ch was even with the ground one walked upon;
but they cannot be said to be wholly under ground, for one end reached
to the edge of the hill, along which they were made, and which was
built up with stone. Over it stood a kind of sentry-box, or tower,
composed of the large bones of large fish.

The summer huts were pretty large and circular, being brought to a
point at the top. The framing was of slight poles and bones, covered
with the skins of sea-animals. I examined the inside of one. There was
a fire-place just within the door, where lay a few wooden vessels, all
very dirty. Their bed-places were close to the side, and took up about
half the circuit. Some privacy seemed to be observed; for there
were several partitions made with skins. The bed and bedding were of
deer-skins, and most of them were dry and clean.

About the habitations were erected several stages, ten or twelve feet
high, such as we had observed on some parts of the American coast.
They were wholly composed of bones, and seemed intended for drying
their fish and skins, which were thus placed beyond the reach of their
dogs, of which they had a great many. These dogs are of the fox kind,
rather large, and of different colours, with long soft hair like
wool. They are, probably, used in drawing their sledges in winter. For
sledges they have, as I saw a good many laid up in one of the winter
huts. It is also not improbable, that dogs may constitute a part of
their food. Several lay dead that had been killed that morning.

The canoes of these people are of the same sort with those of the
Northern Americans, some, both of the large and of the small ones,
being seen lying in a creek under the village.

By the large fish-bones, and of other sea-animals, it appeared that
the sea supplied them with the greatest part of their subsistence. The
country appeared to be exceedingly barren, yielding neither tree nor
shrub, that we could see. At some distance westward, we observed a
ridge of mountains covered with snow that had lately fallen.

At first, we supposed this land to be a part of the island of
Alaschka, laid down in Mr Staehlin's map before-mentioned. But from the
figure of the coast, the situation of the opposite shore of America,
and from the longitude, we soon began to think that it was, more
probably, the country of the Tschutski, or the eastern extremity of
Asia, explored by Beering in 1728. But to have admitted this, without
farther examination, I mu