17?8 THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 413 



few wooden vessels, all very dirty. Their bed-places 

 were close to the side, and took up about half the 

 circuit. Some privacy seemed to be .observed ; for 

 there were several partitions made with skins. The 

 bed and bedding were of deer-skins ; and most of 

 them were dry and clean. 



About the habitations were erected several stages, 

 ten or twelve feet high ; such as we had observed on 

 some parts of the American coast. They were wholly 

 composed of bones ; and seemed intended for drying 

 their fish and skins, which were thus placed beyond 

 the reach of their dogs, of which they had a great 

 many. These dogs are of the fox kind, rather large, 

 and of different colours, with long soft hair like wool. 

 They are, probably, used in drawing their sledges 

 in winter. For sledges they have, as I saw a good 

 many laid up in one of the winter huts. It is also 

 not improbable that dogs may constitute a part of 

 their food. Several lay dead that had been killed 

 that morning. 



The canoes of these people are of the same sort 

 with those of the northern Americans ; some, both 

 of the large and of the small ones, being seen lying 

 in a creek under the village. 



By the large fish-bones, and of their sea-animals, 

 it appeared that the sea supplied them with the 

 greatest part of their subsistence. The country ap- 

 peared to be exceedingly barren ; yielding neither 

 tree nor shrub, that we could see. At some distance 

 westward, we observed a ridge of mountains covered 

 with snow that had lately fallen. 



At first we supposed this land to be a part of the 

 island of Alaschka, laid down in Mr. Staahlin's map, 

 before mentioned. But from the figure of the coast, 

 the situation of the opposite shore of America, and 

 from the longitude, we soon began to think that it 

 was, more probably, the country of the Tschutski, 

 or the eastern extremity of Asia, explored by Beering 

 in 17^8. But to have admitted this, without farther 



