398 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
is their principal maintenance during that time, and the residue 
they bury in the snow, as a provision for the ensuing year. A 
large herd of rein-deer were seen, steering their course to the 
northward, but they never came within the range of Commander 
Ross’ shot. 
A singular circumstance, however, came to the knowledge of 
that officer, during this excursion ; viz : that during the congress 
of the Esquimaux at Nichilli , they are annually visited by some 
white people, who come from the westward; and from the de¬ 
scription givefi of them, Commander Ross supposed them to be a 
family of Russians or Danes. Their avowed object, in paying 
this visit, was to traffic with the natives for seal skins and wal¬ 
rus teeth ; but as to their permanent place of abode, or by what 
means or conveyance they were enabled to reach the country of 
the Esquimaux, was a problem, which could not be solved. It 
was, however, a circumstance on the whole, to which Com¬ 
mander Ross attached a considerable degree of importance; for 
should he be so fortunate as to fall in with those people, some 
positive information might be obtained from them, relative to 
the adjacent coasts, which might direct him in future as to the 
course which he had to steer, and solve all his doubts as to 
the existence of an open sea to the westward If these wander¬ 
ing merchants belonged to the Russians, little doubt then existed 
that they had arrived at the Esquimaux country by the passage 
of Behring’s Straits, and then by the Great Bear and the Great 
Slave Lakes, to the annual meeting of the Esquimaux at Nichilli. 
There was, however, one circumstance which went to invalidate 
that opinion ; which was, that in no part of either of the journeys 
of Capt. Franklin, does he make any mention of any part of the 
country through which he passed, being visited by any Danish 
or Russian merchants; nor was any information elicited from the 
Indians, which could warrant the conclusion, that any part of 
their country had ever been visited by a people, who answered 
to the character of those, which had been described to Com¬ 
mander Ross. The conjecture was in some degree plausible, 
that they might belong to one of the Anglo-Russian settlements 
situated to the eastward of Behring's Straits; but a strong ob- 
