177^. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 439 



cle. We took off the "drift-wood that lay upon the 

 beach ; and as the wind blew along shore, the boats 

 could sail both ways, which enabled us to make great 

 dispatch. 



In the afternoon I went ashore, and walked a little 

 into the country ; which, where there was no wood, 

 was covered with heath and other plants, some of 

 which produce berries in abundance. All the berries 

 were ripe ; the hurtle-berries too much so ; and 

 hardly a single plant was in flower. The underwood, 

 such as birch, willows, and alders, rendered it very 

 troublesome walking among the trees, which were 

 all spruce, and none of them above six or eight 

 inches in diameter. But we found some lying upon 

 the beach, more than twice this size. All the drift- 

 wood in these northern parts was fir. I saw not a 

 stick of any other sort. 



Next day a family of the natives came near to the 

 place where we were taking off wood. I know not 

 how many there were at first ; but I saw only the 

 husband, the wife, and their child ; and a fourth 

 person, who bore the human shape, and that was all, 

 for he was the most deformed cripple I had ever seen 

 or heard of. The other man was almost blind ; and 

 neither he nor his wife were such good-looking people 

 as we had sometimes seen amongst the natives of this 

 coast. The under-lipsof both were bored; and they 

 had in their possession some such glass beads as I had 

 met with before amongst their neighbours. But iron 

 was their beloved article ; for four knives, which 

 we had made out of an old iron hoop, I got from 

 them near four hundred pounds' weight offish, which 

 they had caught on this or the preceding day. Some 

 were trout, and the rest were, in size and taste, 

 somewhat between a mullet and a herring. I gave 

 the child, who was a girl, a few beads ; on which 

 the mother burst into tears, then the father, then the 

 cripple, and at last, to complete the concert, the 



F f 4t 



