OF THE POLAR SEA. ~ 27 
Their shouts at a distance intimated. their ap- 
proach some time before we described the canoes 
paddling towards us; the headmost of them 
reached us at eleven; these were quickly fol- 
lowed by others, and before noon about forty 
canoes, each holding one man, were assembled 
around the two ships. In the afternoon, when 
we approached nearer to the shore, five or six 
larger ones, containing the women and children, 
came up. 
The Esquimaux immediately evinced —_ de- 
sire to barter, and displayed no small cunning in 
making their bargains, taking care not to ex- 
hibit too many articles at first. Their principal 
commodities were, oil, sea-horse teeth, whale- 
bone, seal-skin dresses, caps and boots, deer- 
skins and horns, and models of their canoes : and 
they received in exchange small saws, edi 
nails, tin-kettles, and needles, It was pleasing 
to behold the exultation, and to hear the shouts: 
of the whole party, when an acquisition was 
made by any one; and not a little ludicrous to: 
behold the eagerness with which the — 
person licked each article with his tongue, on 
receiving it, as a finish to the bargain, and an 
act of appropriation. They inno instance omitted 
this strange practice, however small the article: 
the needles even passed individually through the 
