358 cook's voyage to may, 



continuing contrary, so that we plied up till near 

 seven o'clock, when the tide being done, we an- 

 chored in nineteen fathoms, under the same shore 

 as before. The N. W. part of it forming a bluff* point, 

 bore N. 20 E,, two leagues distant; a point on the 

 other shore opposite to it, and nearly of the same 

 height, bore N. 36 W., our latitude, by observ- 

 ation, 60 37'. 



About noon two canoes with a man in each came 

 off to the ship, from near the place where we had 

 seen the smoke the preceding day. They laboured 

 very hard in paddling across the strong tide, and 

 hesitated a little before they would come quite close ; 

 but upon signs being made to them, they approached. 

 One of them talked a great deal to no purpose, for 

 we did not understand a word he said. He kept 

 pointing to the shore, which we interpreted to be 

 an invitation to go thither. They accepted a few 

 trifles from me, which I conveyed to them from the 

 quarter gallery. These men in every repect resembled 

 the people we had met with in Prince William's 

 Sound, as to their persons and dress. Their canoes 

 were also of the same construction. One of our 

 visitors had his face painted jet black, and seemed to 

 have no beard ; but the other, who was more elderly, 

 had no paint, and a considerable beard, with a visage 

 much like the common sort of the Prince William's 

 people. There was also smoke seen upon the flat western 

 shore this day, from whence we may infer, that these 

 lower spots and islands are the only inhabited places. 



When the flood made, we weighed, and then the 

 canoes left us. I stood over to the western shore, 

 with afresh gale at N.N.E., and fetched under the 

 point above mentioned. This, with the other on the 

 opposite shore, contracted the channel to the breadth 

 of four leagues. Through this channel ran a prodi- 

 gious tide. It looked frightful to us, who could not 

 tell whether the agitation of the water was occasioned 

 by the stream, or by the breaking of the waves against 

 rocks or sands. As we met with no shoal, it was 



