PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
249 
part made of sea-horse hide. To the end of that which goes round the CHAP 
waist they attach a tuft of hair, the wing of a bird, or sometimes a fox’s 
tail, which, dangling behind as they walk, gives them a ridiculous ap- July, 
pearance, and may probably have occasioned the report of the Tschutschi, ' 
recorded in Muller, that the people of this country have “ tails like 
dogs.” 
It was at Schismareff Inlet that we first saw the lip ornaments 
which are common to all the inhabitants of the coast thence as far 
as Point Barrow. These ornaments consist of pieces of ivory, stone, 
or glass, formed with a double head, like a sleeve-button, one part of 
which is thrust through a hole bored in the under lip. Two of these 
holes are cut in a slanting direction about half an inch below the corners 
of the mouth. The incision is made when about the age of puberty, and 
is at first the size of a quill ; as they grow older the natives enlarge the 
orifice, and increase the size of the ornament accordingly, that it may hold 
its place : in adults, this orifice is about half an inch in diameter, and will, 
if required, distend to three quarters of an inch. Some of these orna- 
ments were made of granite, others of jade-stone, and a few of large blue 
glass beads let into a piece of ivory which formed a white ring round 
them. These are about an inch in diameter, but I afterwards got 
one of finely polished jade that was three inches in length, by an inch 
and half in width. 
About noon, a breeze springing up, the natives quitted us for the 
shore, and we pursued our course to the northward without waiting 
to explore further this deep inlet, which has since been a subject of 
regret, as the weather afterwards in both years jirevented it being 
done. I could not, however, consistently with ray instructions, wait 
to examine it at this moment, as the appointed time of rendezvous 
at Chamisso Island was already past^. While becalmed off it, we were 
carried slowly to the north-eastward by a current which had been 
running in that direction from the time of our quitting St. Lawrence 
Island. With a fair wind we sailed along the coast to the northward 
which was low and swampy, with small lakes inland. The ridge of 
* It has since been surveyed by the Russians. 
K K 
