440 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



cipal anxiety arising, I believe, from a childish desire to know what I 

 should give him for his trouble ; and when, in writing a note to Lieutenant 

 Nias, I enumerated the articles I intended to present to him, he expressed 

 more delight than I had ever before seen escape him. Among these 

 was one of the rifle-guns supplied as presents, together with a sufficient 

 quantity of ammunition to last him one summer, after which the gun would 

 probably become useless itself for want of cleaning. It was astonishing to 

 see the readiness with which these people learned to fire at a mark, and 

 the tact they displayed in every thing relating to this art. Boys from twelve 

 to sixteen years of age would fire a fowling-piece, for the first time, with 

 perfect steadiness ; and the men, with very little practice, would very soon 

 become superior marksmen*. As, however, the advantage they could derive 

 from the use of fire-arms must be of very short duration, and the danger 

 to any careless individuals very considerable, we did not on any other occa- 

 sion consider it prudent to furnish them in this manner. 



On the morning of the 28th, Toolooak left us for the ships, carrying with 

 him our venison to be left there, and having first explained when and where 

 the Esquimaux catch the fish with which he had supplied us the preceding 

 summer ; for it now appeared that they were not found in great abundance, 

 or of that magnitude, in the river ; but at the mouth of a very small stream 

 about two miles lower down the creek on the same side. Their method is, 

 to place in the bed of the stream, which is quite narrow and seldom or 

 never so deep as a man's middle though running with great force, two or 

 three separate piles of stones, which serve the double purpose of keeping off 

 the force of the stream from themselves, and of narrowing the passage 

 through which the fish have to pass in coming up from the sea to feed ; thus 

 giving the people an opportunity of striking them with their spears, and 

 throwing them on shore without much difficulty. We at first supposed that 

 the salmon ascended the stream into lakes above for the purpose of spawn- 

 ing ; but this could not here be the case, as the water became much too 

 shallow for this at less than a hundred yards from the sea. Our fishermen 



* A line lad, of about sixteen, being one day out in a boat with one of our gentlemen at 

 Arlagnuk, reminded him, with a serious face, that he had laid a gun down full-cocked. 

 There happened to be no charge in the gun at the time ; but this was a proof of the attention 

 the boy had paid to the art of using fire-arms, as well as an instance of considerate and manly 

 caution, scarcely to have been expected in an individual of that age. 



