in that Country; and of the Voyage back to England; in 1768 and 1769. By Wm. Wales, p. 100.

It must be observed, that the astronomical, and not the nautical day, is every where to be understood in the following Journal.

This sea-journal is now very uninteresting. The party sailed from the river May 31, 1768; and July 23 arrived at the island of Resolution, which forms the north-shore at the entrance of Hudson's Straits, where the variation of the needle was found 39° 48' west.

One day as Mr. W. was observing the sun's meridional altitude, there came along side 3 Eskimaux in their canoes, or, as they term them, Kiacks, but who had very little to trade, except toys. None of these had along with them any weapon, except a kind of dart, evidently constructed for sea purposes, as it had a buoy fixed to it, made of a large bladder blown up. The men had on their legs a pair of boots, made of seal-skin, and soled with that of a sea-horse; these came barely up to their knees; and above these they had breeches made of seal, or deer-skin, much in the form of our seamen's short trowsers. The remaining part of their cloathing was in one piece, much in the form of an English shift; only coming just below the waist-band of their breeches, and had a hood which serves instead of a cap. Over these they wore a kind of foul-weather jacket, made of the same leather with the legs of their boots, and fastened tightly about their necks and wrists; and when they are in their kiacks, are likewise fastened in such a manner round the circular hole which admits the man's body, that not the least drop of water can get into it, either from rain or the spray of the sea. The dress of the women differed not from that of the men, excepting that they had long tails to their waistcoats behind, which reached down to their heels; and their boots came up to their hips, which are there very wide, and made to stand off from their hips with a strong bow of whalebone, for the convenience of putting their children in. He saw one woman with a child in each boot top. As to their persons, they seem to be low; but pretty broad built, and inclined to be fat: their hands remarkably small; their faces very broad and flat; very little mouths, and their lips not remarkably thick; their noses small, and inclined to what is generally termed bottled; their eyes are black as jet, and their eye-lids so encumbered with fat, that they seem as if they opened them with difficulty; their hair is black, long, and straight; and though they seem encumbered with a superfluity of flesh, they are remarkably brisk and active; more especially in the management of their kiacks, which exceeds every thing of the kind that he ever saw. All he can say with regard to their disposition is, that if they really deserve the character which authors have given of them, they are the most complete hypocrites that nature ever formed. Mr. W. then observes

as follows: "I have had, whilst at Churchill, a good opportunity of learning the disposition of those people; as several of them came almost every year, by their own free will, to reside at the factory; and can with truth aver, that never people less deserved the epithets of "treacherous, cruel, fawning, and suspicious;" the contrary of which is remarkably true in every particular. They are open, generous, and unsuspecting; addicted too much, it must be owned, to passion, and too apt to revenge what they think an injury, if an opportunity offers at that moment; but are almost instantly cool, without requiring any acknowledgement on your part, which they account shameful, and I verily believe, never remember the circumstance afterwards. Mr. Ellis observes, "That they are apt to pilfer from strangers, easily encouraged to a degree of boldness; but as easily frightened." Now I cannot help thinking that he would have conveyed a much better idea of them if he had expressed himself thus: They are bold and enterprising even to enthusiasm, while there is a probability of success crowning their endeavours; but wise enough to desist, when inevitable destruction stares them in the face. Perhaps few people have a greater genius for arts, which shows itself in every one of their implements, but particularly in their boats, harpoons, darts, bows and snow-eyes, which last are most excellently contrived for preserving the eyes from the effect of the snow in the spring. But a volume might be written on these subjects, and perhaps not unentertaining.

I beg leave to mention, says Mr. W., what I apprehend to be a mistake in Crantz's history of Greenland, where he says that those pieces of ice which are of a vitriol colour are salt, and consist of salt water frozen to ice; but I can, from my own experience, assert, that when the salt water, which they catch by the sea washing over them, is wiped clean off, they are entirely fresh. I will not take upon me to say that they are not made from salt water; but if they are, it must have deposited all its salts before it was frozen to ice.

