailor; "that will do. We must set about it regularly.
After a ten minutes' struggle, Bill succeeded in reaching the dark-looking spot, where Colin had conjectured there might be shell-fish. The old sailor was soon seen busily engaged about something; and from his movements it was evident that his errand was not to prove fruitless.
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