1789.
July.

an half high and two feet wide, and has a covered way or porch five

JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE THROUGH THE

tobe an excellent fifhery. One of the fifh, of the many which we faw

| leap out of the .water, fell into our canoe; it was about ten inches

long, and of a round fhape. About the places where they had made
their. fires were {cattered pieces of whalebone, and thick burned leather,
with parts of the frames of three canoes; we;could alfo obferve where
they had fpilled train oil; and there was the fingular appearance of a
fpruce fir, ftripped of its, branches to the top like an Englifh may-pole,
The weather was cloudy, and the air cold and unpleafant. From this
place for about five miles, the river widens, it then flows in a variety
of narrow, meandering channels, amongft low iflands, enlivened with no
trees, but a few dwarf willows.

At four, we landed, where there were three houfes, or rather huts, be-
longing to the natives. The ground-plot is of an oval form, about
fifteen feet long, ten feet wide in the middle, and eight feet at either
end: the whole of it is dug about twelve inches below the furface of
the ground, and one half of it is covered over with willow branches;
which probably ferves as a bed for the whole family. A fpace, in
the middle of the other part, of about four feet wide, is deepened
twelve inches more, and is the only fpot in the houfe where a grown
perfon can ftand upright. One fide of it is covered, as has been
already defcribed, and the other is the hearth or fire-place, of which,
however, they do not make much ufe. Though it was clofe to the
wall, the latter did not appear to be burned. The door or éntrance
is in the middle of one end of the houfe, and is about two feet and

feet in length; fo that it is abfolutely neceflary to creep on all fours

in