PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 365 



dinary in the fact; but why this body of water Cl \**- 

 should continually press to the northward in pre- <^,^> 

 ference to taking any other direction, or gradually /£' 

 expending itself in the sea, is a question of con- 

 siderable interest. 



In the afternoon the barge was discovered at 

 anchor, close in-shore, and being favoured with a 

 breeze the ship was brought close to the point. 

 This enabled me to land, accompanied by Mr. Collie, 

 who, while I was occupied with my theodolite, went 

 toward the huts, which at first appeared to be de- 

 serted ; but as he was examining them several old 

 women and children made their appearance, and 

 gave him a friendly reception. He brought them 

 to me, and we underwent the full delights of an 

 affectionate Esquimaux salutation. 



The persons of our new acquaintance were ex- 

 tremely diminutive, dirty, and forbidding. Some 

 were blind, others decrepit ; and, dressed in greasy 

 worn-out clothes, they looked perfectly wretched. 

 Their hospitality, however, was even greater than 

 we could desire ; and we were dragged away by the 

 wrists to their hovels, on approaching which we 

 passed between heaps of filth and ruined habita- 

 tions, filled with stinking water, to a part of the 

 village which was in better repair. We were then 

 seated upon some skins placed for the purpose ; and 

 bowls of blubber, walrus, and unicorn flesh (monodon 

 monoceros), with various other delicacies of the same 

 kind, were successively offered as temptations to our 

 appetite, which, nevertheless, we felt no inclination 

 to indulge. 



After some few exchanges, the advantage of 

 which was on the side of our acquaintances, who 



