326 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



himself to me, I presented a new broadsword, with a brass 

 hilt, the possession of which made him completely happy. 

 I make no doubt that whoever comes after me to this place, 

 will find the natives prepared with no inconsiderable supply 

 of skins, an article of trade which they could observe we 

 were eager to possess, and which we found could be pur- 

 chased to great advantage. 



" On my arrival in this inlet, I had honoured it with 

 the name of King George's Sound, but I afterwards found 

 that it is called Nootka by the natives. The harbours and 

 anchoring places within its circuit are numerous. 



" The land bordering upon the sea-coast is of a middling 

 height and level, but within the Sound it rises almost 

 everywhere into steep hills, which agree in their general 

 formation, ending in round or blunted tops, with some sharp 

 though not very prominent ridges on their sides. Some 

 of these hills may be reckoned high. 



" The trees which chiefly compose the woods are the 

 Canadian pine, white cypress, Cypressus thyoides, the wild 

 pine, with two or three other sorts of pine less common. 



" As the season was advancing very fast, and our 

 necessary repairs took up all our time, excursions of every 

 kind, either on the land or by water, were never attempted. 

 And as we lay in a cove on an island, no other animals 

 were ever seen alive in the woods than two or three racoons, 

 martens, and squirrels. The account, therefore, that we 

 can give of the quadrupeds is taken from the skins which 

 the natives brought to sell. 



" Of these, the most common were bears, deer, foxes, 

 and wolves. The bear skins were in great numbers, few 

 of them very large, but in general of a shining black colour. 

 The deer skins were scarcer, and they seem to belong to 

 that sort called the fallow-deer by the historians of Carolina, 

 though Mr. Pennant thinks it quite a different species from 

 ours, and distinguishes it by the name of Virginian deer. 

 The foxes are in great plenty, and of several varieties some 

 yellow, some red, some white, and some black. Besides 

 the common sort of marten, the pine-marten is here, and 

 the ermine is also found at this place. The racoons and 

 squirrels are of the common sort. 



" Hogs, dogs, and goats, have not as yet found their way 

 to this place. Nor do the natives seem to have any know- 

 ledge of our brown rats, to which, when they saw them 

 on board the ships, they applied the name they give to 

 squirrels. 



" The sea animals seen off the coast were whales, por- 

 poises, and seals. The last of these seem only of the 

 common sort, judging from the skins which we saw here. 



