104 A C C O U N T O F T H E 



dwelling caves are made in the following manner. They 

 i\v{\ dig an hole in the earth proportioned to the fize of 

 their intended habitation, of twenty, thirty, or forty 

 yards in length, and from llx to ten broad. They 

 then fct up poles of larch, firs, and afli driven on the 

 coaft by the fea. Acrofs the top of thefe poles they 

 lay planks, which they cover with grafs and earth. 

 They enter through holes in the -top by means of lad- 

 ders. Fifty, an hundred, and even an hundred and fifty 

 pcrfons dwell together in fuch a cave. They light little 

 or no fires within, for which reafon thefe dwellings are 

 much cleaner than thofe of the Kamtchadals. When 

 they want to warm themfelves in the winter, they make 

 a fire of dry herbs, of which they have collected a large 

 flore in fummer, and fland over it until they are fuf- 

 ficiently warmed. A few of thefe iflanders wear fur- 

 ftockings in winter; but the greateft part go bare-footed, 

 and all are without breeches. The fkins of cormorants, 

 puffins, and fea-divers, ferve for the mens clothing ; and 

 the women wear the fkins of fea-bears, leals, and fea-otters. 

 They fleep upon thick, mats, which they twifl out of a 

 foft kind of grafs that grows upon the fliore, and have 

 no other covering but their ufual clothes. Many of the 

 men have live or fix wives ; and he that is the beft 

 hunter or fiflier has the greateft number. The women 

 make their needles of the bones of birds wings, and ufe 

 finews for thread. 



Their 



