PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 371 



in, from seaward, and only a short time before the 

 increasing breeze obliged her to quit the coast. 

 During my absence the boats had been sent to exa- A iS' 

 mine a large floating mass which excited a good deal 

 of curiosity at the time, and found it to be the car- 

 cass of a dead whale. It had an Esquimaux harpoon 

 in it, and a drag attached, made of an inflated seal- 

 skin, which had no doubt worried the animal to 

 death. Thus, with knowledge just proportioned to 

 their wants, do these untutored barbarians, with 

 their slender boats and limited means, contrive to 

 take the largest animal of the creation. In the pre- 

 sent instance, certainly, their victim had eluded their 

 efforts, but the carcass was not yet " too high" for 

 an Esquimaux palate, and would, no doubt, ere 

 long, be either washed upon the shore, or discovered 

 by some of the many wandering baidars along the 

 coast. 



Some very extensive flocks of eider ducks had 

 also been seen from the ship. They consisted en- 

 tirely of females and young ones, the greater part of 

 which could not fly, but they nevertheless contrived 

 to evade pursuit by diving. 



On the morning of the 10th we were under treble- 

 reefed topsails and foresail, with a short head sea, in 

 which we pitched away the jib-boom. We had a 

 thick fog, with the wind at N. N. E. A little after 

 noon, being in lat. 70° 09' N., and 165° 10' W., we 

 had twenty -four fathoms hard bottom : we then 

 stood toward the shore, and again changed the bot- 

 tom to mud, the depth of water gradually decreasing. 



On the 11th it was calm ; by the observations at 

 noon there had been a current to the S. W., but this 

 had now ceased, as upon trial it ran west one- third 



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