belly, where they are longest, of the
colour of the wool, but the whitish, or silver hairs, are often so
predominant, that the whole animal acquires a cast of that kind. The
tail is only three inches long, and has a black tip. The whole skin
being, by the natives, called _wanshee_, that, most probably, is their
name for this animal. Hogs, dogs, and goats, have not as yet found
their way to this place. Nor do the natives seem to have any knowledge
of our brown rats, to which, when they saw them on board the ships,
they applied the name they give to squirrels. And though they called
our goats _eineetla_, this, most probably, is their name for a young
deer or fawn.

The sea-animals seen off the coast, were whales, porpoises, and seals.
The last of these seem only of the common sort, judging from the
skins which we saw here, their colour being either silvery, yellowish,
plain, or spotted with black. The porpoise is the _phocena_. I have
chosen to refer to this class the sea-otter, as living mostly in the
water. It might have been sufficient to have mentioned, that this
animal abounds here, as it is fully described in different books,
taken from the accounts of the Russian adventurers in their
expeditions eastward from Kamtschatka, if there had not been a small
difference in one that we saw. We, for some time, entertained doubts,
whether the many skins which the natives brought, really belonged to
this animal, as our only reason for being of that opinion, was founded
on the size, colour, and fineness of the fur, till a short while
before our departure, when a whole one, that had been just killed,
was purchased from some strangers who came to barter; and of this Mr
Webber made a drawing. It was rather young, weighing only twenty-five
pounds, of a shining or glossy black colour, but many of the hairs
being tipt with white, gave it a greyish cast at first sight.
The face, throat, and breast were of a yellowish white, or very
light-brown colour, which, in many of the skins, extended the whole
length of the belly. It had six cutting teeth in each jaw, two of
those of the lower jaw being very minute, and placed without, at
the base of the two middle ones. In these circumstances, it seems to
disagree with those found by the Russians, and also in not having the
outer toes of the hind feet skirted with a membrane. There seemed also
a greater variety in the colour of the skins, than is mentioned by
the describers of the Russian sea-