17? $ THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 437 



some angelica. Beyond this, the ground rises ab- 

 ruptly. At the top of this elevation, we found a 

 heath, abounding with a variety of berries ; and fur- 

 ther on, the country was level, and thinly covered 

 with small spruce trees ; and birch and willows no 

 bigger than broom stuff. We observed tracks of 

 deer and foxes on the beach ; on which also lay a 

 great quantity of drift-wood ; and there was no want 

 of fresh water. I returned on board, with an inten- 

 tion to bring the ships to an anchor here ; but the 

 wind then veering to north-east, which blew rather on 

 this shore, I stretched over to the opposite one, in 

 the expectation of finding wood there also, and an- 

 chored at eight o'clock in the evening, under the 

 south end of the northernmost island ; so we then 

 supposed it to be ; but, next morning, we found it to 

 be a peninsula, united to the continent by alow neck 

 of land, on each side of which the coast forms a bay. 

 We plied into the southernmost, and about noon an- 

 chored in five fathoms' water, over a bottom of mud j 

 the point of the peninsula, which obtained the name 

 of Cape Denbigh, bearing N. 68 W., three miles 

 distant. 



Several people were seen upon the peninsula ; and 

 one man came off in a small canoe. I gave him a 

 knife and a few beads, with which he seemed well 

 pleased. Having made signs to him to bring us 

 something to eat, he immediately left us, and paddled 

 toward the shore. But meeting another man coming 

 off, who happened to have two dried salmon, he got 

 them from him ; and on returning to the ship, would 

 give them to nobody but me. Some of our people 

 thought that he asked for me under the name of Ca- 

 pitane ; but in this they were probably mistaken. He 

 knew who had given him the knife and beads, but I 

 do not see how he could know that I was the captain. 

 Others of the natives, soon after, came off, and ex- 

 changed a few dry fish for such trifles as they could 

 get, or we had to give them. They were most de- 



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