1778. THE PACIFIC, OCEAN. 4t>9 



the outward appearance is like a dunghill. In the 

 middle of the roof, toward each end, is left a square 

 opening, by which the light is admitted ; one of these 

 openings being for this purpose only, and the other 

 being also used to go in and out by, with the help of 

 a ladder, or rather a post, with steps cut in it. # In 

 some houses there is another entrance below ; but 

 this is not common. Round the sides and ends of 

 the huts, the families (for several are lodged together) 

 have their separate apartments, where they sleep, 

 and sit at work ; not upon benches, but in a kind of 

 a concave trench, which is dug all round the inside 

 of the house, and covered with mats; so that this 

 part is kept tolerably decent. But the middle of the 

 house, which is common to all the families, is far 

 otherwise. For, although it be covered with dry 

 grass, it is a receptacle for dirt of every kind, and 

 the place for the urine trough ; the stench of which 

 is not mended by raw hides, or leather being almost 

 continually steeped in it. Behind and over the trench 

 are placed the few effects they are possessed of; such 

 .as their clothing, mats, and skins. 



Their household furniture consists of bowls, spoons, 

 buckets, piggins or cans, matted baskets, and per- 

 haps a Russian kettle or pot. All these utensils are 

 .very neatly made, and well formed ; and yet we saw 

 no other tools. among them but the knife and the 

 hatchet ; that is, a small flat piece of iron, made like 

 an adze, by fitting it into a crooked wooden handle. 

 These were the only instruments we met with there, 

 made of iron. For although the Russians live amongst 

 them, we found much less of this metal in their pos- 

 session than we had met with in the possession of 

 other tribes on the American continent, who had 



* Mr. Coxe's description of the habitations of the natives of 

 Oonalashka, and the other Fox Islands, in general, agrees with 

 Captain Cook's. See Russian Discoveries, p. 14-9. See also His- 

 toirc des (liferents Peuples soumis a la Domination dcs Russes, pat 

 M. Levesque, torn. i. p. 10, 4-1. 



H II 3 



