Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/133

 On the 7th the stunted woods were in several places on fire. The river banks were lined with straggling huts of the Loucheux, formed of green branches. The inhabitants of these primitive dwellings came off in numbers, in their canoes, to visit us, and loud were their vociferations as we came successively in sight of their little camps. The aged hobbled after us along the beach, the women whined and simpered after their most attractive fashion, and the children, "in puris naturalibus," crowded round our gaily painted boats to see the wonders they contained. Wherever we landed, logs were instantly carried to the water's edge, to enable us to step ashore dry-shod. A small present of tobacco to each of the men, with a few beads or needles distributed among the women and children, satisfied their modest desires; and, for a trifling remuneration, they supplied us with as much fresh and half-dried fish as we chose to take on board. We remarked among them some knives and buttons, apparently of Russian manufacture, obtained from the Esquimaux during their intervals of amicable intercourse. The deer-skin jackets of the men have long flaps behind, reaching almost to the ground, and shaped like a beaver's tail. Like their neighbours of the sea, both sexes wear breeches; a distinctive costume from that of the