tants of Terra del Fuego produèe fire from a fpark by col-
lifion, and that the happier natives of this country; New
Zealand, and Otaheite, produce it by the attrition of one
combuftible fubftance againlt another: is there not then
fome reafon to fuppofe that thefe different operations cor-
refpond with the manner in which chance produced fire in
the neighbourhood of the torrid and frigid zones ? Among
the rude inhabitants of a cold country, neither any operation
of art, or occurrence of accident, could be fuppofed fo eafily
to produce fire by attrition, as in a climate where every
thing is hot, dry, and aduft, teeming with a latent fire which
a flight degree of motion was fufficient to call forth ; in a
cold country therefore, it is natural to fuppofe that fire was
produced by the accidental collifion of two metallic fub-
ftances, and in a cold country, for that reafon, the fame expedient
was ufed to produce it by defign : but in hot
countries, where two combuftible fubftances eafily kindle
by attrition, it is probable that the attrition of fuch fubftances
firft produced fire, and here it was therefore natural
for art to adopt the fame operation, with a view to produce
the fame effeCl. It may indeed be true that fire is now produced
in many cold countries by attrition, and in many hot
by a ftroke ; but perhaps upon enquiry there may appear
reafon to conclude that this has arifen from the communication
of one country with another, and that with refpeCt to
the original production of fire in hot and cold countries, the
diftinftion is well founded.
There may perhaps be fome reafon to fuppofe that men
became gradually acquainted with the nature and effects of
fire, by its permanent exiftence in a volcano, there being remains
of volcanoes, or veftiges of their effects, in almoft
every part of the world : by a volcano, however, no method
of producing fire, otherwife than by contact, could be learnt ;
the
the production and application of fire therefore, ftill feem to ^>77®j
afford abundant fubject of fpeculation to the curious. }--- .—
The weapons of thefe people are fpears or lances, and
thefe are of different kinds: fome that we faw upon the
fouthern part of the coaft had four prongs, pointed with
bone, and barbed; the points were alfo fmeared with a hard
refin, which gave them a polifih, and made them enter
deeper into what they ftruck. To the northward, the lance
has but one point: the fhaft is made of cane, or the ftalkof
a plant fomewhat refembling a bulrufh, very ftrait and
light, and from eight to fourteen feet long, confiding of
feveral joints, where the pieces are let into each other, and
bound together; to this are fitted points of different kinds j
fome are of hard heavy wood, and fome are the bones of
filh: we faw feveral that were pointed with the flings of the
fting-ray, the largeft that they could procure, and barbed
with feveral that were fmaller, fattened on in a contrary direction;
the points of wood were alfo fometimes armed with
fharp pieces of broken Ihells, which were ftuck in, and at
the junctures covered with refin: the lances that are thus
barbed, are indeed dreadful weapons, for when once they
have taken place, they can never be drawn back without
tearing away the flelh, or leaving the fharp ragged fplinters
of the bone or fhell which forms the beard, behind them in
the wound. Thefe weapons are thrown with great force
and dexterity; if intended to wound at a fhort diftance, between
ten and twenty yards, limply with the hand, but if at
the diftance of forty or fifty, with an inftrument which we
called a throwing flick. This is a plain fmooth piece of a hard
reddifh wood, very highly polifhed, about two inches broad,
half an inch thick, and three feet long, with a fmall knob,
or hook at one end, and a crofs piece about three or four
inches long at the other: the knob at one end is received in
a a fmall.