In the afternoon, I went ashore, and walked a little into the country, which, where there was no wood, was covered with heath and other plants, some of which produce berries in abundance.  All the berries were ripe, the hurtle-berries too much so, and hardly a single plant was in flower.  The underwood, such as birch, willows, and alders, rendered it very troublesome walking amongst the trees, which were all spruce, and none of them above six or eight inches in diameter.  But we found some lying upon the beach more than twice this size.  All the drift-wood in these northern parts was fir.  I saw not a stick of any other sort.

Next day, a family of the natives came near to the place where we were taking off wood.  I know not how many there were at first; but I saw only the husband, the wife, and their child; and a fourth person who bore the human shape, and that was all; for he was the most deformed cripple I had ever seen or heard of.  The other man was almost blind; and neither he nor his wife were such good-looking people as we had sometimes seen amongst the natives of this coast.  The under-lips of both were bored; and they had in their possession some such glass-beads as I had met with before amongst their neighbours.  But iron was their beloved article.  For four knives, which we had made out of an old iron hoop, I got from them near four hundred pounds weight of fish, which they had caught on this or the preceding day.  Some were trout, and the rest were, in size and taste, somewhat between a mullet and a herring.  I gave the child, who was a girl, a few beads; on which the mother burst into tears, then the father, then the cripple, and at last, to complete the concert, the girl herself.  But this music continued not long.[4] Before night, we had got the ships, amply supplied with wood; and had carried on board about twelve tons of water to each.

[Footnote 4:  Captain King has communicated the following account of an interview with the same family:  “On the 12th, while I attended the wooding party, a canoe, full of natives, approached us; and, beckoning them to land, an elderly man and woman came on shore.  I gave the woman a small knife, making her understand, that I would give, her a much larger one for some fish.  She made signs to me to follow her.  I had proceeded with them about a mile, when the man, in crossing a stony beach, fell down, and cut his foot very much.  This made me stop; upon which the woman pointed to the man’s eyes, which, I observed, were covered with a thick, white film.  He afterward kept close to his wife, who apprised him of the obstacles in his way.  The woman had a little child on her back, covered with the hood of her jacket; and which I took for a bundle till I heard it cry.  At about two miles distant we came to their open skin boat, which was turned on its side, the convex part towards the wind, and served for their house.  I was now made to perform a singular operation on the man’s eyes.  First,