398 VOYAGE TO THE 



On this day they admitted us to their habitations, 

 and all restrictions were removed, except that upon 

 1826.' writing in our remark books, to which they had 

 such an objection, that they refused us any informa- 

 tion while they were open, and with great good- 

 nature closed them, or if we persisted, they dodged 

 their heads and made off. 



Our new acquaintances, amounting to twenty-five 

 in number, had five tents, constructed with skins of 

 sea-animals, strained upon poles ; and for floors they 

 had some broad planks two feet in the clear. I was 

 anxious to learn where they obtained these, knowing 

 that they had themselves no means of reducing a 

 tree to the form of a plank, but I could get no in- 

 formation on this point : in all probability they had 

 been purchased from the Tschutschi, or the Russians. 

 Each tent had its baidar, and there were two to 

 spare, which were turned upside down, and afforded 

 a convenient house for several dogs, resembling those 

 of Baffin's Bay, which were strapped to logs of wood 

 to prevent their straying away. In front of these 

 baidars there were heaps of skins filled with oil and 

 blubber, &c, and near them some very strong nets 

 full of dried salmon, suspended to frames made of 

 drift wood : these frames also contained, upon stretch- 

 ers, the intestines of whales, which are used for a 

 variety of purposes, particularly for the kamlaikas, a 

 sort of shirt which is put over their skin dresses in 

 wet weather. 



More provident than the inhabitants of Melville 

 Peninsula, these people had collected an immense 

 store of provision, if intended only for the number 

 of persons we saw. Besides a great many skins of 

 oil, blubber, and blood, they had about three thou- 

 sand pounds of dried fish. 