July 27, Mr. W. counted 58 islands of ice, all going directly across the Straits from the mouth of the above-mentioned inlet, at the rate of several miles per hour. From this one circumstance, says Mr. W. we have an irrefragable argument to prove the impossibility of Capt. Middleton's hypothesis, relating to the very slow progressive motion of these islands, and the long time which they take up in dissolving. For, admitting his hypothesis to be true, and that there were no other islands of ice but what came out of this bay; not only Hudson's Straits, but even all the adjacent sea would in a very few years be so entirely choaked up with them, that it would be impossible to force a ship among them, could a master of one be found so imprudent as to venture; which must be inevitable destruction. The truth is, their motion and dissolution are apparently so very quick, that I am of opinion it must be a pretty large island which is not dissolved in one summer. How Capt. Middleton could drop into such a pal

pable mistake, is very difficult to say: he most certainly had as great an opportunity of informing himself of the truth of what he wrote on this subject, as any person whatever; and in this case had not the least inducement, whatever he night be thought to have in others, to speak contrary to his knowledge.

July 29 they hauled the wind to the southward, the ice being quite thick a-head. At 19h hauled the wind to N. w. and stood through the ledge of ice, as it appeared to reach quite to Cape Walsingham, which now bore s. w. It consisted of large pieces close jambed together in the place where they attempted to pass through, it was not quite so close. It is really very curious to see a ship working among ice. Every man on board has his place assigned him; and the captain takes his in the most convenient one for seeing when the ship approaches very near the piece of ice which is directly a-head of her, which he has no sooner announced, than the ship is moving in a quite contrary direction to what it was before, by which it avoids striking the piece of ice, or at least, striking it with that force which it would otherwise have done. In this manner they turned the ship several times in a minute; the wind blowing a strong gale all the time.

August 7, about 5, saw the low land of Cape Churchill, bearing from the s. to s. w. b. s. but the haziness of the horizon made the land put on a different appearance every 4 or 5m. I cannot help taking notice of one circumstance, says Mr. W., as it appears to me a very remarkable one. Though we saw the land extremely plain from off the quarter deck, and as it were lifted up in the haze, in the same manner as the ice had always done; yet the man at the masthead declared he could see nothing of it. This appeared so extraordinary to me, that I went to the main-top-mast-head myself to be satisfied of the truth; and though I could see it very plainly both before I went up, and after I came down, yet could I see nothing like the appearance of land when I was there. I had often admired the singular appearance of the ice in these parts, which I have seen lifted up 2° or 3° at a distance of 8 or 10 miles, though when we have come to it, we have found it scarcely higher than the surface of the water. On the 8th of Aug. they arrived at the Factory in Churchill River, their desired station. After breakfast, on the 10th, the surgeon of the factory was so kind as to walk with them several miles, to show them the country. The soil, as far as they went, consisted entirely of high bare rocks, or loose gravel: among the latter, there shoots up, in the lower places, many dwarf willows, and birch; in the higher ones some small gooseberry bushes; but these do not grow upright as in England, but creep along the gravel like the bramble brier. They saw besides these some strawberries, many cranberries, and a few bilberries; but none of these were yet ripe, except a few of the last. They also saw some few plants creeping among the moss; but none that they knew, except the dandelion and small yarrow.

They saw some wild ducks and curlews, but could handle none of them: they shot a few birds, much about the size, colour, and make of a woodcock: these they call here stone-plover. They saw another bird, not much unlike a quail, which they call here the whale-bird, from its feeding on the offal of those fish after the oil is boiled out of it. Besides those, they saw many, and great variety, of the gull, or sea-mew kind; and also of small birds, like our linnets, larks, &c. But the most extraordinary bird yet met with is, Mr. W. knows not for what reason, called a man-of-war, and feeds on the excrements of other birds; its way of coming at its food is also a little extraordinary; he pursues the bird which he pitches on for his supply, until fear makes it void what he wants, and so soon as this happens, he catches the morsel in his mouth; after which he leaves that bird and pursues another.

