1827. 



265 VOYAGE TO THE 



CHAP, shore, named Choonowuck, there were several girls 

 ^^- ^ with massive iron bracelets. One had a curb chain 

 Sept. for a necklace, and another a bell suspended in front, 

 in the manner described the preceding year at Choris 

 Peninsula. 



There are very few natives in the outer harbour. On 

 the northern side there is a village of yourts, to which 

 the inhabitants apparently resort only in the win- 

 ter. At the time of our visit it was in charge of an 

 old man, his wife, and daughter, who received us 

 civilly, and gave us some fish. The yourts were in a 

 very ruinous condition ; some were half filled with 

 water, and all were filthy. By several articles and 

 cooking utensils left upon the shelves, and by some 

 sledges which were secreted in the bushes, the in- 

 habitants evidently intended to return as soon as the 

 frost should consolidate all the stagnant water within 

 and about their dwellings. One of these yourts was 

 so capacious that it could only have been intended as 

 an assembly or banquetting room, and corresponded 

 with the description of similar rooms among the 

 eastern Esquimaux. 



There was a burying-ground near the village in 

 which we noticed several bodies wrapped in skins, 

 and deposited upon drift-wood, with frames of canoes, 

 and sledges, &c. placed near them, as already described 

 at the entrance of Hotham Inlet. The old man 

 whom we found at this place gave the same names to 

 the villages at the head of the inner harbour, and to 

 the points of land at its entrance, as we had received 

 from the natives of King-a-ghe whom we met in 

 Kotzebue Sound. 



His daughter had the hammer of a musket sus- 

 pended about her neck, and held it so sacred that she 



