TO kotzebue's sound. 205 



assistance of their comrades. My sailors, who 

 were armed with muskets, waited for the com- 

 mand to fire. I myself threatened them with my 

 gun, pointing it sometimes at one, and sometimes 

 at another ; but this had no effect on them ; they 

 laughed heartily, and only waited for more troops 

 to attempt a serious attack upon us. As our tire- 

 arms, with which they were wholly unacquainted, 

 gave us the superiority, and protected us from 

 every danger, we patiently bore all their pro- 

 vocations, and contented ourselves with drawing 

 our sabres ; this bright, murderous weapon, with 

 which they had been made acquainted by the 

 Tschukutskoi, had the wished-for effect ; they 

 drew back, and contented themselves with follow- 

 ing us to the Rurick. On our invitation, they 

 ventured pretty near, behaving submissively 

 and amicably ; but, notwithstanding all the pre- 

 sents which we offered them, they refused to 

 come on board. Their dress consists of a short 

 shirt, made of rein-deer and dog-skins. Some of 

 them are even half-naked, as a summer-heat, even 

 of 10°, is insupportable to them. Their hair is cut 

 short, and the head always uncovered, which I 

 remarked every where on this coast. They wear 

 morse-bones under their lips, which give their 

 already disagreeable countenances a disgusting 

 appearance : upon the whole, they have a far more 

 savage and ferocious expression than the inhabit- 

 ants of St. Lawrence islands. We observed much 



