Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/186

156 pleasure. I explained how we happened to be in possession of a vessel so familiar to them; and I believe that its evident emptiness rendered them much less troublesome than they would have been had our riches appeared greater. All were eager to trade; and we were soon loaded with seal-skin boots, kamleikas, or water-proof shirts, weapons, and gimcracks, some of which had figures of marine animals rudely carved in ivory. But what most attracted our curiosity was an ingenious and novel contrivance for capturing wild fowl. It consists of six or eight small perforated ivory balls, attached separately to cords of sinew three feet long; the ends of which being tied together, an expanding or radiating sling is thus framed, which, dexterously thrown at the birds as they fly past, entangles and brings them to the ground. During our stay we repeatedly saw these simple inventions effectively used. I likewise remarked some ponds on the point, set round with whalebone nooses, to ensnare the fowl when they come to peck the fine gravel carefully exposed to attract them. The grand article in demand here was tobacco, which, as in Dease Inlet, they call tawāc, or tawācah, a name acquired of course from the Russian traders. Not content with chewing and smoking it, they