PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 407 



coast, we were anxious to learn whence they had C S^ P ' 

 procured it, but we could not make our acquaint- v --v— 

 ances understand our wishes. 1826. 



An old lady, who was the mother of the two girls 

 with the bells, invited me into her tent, where I 

 found her daughters seated amidst a variety of pots 

 and pans, containing the most unsavoury messes, 

 highly repugnant to both the sight and smell of a 

 European, though not at all so to the Esquimaux. 

 These people are in the habit of collecting certain 

 fluids for the purposes of tanning; and that, judging 

 from what took place in the tent, in the most open 

 manner, in the presence of all the family. 



The old matron was extremely good-natured, 

 lively, and loquacious ; and took great pleasure in 

 telling us the name of every thing, by which she 

 proved more useful than any of our former visiters ; 

 and had she but allowed us time to write down one 

 word before she furnished another, we should have 

 greatly extended our vocabularies ; but it appeared 

 to her, no doubt, that we could write as fast as she 

 could dictate, and that the greater number of words 

 she supplied, the more thankful we should be. So 

 far from this party having any objection to our 

 books, to which the former one had manifested the 

 greatest repugnance, they took pleasure in seeing 

 them, and were very attentive to the manner in 

 which every thing was committed to paper. 



The daughters were fat good-looking girls ; the 

 eldest, about thirteen years of age, was marked upon 

 the chin with a single blue line ; but the other, about 

 ten, was without any tattooing. I made a sketch of 

 the eldest girl, very much to the satisfaction of the 

 mother, who was so interested in having her daugh- 



