Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/188

 unusual mortality among them, and am of opinion that the concourse of natives who inhabit Point Barrow at all seasons, together with the frigid climate, sufficiently accounts for the number and appearance of the remains already noticed. When the means of buyers and sellers were at length exhausted, some of the women and girls ranged themselves in a circle, to gratify us with an exhibition of their national dances. Each of the damsels successively figured in the midst; while the remainder, joining hands, danced round her and sung in unison, some of their airs being by no means unmusical. The lady in the centre who performed most extravagantly elicited the highest applause; and one bold dame imitated, with great success, the violent gestures of the men when encountering their enemies, or when engaged in mortal combat with the monsters of the deep. As they waxed warm in this exercise, the whole of the fair dancers doffed their upper garments, retaining only their deer-skin breeches, and thus disencumbered these land mermaids renewed their amusement. While all were thus pleasantly occupied, I walked across the point, to obtain the requisite bearings. The day was unusually fine. To the northward a multitude of icebergs covered the ocean, in the east nothing but ice was