h a brown colour, and with scarcely any
black on its tail. The natives also brought the skin of the head of
some very large animal; but it could not be positively determined what
it was; though, from the colour and shagginess of the hair, and its
unlikeness to any land animal, we judged it might probably be that of
the large male ursine seal, or sea-bear. But one of the most beautiful
skins, and which seems peculiar to this place, as we never saw it
before, is that of a small animal about ten inches long, of a brown
or rusty colour on the back, with a great number of obscure whitish
specks, and the sides of a blueish ash colour, also with a few of
these specks. The tail is not above a third of the length, of its
body, and is covered with hair of a whitish colour at the edges. It
is no doubt the same with those called spotted field mice, by Mr
Staehlin,[5] in his short account of the New Northern Archipelago. But
whether they be really of the mouse kind, or a squirrel, we could not
tell, for want of perfect skins; though Mr Anderson was inclined
to think that it is the same animal described under the name of the
_Casan_ marmot, by Mr Pennant. The number of skins we found here,
points out the great plenty of these several animals just mentioned;
but it is remarkable, that we neither saw the skins of the mouse nor
of the common deer.

[Footnote 5: In his account of Kodjak, p. 32 and 34.]

Of the birds mentioned at Nootka, we found here only the white-headed
eagle, the shag, the _alcyon_, or great kingfisher, which had very
fine bright colours, and the humming-bird, which came frequently and
flew about the ship, while at anchor, though it can scarcely live here
in the winter, which must be very severe. The water-fowls were geese,
a small sort of duck, almost like that mentioned at Kerguelen's Land;
another sort which none of us knew; and some of the black seapyes,
with red bills, which we found at Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand.
Some of the people who went on shore, killed a grouse, a snipe, and
some plover. But though, upon the whole, the water-fowls were pretty
numerous, especially the ducks and geese, which frequent the shores,
they were so shy, that it was scarcely possible to get within shot; so
that we obtained a very small supply of them as refreshment. The duck
mentioned above is as large as the common wild-duck, of a deep black
colour, with a short pointed tail, and red feet. The bill is white,
tinged with red