310 NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF TUSKI-LAND. 



and indirectly with the Esquimaux of America, by 

 the people of the Diomede Islands, in the straits. 

 There is also some slight communication with the 

 island of St. Lawrence, but enmity exists between its 

 natives and themselves, and more than one proof was 

 afforded that they reduced to bondage any of 

 those people who, on fishing or other excursions, 

 were driven upon their coast ; a sufficiently ungene- 

 rous proceeding, and one at variance with their 

 general hospitality, but practised probably by way of 

 reprisal. 



I have already remarked upon the scantiness of 

 vegetation, from which they have but slight aid 

 except in the subsistence of their reindeer, besides 

 some few roots and a long dry grass, which they plait 

 into hats and baskets of close texture, nearly 

 impervious to water. The only wild animals with 

 which we were acquainted, were bears, wolves, foxes, 

 sable, otters, ermine, hares, the big horn or great 

 sheep of Siberia, and perhaps reindeer ; the tame ones 

 were reindeer and dogs ; the latter are generally 

 small and shaggy, their bark, or rather yell, is most 

 melancholy, and when a number join in chorus, the 

 wail, particularly at night, is startling, and almost 

 unearthly. 



In concluding this portion of my book, I beg to 



