This article was written by Adam Freedman
Now that virtually every inch of the planet has been charted and tamed, some part of our collective psyche has become bored. Witness the explosive growth of the "adventure tourism" industry. By the score, people are paying top dollar to go to places that still bear the cachet of being wild and inaccessible: the Sahara, say, or the Amazonor Tierra del Fuego.
A more comfortable route to the age of exploration is by reading the classic Uttermost Part of the Earth: E. Lucas Bridges' rip-roaring account of his life among the indians of Tierra del Fuego. First published in 1948, Uttermost records an era when a few people still lived as pioneers�¢??not to escape urban ennui but out of necessity.
Bridges' engaging style also speaks from a different era: you know you're in the hands of a high Edwardian writer when the author is not even born until sixty-seven pages into his memoir. Before that, one gets an overview of "Fireland" and the Bridges' family antecedents. The modest author has no significance outside his context.
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