tl2 
HOW THEY KILL BUCKS. 
We found the houses at Armen of a single style, they 
being built on the ground, like the larger ones at Ola, and 
rigged out in the same style as far as the inner arrange- 
ments were concerned. Instead of fish, however, we 
here found ducks in profusion hung up overhead and 
undergoing the process of being smoked. The mate of 
the whaler, who had been so fortunate as to witness one 
of their ducking-scenes, thus described it. 
The ducks had collected in dense flocks on a low, 
marshy piece of ground, and were feeding very quietly, 
when suddenly dozens of natives rushed in among them, 
and, striking right and left with their clubs, soon killed 
a great number and put the rest to flight/' 
It seems that they were mostly only half fledged, 
and thus rendered unable to fly when hotly pursued. I 
did not witness one of these novel scenes myself; but I 
saw hundreds of smoked ducks hanging up in their 
houses, and the natives made signs that they knocked 
them down in great numbers with their sticks. We 
traded for a number of these smoked ducks, and found 
that they made a delightful hash after the fresher ones 
were all gone. 
We found neither cattle or milk here as at Ola, although 
the settlement was evidently better otf as far as worldly 
goods were concerned; but we got several baskets of very 
fine whortleberries that would have filled a peck-measure 
probably, for which we gave the almost-emptied demi- 
john of molasses and a half-pound of tobacco. They 
made signs that they would like to sell us a great many 
more at the same price; but, as they pointed to the 
