PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
251 
The articles they brought off were, as before, skins, fish, fishing CHAP, 
implements, and nic-nacs. Their peltry consisted of the skins of the 
seal, of the common and arctic fox, the common and musk-rat, the July, 
marten, beaver, three varieties of ermine, one white, one with a light 
brown back and yellow belly, and the third with a gray back spotted white 
and yellow ; the American otter, the white hare, the polar bear, the wolf, 
the deer, and the badger. Their fish were salmon and herrings : their 
implements, lances, either of stone or of a walrus tooth fixed to the end 
of a wooden staff; harpoons precisely similar to the Esquimaux ; arrows ; 
drills ; and an instrument, the use of which was at first not very evident. 
It was part of a walrus tooth shaped something like a shoehorn, with four 
holes at the small end communicating with a trough that extended along 
the middle of the instrument and widened as it neared the broad 
part. From the explanation given of it by the natives, it was evidently 
used to procure blood from dying animals, by inserting the end 
with the holes into the wound, and placing the mouth at the op- 
posite end of the trough to receive the liquid as it flowed. From the 
satisfaction that was evinced by the describer during the explanation, 
it is evident that the blood of animals is as much esteemed by these 
people as by the eastern Esquimaux*'. On the outside of this and other 
instruments there were etched a variety of figures of men, beasts, and 
birds, &c. with a truth and character which showed the art to be com- 
mon among them. The reindeer were generally in herds: in one 
picture they were pursued by a man in a stooping posture in snow- 
shoes ; in another he had approached nearer to his game, and was in 
the act of drawing his bow. A third represented the manner of taking 
seals with an inflated skin of the same animal as a decoy ; it was placed 
upon the ice, and not far from it was a man lying upon his belly with a 
harpoon ready to strike the animal when it should make its appearance. 
Another was dragging a seal home upon a small sledge ; and several 
baidars were employed harpooning whales which had been previously 
shot with arrows ; and thus by comparing one with another a little 
history was obtained which gave us a better insight into their habits 
than could be elicited from any signs or intimations. 
* See Captain Parry’s Second Voyage, 4to, p. 510. 
K K 2 