Mr. W. found here 3 very troublesome insects. The first is the moschetto, too common in all parts of America, and too well known, to need describing here. The second is a very small fly, called (he supposes on account of its smallness) the sand-fly. These in a hot calm day are intolerably troublesome: there are continually millions of them about one's face and eyes, so that it is impossible either to speak, breathe, or look, without having one's mouth, nose, or eyes full of them. One comfortable circumstance is, that the least breath of wind disperses them in an instant. The third insect is much like the large flesh-fly in England; but, at least three times as large: these, from what part ever they fix their teeth, are sure to carry a piece away with them, an instance of which he had frequently seen and experienced.

August 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, they got on shore the observatory and instruments; but the people were all so busy unloading the ship, and repairing the quay, craft, &c. that they could not begin to put any part of the observatory up.

The 16th, Mr.W. went with Mr. Fowler about ten miles up the country, which, as far as they went, was nothing but banks of loose gravel, bare rocks, or marshes, which are over-flowed by the spring tides, and do not get dry before they return, and overflow them again. Their errand was, to see if they could not find some sand likely to produce corn; and in all that extent they did not find one acre, which was likely to do it. In some of the marshes the grass is very long, and with much labour they cut and dry as much hay as keeps three horses, two.cows, a bull, and two or three goats, the whole winter. He saw many acres of land covered with fir-trees, some of which might be perhaps about 20 feet high: these grow chiefly on the borders of the marsh-lands, or, which is the same thing, round the skirts of the rocky parts. He saw no other wood, of any kind, that would bear the name of trees; but, except where the rocks are entirely bare, or where the ground is covered with water every tide, it

is entirely covered with low bush-wood, after they get a few miles from the factory. These shrubs consist of willows of many kinds, birch, juniper, gooseberry, and black currants. He saw several plants, very different from any which

he ever saw in England.

Mr. W. gives the following short abstract of the circumstances of their residence at Churchill in Hudson's Bay. They arrived at Churchill just in the height of what is called the small bird season, which consists of young geese, ducks, curlews, plovers, &c. This begins about the latter end of July, and lasts till the beginning of September, when the greater part of these birds leave that part of the country. The geese then begin to go fast to the southward, and continue to do so until the beginning of October. This is called the autumnal goose-season, in which every person, both native and European, that cán be spared, is employed; but they seldom kill more geese at this time than they can consume fresh. By the middle of October the ground is generally covered with snow. The partridges then begin to be very plentiful; and as soon as that happens, the hunters repair to such places as they think most probable to meet with plenty of game in. The English generally go out in parties of 3 or 4, taking with them their guns, a kettle, a few blankets, a buffalo, or beaver skin coverlid, and a covering for their tent; which is made of deers skins, dressed by the natives, and sewed together, so as to make it of a proper form and size. In pitching their tents, they have an eye also to their own convenience with respect to shelter from the winds, and getting of fire-wood; which, it will easily be imagined, makes a considerable article here in the necessaries of life, at this season of the year.

Much about this time, those who stayed at the factory began to put on their winter rigging; the principal part of which was their toggy, made of beaver skins: in making of which, the person's shape, who is to wear it, is no further consulted, than that it may be wide enough, and so long that it may reach nearly to his feet. A pair of mittens and a cap, of the same, are all the extraordinary dress that are worn by those who stay at the factory, unless we add a pair of spatter-dashes, made of broad cloth, which are worn over the common stockings, and 2 or 3 pair of woollen socks, for the feet. Those who go out add to the fur part of their dress a beaver-skin cap, which comes down, so as to cover their neck and shoulders, and also a neckcloth, or cravat made of a white fox's skin, or, which is much more complete, the tails of two of these animals sewed together at the stump-ends, which are full as long and thick as those of the Lincolnshire wethers before they are shorn. Beside these, they have shoes of soft-tanned moose skin, and a pair of snow-shoes about 4 feet, or 44 feet long. Most of these articles of dress, says Mr. W. I was furnished with by the Hudson's Bay company; but my chest was broken open, after the ship came