170 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



his fears by presenting him with some pieces 

 of iron, and assuring him of his friendly in- 

 tentions. Dr. Richardson and I then joined 

 them, and after receiving our presents, the 

 old man was quite composed, and became 

 communicative. His dialect differed from 

 that used by Augustus, but they understood 

 each other tolerably well. 



It appeared that his party consisted of 

 eight men and their families, who were re- 

 turning from a hunting excursion with 

 dried meat. After being told who we were, 

 he said that he had heard of white people 

 from different parties of his nation which 

 resided on the sea-coast to the eastward; 

 and to our inquiries respecting the provision 

 and fuel we might expect to get on our 

 voyage, he informed us that the rein-deer 

 frequent the coast during summer, the fish 

 are plentiful at the mouths of the rivers, the 

 seals are abundant, but there are no sea- 

 horses nor whales, although he remembered 

 one of the latter, which had been killed by 

 some distant tribe, having been driven on 

 shore on his part of the coast by a gale of 



