177 8 - THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 287 



CHAP. III. 



MANNER OF BUILDING THE HOUSES IN NOOTKA SOUND. * 



INSIDE OF THEM DESCRIBED. FURNITURE AND UTENSILS. 



WOODEN IMAGES. EMPLOYMENTS OF THE MEN. 



OF THE WOMEN. FOOD, ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE. 



MANNER OF PREPARING IT. WEAPONS. MANUFACTURES 



AND MECHANIC ARTS. CARVING AND PAINTING. CA- 

 NOES. IMPLEMENTS FOR FISHING AND HUNTING. IRON 



TOOLS. MANNER OF PROCURING THAT METAL. REMARKS 



ON THEIR LANGUAGE, AND A SPECIMEN OF IT. ASTRO- 

 NOMICAL AND NAUTICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE IN NOOTKA 

 SOUND. 



1 he two towns or villages mentioned in the course 

 of my Journal seem to be the only inhabited parts of 

 the sound. The number of inhabitants in both might 

 be pretty exactly computed from the canoes that were 

 about the ships the second day after our arrival.They 

 amounted to about a hundred, which, at a very mode- 

 rate allowance, must, upon an average, have held five 

 persons each ; but, as there were scarcely any women, 

 very old men, children, or youths amongst them at 

 that time, I think it will be rather rating the number 

 of the inhabitants of the two towns too low, if we sup- 

 pose they could be less than four times the number of 

 our visitors, that is, two thousand in the whole. 



The village at the entrance of the sound stands on 

 the side of a rising ground, which has a pretty steep 

 ascent from the beach to the verge of the wood in 

 which space it is situated. 



The houses are disposed in three ranges or rows, 

 rising gradually behind each other, the largest being 

 that in front and the others less ; besides a few strag- 

 gling or single ones at each end. These ranges are 

 interrupted or disjoined at irregular distances by 

 narrow paths or lanes that pass upward j but those 



