times, by expressive signs, marking his impatience that I should be gone. I attempted in vain to soothe him by presents, but though he did not refuse them, they did not alter his behaviour. Some of the young women, better pleased with us than their inhospitable chief, dressed themselves expeditiously in their best apparel, and assembling in a body welcomed us to their village, by joining in a song, which was far from harsh or disagreeable. The day being now far spent, I proceeded for the ships round the north end of the large island; meeting in my way with several canoes laden with sardines, which had been just caught somewhere in the east corner of the Sound. When I got on board I was informed, that while I was absent the ships had been visited by some strangers, in two or three large canoes, who by signs made our people understand that they had come from the southeast, beyond the bay. They brought several skins, garments, and other articles, which they bartered. But what was most singular, two silver table-spoons were purchased from them, which, from their peculiar shape, we supposed to be of Spanish manufacture. One of these strangers wore them round his neck by way of ornament. These visitors also appeared to be more plentifully supplied with iron than the inhabitants of the Sound.

On my arrival in this inlet I had honoured it with the name of King George's Sound, but I afterward found that it is called Nootka by the natives. The climate, as far as we had any experience of it, is infinitely milder than that on the east coast of America, under the same parallel of latitude. The mercury in the thermometer never, even in the night, fell lower than 42°; and very often in the day it rose to 60°. No such thing as frost was perceived in any of the low ground; on the contrary, vegetation had made a considerable progress; for I met

with grass that was already above a foot long. The trees which chiefly compose the woods are the Canadian pine, white cypress, Cupressus thyoides, the wild pine, with two or three other sorts of pine less common. The first two make up almost two-thirds of the whole; and, at a distance, might be mistaken for the same tree, as they both run up into pointed spire-like tops; but they are easily distinguished on coming nearer from their colour, the cypress being of a much paler green, or shade, than the other. The trees, in general, grow with great vigour, and are all of a large size.

The persons of the natives are in general under the common stature, but not slender in proportion, being commonly pretty full or plump, though not muscular. Neither does the soft fleshiness seem ever to swell into corpulence, and many of the older people are rather spare or lean. The visage of most of them is round and full, and sometimes, also, broad, with large prominent cheeks; and above these the face is frequently much depressed, or seems fallen in quite across the temples, the nose also flattening at its base, with pretty wide nostrils, and a rounded point. The forehead rather low, the eyes small, black, and rather languishing than sparkling, the mouth round with large round thickish lips, the teeth tolerably equal and well set, but not remarkably white.

The nastiness and stench of their houses are at least equal to the confusion; for, as they dry their fish within doors, they also gut them there, which, with their bones and fragments thrown down at meals, and the addition of other sorts of filth, lie everywhere in heaps, and are, I believe, never carried away till it becomes troublesome, from their size, to walk over them. In a word, their houses are as filthy as hog-sties, everything in and about them stinking of fish, train-oil, and smoke. But, amidst

all the filth and confusion that are found in the houses, many of them are decorated with images. These are nothing more than the trunks of very large trees four or five feet high, set up singly or by pairs at the upper end of the apartment, with the front carved into a human face, the arms and hands cut out upon the sides and variously painted; so that the whole is a truly monstrous figure. The general name of those images is Klumma, and the names of two particular ones which stood abreast of each other, three or four feet asunder in one of the houses, were Natchkoa and Matseeta.

Their manner of eating is exactly consonant to the nastiness of their houses and persons; for the troughs and platters, in which they put their food, appear never to have been washed from the time they were first made, and the dirty remains of a former meal are only sweeped away by the succeeding one. They also tear everything, solid or tough, to pieces with their hands and teeth; for though they make use of their knives to cut off the larger portions, they have not, as yet, thought of reducing these to smaller pieces and mouthfuls, by the same means, though obviously more convenient and cleanly. But they seem to have no idea of cleanliness; for they eat the roots which they dig from the ground without so much as shaking off the soil that adheres to them. We are uncertain if they have any set time for meals; for we have seen them eat at all hours in their canoes. And yet, from seeing several messes of the porpoise-broth preparing toward noon, when we visited the village, I should suspect that they make a principal meal about that time.

(It is unnecessary to follow minutely Captain Cook's narrative from this point northwards. Suffice it to say that after leaving Nootka Sound he proceeded northwards by Cross Sound, Hinch

inbrook Island, Prince William Sound, Cook's Inlet, the island of Conalashka and Cape Newenham, to Cape Prince of Wales in Behring Straits, and other places which still retain the names he gave them.)

ICY CAPE.

On Monday the 7th August 1778, before noon, we perceived a brightness in the northern horizon like that reflected from ice, commonly called the blink. About an hour after, the sight of a large field of ice left us no longer in doubt about the cause of the brightness of the horizon. At half-past two we tacked close to the edge of the ice, in twenty-two fathoms water, not being able to stand on any further, for the ice was quite impenetrable, and extended from west to south to east by north, as far as the eye could reach. Here were abundance of sea-horses.

On the 18th, at noon, we were near five leagues farther to the eastward. We were at this time close to the edge of the ice, which was as compact as a wall, and seemed to be ten or twelve feet high at least; but farther north it appeared much higher.

We now stood to the southward, and after running six leagues, shoaled the water to seven fathoms, but it soon deepened to nine fathoms. At this time we saw land extending from south to south-east by east, about three or four miles distant. The eastern extreme forms a point which was much encumbered with ice, for which reason it obtained the name of Icy Cape.* The other extreme of the land was lost in the horizon, so that there can be no doubt of its being a continuation of the American continent.

* Icy Cape, Captain Cook's farthest, was passed by Captain Beechey in H.M.S. "Blossom" in 1826, on which occasion the late Mr. Elson and Mr. (now Admiral)