The natives live in conical huts or wigwams built from the branches of trees over holes dug in the ground. In addition to shell-fish and other sea products, they live on a fungus that grows on the beech-trees. A picture of a Fuegian and his food is given on the next page. The reader will observe the fungus growing in a cluster a few feet above the base of the tree and just where the limbs diverge. It is an article of food not adapted to the European palate, but the natives seem to be fond of it--perhaps because they are obliged to be. [Illustration: A FUEGIAN AND HIS FOOD.] "Why was the country named Tierra del Fuego?" Fred inquired, as he watched the coast of that forbidding region while the ship was steaming away from Sandy Point. "It was so named by Magellan," replied the Doctor, "in consequence of the numerous fires he saw along the coast." "But we have seen no fires there," said the youth; "and I wonder if there were more inhabitants then than now." "I cannot say as to that," Dr. Bronson answered. "No census has ever been taken in Tierra del Fuego, and from present appearances none is likely to be. Nobody wants the country, as it is absolutely worthless for all practical purposes. It would be a dear purchase at ten cents a square mile. "Captain Snow and others who have visited the country estimate the inhabitants at not more than two thousand. They are the lowest in the scale of barbarism of all the people of the world; they live in small tribes, and among them might makes right. If one native gets more property than another he is quickly relieved of his superfluous possessions and reduced to the common level. You have a good illustration of this state of things in the case of Jemmy Button. His friends in England had loaded him with presents previous to his return, but he was not allowed to keep them twenty-four hours after the ship which brought him had departed. The same treatment is visited upon the missionaries, and upon every one else who falls into their power. They have no Vanderbilts among them, and possess no ideas concerning the foundations of fortunes and families. [Illustration: A FUEGIAN FEAST.] "Mr. Darwin says their greatest idea of happiness is to have the carcass of a whale drift upon the coast where they can secure it. They remove the blubber in large pieces; then they cut holes in the centre of these pieces and thrust their heads through them, as a guacho puts on his poncho, in order to carry the stuff away; men, women, and children join in the labor of securing this supply of food, and they have an abundance to eat as long as it lasts. Unlike the natives of the Aleutian Islands, they have no means of catching whales, as their inventive genius has not been equal to devising anything useful." [Illustration: RUINS AT PORT FAMINE.]