354 A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



and perfectly white. His face was not tattoed. His dress consisted of 

 a shirt, or jacket with a hood, wide breeches, reaching only to the 

 knee, and tight leggins sewed to the shoes, all of deers' skins. 

 The soles of the shoes were made of seal-skin, and stuffed with 



■ 



feathers instead of socks. He was bent with age, but appeared to 

 be about five feet ten inches high. His hands and feet were small 

 in proportion to his height. Whenever T er regannoeuck received a 

 present, he placed each article first on his right shoulder, then on 

 his left ; and when he wished to express still higher satisfaction, he 

 rubbed it over his head. He held hatchets, and other iron instru- 

 ments, in the highest esteem. On seeing his countenance in a glass 

 for the first time, he exclaimed, " I shall never kill deer more," 

 and immediately put the mirror down. The tribe to which he be- 

 longs repair to the sea in spring, and kill seals ; as the season ad- 

 vances they hunt deer and musk oxen at some distance from the 

 coast. Their weapon is the bow and arrow, and they get sufficiently 

 near to the deer, either by crawling, or by leading these animals 

 by ranges of turf towards a spot where the archer can conceal him- 

 self. Their bows are formed of three pieces of fir, the centre piece 

 alone bent, the other two lying in the same straight line with the 

 bowstring ; the pieces are neatly tied together with sinew. Their 

 canoes are similar to those we saw in Hudson's Straits, but smaller. 

 They get fish constantly in the rivers, and in the sea as soon as 

 the ice breaks up. This tribe does not make use of nets, but 

 they are tolerably successful with the hook and line. Their cook- 

 ing utensils are made of pot-stone, and they form very neat dishes 

 of fir, the sides being made of thin deal bent into an oval form, 

 secured at the ends by sewing, and fitted so nicely to the bottom 

 as to be perfectly water tight. They have also large spoons made 

 of the horns of the musk oxen. 



Akaitcho and the Indians arrived at our tents in the evening, 

 and we learned that they had seen the Esquimaux the day before, 



