1778. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 319 



inland tribes, from Hudson's Bay, or the settlements 

 on the Canadian lakes ; unless it can be supposed 

 (which however is less likely) that the Russian traders 

 from Kamtschatka, have already extended their traf- 

 fic thus far; or at least that the natives of their most 

 easterly Fox Islands communicate along the coast 

 with those of Prince William's Sound. * 



As to the copper, these people seem to procure it 

 themselves, or at most it passes through few hands to 

 them ; for they used to express its being in a suffici- 

 ent quantity amongst them, when they offered any to 

 barter, by pointing to their weapons ; as if to say, 

 that having so much of this metal of their own, they 

 wanted no more. 



It is, however, remarkable, if the inhabitants of this 

 Sound be supplied with European articles, by way of 

 the intermediate traffic to the east coast, that they 

 should, in return, never have given to the more in- 

 land Indians any of their sea-otter skins ; which would 

 certainly have been seen, some time or other, about 

 Hudson's Bay. But, as far as I know, that is not 

 the case ; and the only method of accounting for this, 

 must be by taking into consideration the very great 

 distance; which, though it might not prevent European 



* There is a circumstance mentioned by Muller, in his account 

 of Beering's voyage to the coast of America in 174-1, which seems 

 to decide this question. His people found iron at the Schumagin 

 Islands, as may be fairly presumed from the following quotation. 

 " Un seul homme avoit un couteau pendu a sa ceinture, qui parut 

 fort singulier a nos gens par sa figure. II etoit long de huit 

 pouces, etfort epais, et large a l'endroitou devoit etre la pointe. 

 On ne peut savoir quel toit l'usage de cet outil." Deconvertes 

 den Russes, p. 274. 



If there was iron amongst the natives on this part of the 

 American coast, prior to the discovery of it by the Russians, 

 and before there was any traffic with them carried on from 

 Kamtschatka, what reason can there be to make the least 

 doubt of the people of Prince William's Sound, as well as those 

 of achumagin's Islands, having got this metal from the only pro- 

 bable source, the European settlements on the north-east coast 

 of this continent ? 



