MAP OF THE CAPE HORN REGION _Frontispiece_ GOLD-WASHING MACHINES. PARAMO, TIERRA DEL FUEGO 14 PUNTA ARENAS, STRAIT OF MAGELLAN 30 YAHGANS AT HOME(1) 48 THE MISSION STATION AT USHUAIA(1) 92 USHUAIA, THE CAPITAL OF ARGENTINE TIERRA DEL FUEGO(1) 108 AN ONA FAMILY(1) 128 ALUCULOOF INDIANS(1) 134 GOVERNMENT STATION AT ST. JOHN. (FROM A SKETCH BY COMMANDER CHWAITES, A.N.)(1) 138 A TEHUELCHE SQUAW(1) 158 TEHUELCHES IN CAMP(1) 166 GAUCHOS AT HOME 228 AMONG THE RUINS AT PORT DESIRE, PATAGONIA 270 SANTA CRUZ, PATAGONIA(1) 276 THE GOVERNOR'S HOME AND A BUSINESS BLOCK IN GALLEGOS, THE CAPITAL OF PATAGONIA(1) 282 Note 1: Reproduced by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, from an article, by the author of this book, in Scribner's Magazine, entitled "At the end of the Continent." THE GOLD DIGGINGS OF CAPE HORN. CHAPTER I. AFTER CAPE HORN GOLD. If any of the readers of this book have an unrestrainable longing for wild adventure, with the possibility of suddenly acquiring riches thrown in as an incentive to endurance, let them pack their outfits and hasten away to the region lying between Cape Horn and the Straits of Magellan to dig for gold. Neither Australia nor California in their roughest days afforded the dangers, nor did they make the showings of gold--real placer gold for the poor man to dig--that have been, and are still to be found in Tierra del Fuego, and the adjoining islands. Nor is the gold in all cases too fine to be saved by ordinary rude sluices, for "nuggets as big as kernels of corn"--the ideal gold of the placer miner--have been found by the handful, and may still be had in one well-known locality if the miner is willing and able to endure the hardships and escape the dangers incident to the search. But because of the hardships and dangers it is a veritable tantalus land. There are many more skeletons of dead miners than authentic records of wealth acquired in Tierra del Fuego, while those who have now and again struck it rich and gotten clean off with the dust usually have gone no further with it than Punta Arenas in the Straits of Magellan, for Punta Arenas is to this region what San Francisco was to California and Virginia City to the deserts of Nevada.