habits and customs OF THE SAVAGES. 
43 
feet having .five toes, with a stout short toe, the hind‘feet four, 
The soles of its feet are overgrown with thick black hair, and, 
in the place of a tail, ’it has a fat excrescence of the size of a 
nut. Its hair is yellow, tipped with a dark colour, and its 
voice whistling. It has two teats near its hind legs, and four 
under the breast. It is found in the Siberian Alps, where, in 
the mouth of August, it nibbles off the grass, dries and con¬ 
ceals it in the clefts of the mountains. 
As soon as this traffic was at an end, they were on the point of 
departing ; but our people commencing a Russian song, they 
turned back, came again on board, and listened with great at¬ 
tention. They then sang themselves, in their way, to which 
two of them danced. This dance consisted of many vehement 
gesticulations of the whole body, particularly of the hands and 
head, which they twisted round on all sides with great dexterity, 
at the same time springing from place to place, in conformity 
with the singing and beating of the drum. 
These Americans are of a middle stature, and generally of a 
brown complexion, although we saw some white among them. 
They cut their hair after the manner of the Jakuts, whom they 
greatly resemble, except that they approach nearer to the Eu¬ 
ropeans. They have a more open cheerful physiognomy than 
the Americans we saw in Sehugatscbkish Bay. In their 
ears they wore an ornament of pear! enamel, and in the perfo-j. 
rations of the under lip, , on both sdes the mouth, they stuck 
two alabaster stones in the ffirm of a shirt-button. Their dress, 
consisted of short vests of reindeer skin, and breeches of sea- 
hound’s skin, without any covering for the feet. I made these 
visitors some trifling presents, which they accepted with evident 
marks of satisfaction, and took their leave with the promise of 
returning very speedily. 
Towards evening Captain Billings returned, leaving the rest 
on shore, in the night a thibk mist arose, which did not clear 
up before the close of the next day, when the boat arrived, but 
six sailors were still left behind with the baidar, which they^ 
had obtained in exchange for pearl-enamel. We were very un¬ 
easy at their stay, apprehending lest some accident had hap¬ 
pened ; but were relieved the next morning from our anxiety bv 
their safe return. They assigned the darkness as the reason 
of their staying out, having been unexpectedly overtaken by 
night, and having sought in vain for the vessel. 
During our anchoring here, we observed that the current of the 
sea along the shore from .Nortoifs-Bay to w 7 est-south-west, 
makes mostly half a mile, and sometimes a mile and a half in 
an hour. 
