, to all appearance the same craft
encountered in Whale-boat Sound.

Believing that they are the same, he cries out in a voice that quivers,
despite his efforts to keep it firm, "There they are at last! Heaven
have mercy on us!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. Nearly all the larger trees in the Fuegian forests have the
heartwood decayed, and are worthless as timber. Out of fifteen cut down
by Captain King's surveying party, near Port Famine, more than half
proved to be rotten at the heart.

Note 2. The _Micropterus brachypterus_ of Quoy and Guimard. The
"steamer-duck" is a feature almost peculiar to the inland Fuegian
waters, and has always been a bird of note among sailors, like the "Cape
pigeons" and "Mother Carey's chickens." There is another and smaller
species, called the "flying steamer," as it is able to mount into the
air. It is called by naturalists _Micropterus Patachonica_.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

UNWELCOME VISITORS.

"There they are at last! Heaven have mercy on us!" At these grave
words, more fear-inspiring from being spoken by Captain Gancy, work is
instantly suspended, the boat-builders dropping their tools as though
they burned the hands that grasped them.

For some minutes the alarm runs high, all thinking their last hour is at
hand. How can they think otherwise, with their eyes bent on those black
objects, which, though but as specks in the far distance, grow bigger
while they stand gazing at them, and which they know to be canoes full
of cruel cannibal savages? For they have no doubt that the approaching
natives are the Ailikoleeps. The old Ailikoleep wigwam, and the fact
that the party that so lately visited the cove were of this tribe, make
it evident that this is Ailikoleep fishing-ground, while the canoes now
approaching seem to correspond in number with those of the party that
assailed them. If they be the same, and if they should come on shore by
the kitchen midden, then small hope of more boat-building, and, as is
only too likely, small hope of life for the builders.

One chance alone now prevents the castaways from yielding to utter
despair--the savages _may_ pass on without landing. In that case they
cannot be seen, nor will their presence there be suspected. With
scrupulous adherence to their original plan, they have taken care that
nothing of their encampment shall be visible from the water; tent,
boat-timbers--ev