The Yahgans, like their neighbors, the Alacalupes of the western channels of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, live almost constantly in their canoes, their only means of transportation. For their fishing expeditions they rarely pass the night on shore, traveling long distances in their frail barques. Considering the turbulent waters in the channels of the archipelago, and the fact that their canoes are made of trunks of trees, propelled with paddles, and that a single frail craft is sometimes laden with a family consisting of several persons, their feats are little less than marvels of navigation. About fifty years ago English missions were established at Usuhaia, on the Wallston Islands, and later at Takanika, where some favorable results were obtained in distracting the natives somewhat from the pursuits of their nomadic life. A few of them utilize the knowledge acquired from the missionaries in the cultivation of the soil. But the missionaries having practically ceased their efforts in that inhospitable country, most of the Indians have lapsed into their traditional nomadic life, and their condition is perhaps worse to-day than ever before. To add to the misfortunes of these miserable nomads, who have sterility of soil and a rigorous climate to contend with, many of them have been placed in actual slavery in recent years by foreigners, who have acquired interests in the far south, and taking advantage of the helplessness of the Indians have impressed them into service without justification in moral or statutory law. The Chilean government, apparently indifferent to their fate, has failed to interest itself in the cause of those unfortunate pariahs of human society, whose ranks are being rapidly decimated and whose utter extinction, under present conditions, is only a question of a few years. In 1882, Mr. Bridge, the missionary, calculated the Yahgan population of the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego at three thousand, but in 1883, the scientific expedition of the “Romanche” estimated the diminishing population at one thousand three hundred. This estimate was based upon the number of canoes counted in the channels, approximately two hundred, each of which was manned by a family of six persons on the average. From later data, which has been furnished by people living in the archipelago, who have endeavored to make a census of the population, the number of this tribe is calculated at seven hundred. On several occasions the Yahgans have requested foreigners who have visited the islands to present their case to the Chilean government and ask for relief from existing conditions. But so far nothing has been done in the way of providing for or improving the condition of these unfortunate people. ALACALUPES.