There are many rough characters in Punta Arenas, some even who have drifted from the mining camps of our western states. It is said to be bad policy to ask a man where he came from, or what his name was before his arrival, as it might be an embarrassing subject. The loafing places are the bars, where many brawls occur during the long winters. There are probably as many saloons to the number of inhabitants as in any other place on the globe, for nearly every other door seems to bear such a sign. Much gambling is also done at these and in the clubs. There are clubs, where the well-to-do gather and have their games just as they do the world over. The principal club is the Cuerpo de Bomberos, which means the Society of Firemen, and was organized as a volunteer fire department. Most of the buildings are cheap one-story affairs, frequently being built of the corrugated iron so common in this land. Punta Arenas is a free port, and this fact has aided in its prosperity. All the vessels passing through the Straits call there for supplies and coal, and this business, together with the trade in whaling products, wool and furs, furnish the inhabitants with employment. It is one of the great wool-exporting ports of the world, having shipped more than sixteen million pounds of that commodity in a single season, and four hundred thousand pelts. The trade in furs is very large. One of the prettiest things sold here is an ostrich robe made of the breasts of the young birds. [Illustration: PORT FAMINE, IN THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN.] Punta Arenas is the business centre of the region extending from Port Desire, on the Patagonian coast to Cape Horn, and from the Falkland Islands on the east to the westernmost limits of Chile. The little settlement that originally was established there was called La Colonia de Magellanes. On the 21st of April, 1843, Chile first planted her tri-coloured banner at a place near here, which was called Port Famine, because of the disastrous end of the Sarmiento settlement, which had been located there a couple of centuries previously.