We were clear as to the existence of all the animals already mentioned, but there are two others besides, which we could not distinguish with sufficient certainty.  Of the first of these we saw none of the skins, but what were dressed or tanned like leather.  The natives wear them on some occasions; and from the size as well as the thickness, they were generally concluded to belong to the elk, or mouse-deer, though some of them perhaps might belong to the buffalo.  The other animal, which seems by no means rare, was guessed to be a species of the wild cat or lynx.  The length of the skins, without the head, which none of them had, was about two feet two inches.  They are covered with a very fine wool or fur, of a very light-brown or whitish yellow colour, intermixed with long hairs, which on the back, where they are shortest, are blackish; on the sides, where they are longer, of a silver white; and on the 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