PUNTA ARENAS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1778, 19 December 1885, Page 26

PUNTA ARENAS.

The Southernmost Settlement on the

Globe — A Former Penal Settlement of Chile — Ostrich Rugs foh a Trifle — Characteristics of the Place and; People.

One look at this place is enough to convince the most incredulous that whoever located the penal colony of Chile did not intend the convict's life should be a happy one. It lies on a long spit which stretches out into the straits, and the English call it Sandy Point, but a better name would be Cape Desolation. Convicts are sent here no longer, but some of those remain who came when Chile kept the seeds and harvests of her revolutions here. There used to be a military guard, but that was withdrawn during the. war with Peru, and all the prisoners who would consent to enter the army got a ticketof leave. The Governor resides in what was once the barracks, and horses are kept in what was used as a stockade. Hunger, decay, and dreariness are inscribed upon everything, on the faces of the men as well as the houses they live in, aud the people look as discouraging as the mud. They say it rains in Pnnta Arenas e/ery day. That is a mistake — sometimes it Saows.

The town is interesting because it is the only settlement in Patagonia, and of course the only one in the Straits. It is about 4000 miles from . the - southernmost town on the west coast of South America to the first port on the eastern coast, a, voyage which ordinarily requires fifteen <Jays, and, as Punta Arenas is about in the ■middle of the way, it possesses some attractions. Spread out in the mud are 250 houses, more or less, which shelter from the ceaseless storms a community of 800 or 1000 people, representing all sorts and conditions of men, from the primeval Indian type to the pure Caucasian — convipts, traders, fugitives, wrecked seamen, deserters from all ,the navies in the world, Chinamen, negroes, Poles, Italians, Sandwich Islanders, Portuguese, men who have fled from justice, ■wandering Jews and human driftwood of every tqngue aud clime cast up by the sea and absorbed in a community scarcely one of which would be willing to tell why he came here, or would they stay if they could get away. It is, said that in P,unta Arenas can be found an interpreter for every language known to the modern world, bit, although the place belongs to Chile English i« most generally spoken. There is a curiosity shop near the landing, kept by an old fellow who was once a sailor in the United States navy, and fought under Admiral Farragut at Mobile— at least he says he did, and he .-.peaks like a truthful man. Here are to be purchased many interesting relics, and passengers who are fortunate enough to get ashore go back to their ship loaded down with Indian trifles, shells and flying-fish, tusks of

sea-lions, serpent sinus, agates from Cape Horn, turtle-shells and the curious tails of the armadillo, in which the Indians carry their war paint. But the prettiest things to be bought at Punta Arenas are the ostrich rugs, made of the breasts of the young birds, as soft as down aud as beautiful as plumage call be. The plumes of the ostrich are plucked from the wings and tail while the bird is alive, but to make a rug the little ones are killed aud skinned, aud the soft fluffy breasts are sewed together until they reach the size of a blanket. Those of bro\vu and those of the purest white are alternated, and the combination produces a very fine artistic effect. They are too dainty and beautiful to be spread upon the floor, but can be used as carnage robes, or to throw over the back of a couch or chair. Sometimes ladies use them as panels for the front of dress skirts, and thus they are more striking than any fabric a loom can produce. Opera cloaks have been made of them also, to the gratification of the resthetic. They are too rare to be common and too beautiful to ever tire the eye. Guanaco skins are carried away from Punta Arenas also, and are considered very fine. These are the wearing apparel of the Indians, and with theostrichrugs thechief resultsof theirchase. In Patagonia ostriches are not bred as at the Cape of Good Hope, but run wild, and are rapidly geting exterminated. The Indians chase them on horseback, and catch them with ho/as, two heavy balls upon the end of a rope. Grasping one ball in the hand they gallop after the ostrich, and whirling the other ball around their heads like a coil of lasso, they let go when near enough to the bird, and the two balls, still revolving in the air, if skilfully directed will wind around the long legs of the ostrich and send him turning summersaults upon the sand. The Indians then leap from the saddle, and if they are out of meat, cut the throat of the bird and carry the carcass to camp ; but if they have no need of food, they pull the long plumes from his tail and wings, and let him go again to gather fresh plumage for the next season. At any of the trading posts in Punta Arenas you can buy for Sdol or lOdol a rug that 'represents the breasts of twelve or fifteen young ostriches, and even that low price gives the trader a profit of many hundred per cent, as a few drinks of whisky makes the Indian susceptible to persuasion. If the Government of Chile were to sell the monopoly of trading in ostrich skins and feathers to a few fair-minded men, the birds would multiply enormously, and the beauty of their plumage be very much increased. The best plumes are worth 40dol or 50dol a pound in the market, and are much improved by the proper care of the bird. — Puuta Arenas, Patagonia, Corr. N. Y. Sun.