The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn: A Study of Life in Tierra del Fuego and PatagoniaSpears, John Randolph
History
The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn: A Study of Life in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia
Spears, John Randolph
Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) -- Description and travel
"He has had six bottles to-night," said he. "It is he, not the ship,
that is full." The engineer had been testing the pump, and the noise of
it had made the fancies of my friend run on disaster at sea.
The curios which a traveller may gather on a voyage like this are not
many in variety, but they are very interesting as far as they go. Most
people would call the Patagonia guanaco skin robe or blanket the most
valuable product of native industry. The pelage of the young guanaco is
a soft and beautiful fur--red on the back, like that of a Virginia deer,
and shading into pure white underneath. The skins of the young that are
just about to be born or have just been born are preferred, because the
fur is then exquisitely fine and the skin never gets hard and stiff.
The Patagonia squaws cut the young skins into pieces, which they set
together in the form of a great blanket in which the colors of the fur
are shown to the greatest advantage. The sewing is done with sinews.
These robes are everywhere used for beds in that region, while no desert
man or sheep herder would think of living without one in lieu of any
other kind of a blanket for his protection when sleeping in the open
air. In Punta Arenas the price was $35 paper each, or not far from $9.50
gold. In Patagonia ports at the north they can be had for a little less.
There is no difficulty in finding them on sale. They would probably
bring from $60 to $75 gold each in the States.
The Patagonia squaw weaves as well as sews furs. The long hair is
sheared from the guanaco skin and twisted into threads, which are woven
much as the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico weave their threads of wool.
The Patagonian makes small woven blankets called ponchos, which are used
as neck and shoulder wraps and as saddle blankets, but would look very
well as rugs on a Northern carpet. By the use of dyes, bought of the
whites, a variety of bright colors are obtained, but these are
intermingled only in plain stripes. When compared with the blankets
produced by the Indians of Guatemala--blankets whose figures of fighting
beasts and birds have a savage beauty that is marvellous to behold--the
art of the Patagonia squaw makes but a sorry showing. Nevertheless, a
special saddle blanket, woven with a long nap of twisted threads that is
designed to fill in the hollow spaces on each side of the too-prominent
backbone of the desert horses, is at once novel and pleasing to the eye.
Other things likely to please the tourist are ostrich feathers and
eggs; the bolas and lassos used by the plainsmen of all kinds when
hunting; bows and arrows and spears of the Indians, and boots made of
the skin of a colt's hind legs. The ostrich feathers are gray, with a
little white mixed in, and are but little handsomer in their native
state than a turkey's feathers. Of course, they may be dyed and dressed
up by a competent worker.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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