PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
293 
had stood, and a quantity of it secreted in a bush near the place; so CHAP, 
that their cautious behaviour with regard to our approaching their 
tents the first day was no doubt occasioned by fear of this discovery ; August, 
and they afterwards secreted their plunder in a manner probably not 
likely to meet detection. 
Among this party there was a man so crippled that he went upon 
all fours ; how it occurred we could not learn, but it was probably in 
some hunting excursion, as several of his companions had deep scars 
which they intimated had been inflicted by walrusses, which in the 
following year we found in great numbers off the coast. In this 
party we detected a difference of dialect from what we had heard in 
general, which made their objection to our writing in our books the 
more provoking, as it prevented our recording any of the variations, 
except in regard to the negative particle no, which with other parties 
was 7 iaga, and with these, aiin-ga. The females were provided with 
broad iron bracelets, which we had not seen before ; and by their having 
four or five of them upon each wrist, it appeared that this metal, so 
precious with the tribes to the northward, was with them less rare : 
nevertheless it is very probable that they intended to appropriate to 
this purpose the iron hoops they had stolen from us. 
I have said nothing of the dress or features of these people, as, 
with the exception of two of them, they so nearly resemble those 
already described as to render it unnecessary. These two persons, in 
the tattooing of the face, and in features, which more nearly resembled 
those of the Tschutschi, seemed to be allied to the tribes on the Asiatic 
coast, with whom they no doubt have an occasional intercourse. 
On the 1 st of September our sportsmen succeeded in bagging several Sept. 
braces of ptarmigan and wild ducks ; but game was not so plentiful as 
might have been expected at this season of the year, in a country so 
abundantly provided with berries and so scantily inhabited. It was a 
pleasure to find that we could now pursue this and other occupations 
free from the annoyance of moskitoes ; a nuisance which, whatever it 
may appear at first, is in reality not trifling. Dr. Richardson fixes 
the departure of these insects from Fort Franklin on the 11th of Sep- 
tember : here, however, it takes place at least a fortnight earlier. 
