14 I- Gustav Eisen : 



engaged in Stripping a pièce of blubber from a sealskin. Within 

 the enclosure was a smouldering fire and a heap of ashes. She was 

 constantly talking to herseif. When first seeing Mr Brown the com- 

 panion of Mr Nidever she smiled and received hirn most gracionsly 

 and with much dignity and selfpossession. And when the other men 

 came up, she greeted them in the same manner. 



The Indians which Mr. Brown had brought along did not wider- 

 stand a single word of what she said, although they knew several 

 différent dialects. From a bag she took out several roots (carcomites(?), 

 also other roots, and roasting them on the fire she offered them to 

 the men to eat. They found them very palatable. The visitors soon 

 made her to understand that they wanted her to leave the island with 

 them, and gathering up her belongings she was soon ready to start. 

 She packed most of the things in a large basket made of rushes, 

 while other of her things were bundled up by her visitors. She had 

 so many things that every one of the visitors carried some of her 

 belongings when leaving. Among her things was an extra dress made 

 of fine birdskins and finely ornamented. She also insisted upon carrying 

 off all the old dried blubber, and a seal's head which was so decayed 

 that the brain was oozing out. She evidently desired to bring every 

 thing that would sustain life. When all was ready she took from the 

 fire a burning stick in her hand and walked out. She led the party 

 by a fine spring from which she drank, and then led them to an 

 other spring in which she washed her face and hands. The island 

 was inhabited by foxes and by wild dogs, similar to those which Ni- 

 dever had seen among the Indians of the northern part of California. 

 The indián woman took kindly to the food of her visitors, and evi- 

 dently preferred it to the one she had been accustomed to. She was 

 exubérant when one of the men made her a dress of calico, and 

 observing how the man was sewing she insisted to try her hand at 

 this too. She would push the needle in the cloth with her right hand 

 and pull it out with her left one. At first she did not know how to 

 thread the needle, but she learned quickly. In the hunters camp she 

 made herseif useful, in carrying wood and water. She occupied herself 

 with making several baskets, but she worked at several at the same 

 time, first doing a little work on one and then dropping it for an- 

 other. She made the baskets watertight by placing inside several luuips 

 of asphaltum together with some few heated pebbles. The asphaltum 

 melting she gave the pebbles a rotary motion which soon covered 

 the interior of the baskets with an even watertight coating, after 



