PRINCE William's Sound, situated on the north-west coast of America, and so named by Captain Cook in 1778. The men, women, and children of this found are all clothed in the same manner. Their ordinary dress is a sort of close frock, or rather robe, which sometimes reaches only to the knees, but generally down to the ankles. These frocks are composed of the skins of various animals, and are commonly worn with the hairy side outwards. The men often paint their faces of a black colour, and of a bright red, and sometimes of a bluish or leaden hue; but not in any regular
Prince, Principal. lar figure. The women puncture or stain the chin with black, that comes to a point in each of their cheeks. Their canoes are of two sorts; the one large and open, the other small and covered. The framing consists of slender pieces of wood, and the outside is composed of the skins of seals, or other sea animals, stretched over the wood. Their weapons, and implements for hunting and fishing, are the same as those used by the Greenlanders and Esquimaux. Many of their spears are headed with iron, and their arrows are generally pointed with bone. The food they were seen to eat was the flesh of some animal, either roasted or broiled, and dried fish. Some of the former that was purchased had the appearance of bear's flesh. They also eat a larger sort of fern-root, either baked or dressed in some other method. Their drink, in all probability, is water; for, in their canoes, they brought snow in wooden vessels, which they swallowed by mouthfuls. Our knowledge of the animals of this part of the American continent is entirely derived from the skins that were brought by the natives for sale. These were principally of bears, common and pine martins, sea-otters, seals, racoons, small ermines, foxes, and the whitish cat or lynx. The birds found here were the halcyon, or great king's-fisher, which had fine bright colours; the white-headed eagle, and the humming-bird. The fish that were principally brought to market for sale were torfk and halibut. The rocks were almost destitute of shell-fish; and the only other animal of this tribe that was observed was a reddish crab, covered with very large spines. Few vegetables of any kind were observed; and the trees that chiefly grew about this found were the Canadian spruce pine, some of which were of a considerable size. E. Long. 115. 21. N. Lat. 59. 33.