PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 409 



coin of the Empress Catherine, and the head of a X i. ' 

 halberd, which had been converted into a knife; ^T*^ 



. . Sep 1 - 



both of which were evidence of the communication 1826. 

 that must exist between their tribe and those of the 

 Asiatic coasts opposite. 



We returned on board with a boat full of dried 

 salmon, and the next day the party visited the ship. 

 Notwithstanding the friendly treatment they had 

 experienced the day before, it required much per- 

 suasion to induce them to come upon deck ; and 

 even when some of them were prevailed upon to do 

 so, they took the precaution of leaving with their 

 comrades in the boat whatever valuable articles they 

 had about their persons. They were shown every 

 thing in the ship most likely to interest them, but 

 very few objects engaged them long, and they passed 

 by some that were of the greatest interest, to bestow 

 their attention upon others which to us were of 

 none, thus showing the necessity of fully under- 

 standing the nature of any thing before the mind 

 can properly appreciate its value. The sail-maker 

 sewing a canvass bag, and the chain cable, were two 

 of the objects which most engaged their attention ; 

 the former from its being an occupation they had 

 themselves often been engaged in ; and the latter as 

 exhibiting to them the result of prodigious labour, 

 as they would naturally conclude that our chains — 

 though so much larger and of so much harder a ma- 

 terial than their own — were made in the same man- 

 ner. The industry and ingenuity of the Esquimaux 

 are, however, displayed in nothing more than in the 

 fabrication of chains, two or three of which we met 

 with cut out of a solid piece of ivory. On showing 

 these people the plates of natural history in Rees's 



