Stephen Lucas Bridges (1874-1949). He was the third son of the English missionary Thomas Bridges. Lucas was the first European to be born in Tierra del Fuego. He grew up among the Yagans learning their language and customs. He moved from Ushuaia to Harberton in 1887, where his father established a ranch after retiring from the mission. In 1902 he formed his own ranch in Viamonte, where he would mingle and make friends with the Selk’nam. His autobiographical book The Last End of the Earth (1948) is a valuable source on Fuegian anthropology.
Bridges knew about one that lived in a small lake near the family ranch at Harberton, on the south coast of the Big Island of Tierra del Fuego.
The natives had told him that those who dared approach the lagoon ran the risk of being caught by the creature. and dragged into the shadowy waters to be devoured by the monster.
Some described it as a “hand” coming out of the water to grab those who passed by.
Bridges believed that the myth may have originated from the whirlpools that occurred on the coast or in the thin layer of ice that covered the lagoons during the winter. Both could capture the unwary and drown him.
It is said that the natives, who were experienced canoeists and navigated the dangerous waters of the Fuegian channels, knew very well the dangerous places with treacherous currents and eddies. And that, being on land, they would know how to avoid frozen lakes. It is likely that the myth is a memory of some megafauna creature that survived isolated in Tierra del Fuego after the last Ice Age.