They are remarkably cheerful and friendly amongst each other, and always behaved with great civility to us. The Russians told us, that they never had any connections with their women, because they were not Christians. Our people were not so scrupulous; and some of them had reason to repent that the females of Oonalashka encouraged their addresses without any reserve; for their health suffered by a distemper that is not unknown here. The natives of this island are also subject to the cancer, or a complaint like it, which those whom it attacks are very careful to conceal. They do not seem to be long-lived. I no where saw a person, man or woman, whom I could suppose to be sixty years of age; and but very few who appeared to be above fifty. Probably their hard way of living may be the means of shortening their days.
I have frequently had occasion to mention, from the time of our arrival in Prince William's Sound, how remarkably the natives, on this north-west side of America, resemble the Greenlanders and Esquimaux, in various particulars of person, dress, weapons, canoes, and the like. However, I was much less struck with this, than with the affinity which we found subsisting between the dialects of the Greenlanders and Esquimaux, and those of Norton's Sound and Oonalashka. This will appear from a table of corresponding words which I put together.
It must he observed, however, with regard to the words which we collected on this side of America, that too much stress is not to be laid upon their being accurately represented; for, after Mr Anderson's death, we had few who took much pains about such matters; and I have frequently found, that the same words written down by two or more persons, from the mouth of the same native, on being compared together, differed not a little. But still, enough is certain, to warrant this judgment, that there is great reason to believe, that all these nations are of the same extraction; and if so, there can be little doubt of there being a northern communication of some sort, by sea, between this west side of America and the east side, through Baffin's Bay, which communication, however, may be effectually shut up against ships by ice, and other impediments. Such, at least, was my opinion at this time.[23]
I shall now quit these northern regions, with a few particulars relative to the tides and currents upon the coast, and an account of the astronomical observations made by us in Samganoodha harbour.
The tide is no where considerable but in the great river.[24]
The flood comes from the south or south-east, every where following the direction of the coast to the north-westward. Between Norton Sound and Cape Prince of Wales, we found a current setting to the north-west, particularly off the cape and within Sledge Island. But this current extended only a little way from the coast, nor was it either consistent or uniform. To the north of Cape Prince of Wales, we found neither tide nor current, either on the American or on the Asiatic coast, though several times looked for. This gave rise to an opinion entertained by some on board our ships, that the two coasts were connected, either by land or by ice; which opinion received some strength, by our never having any hollow waves from the north, and by our seeing ice almost the whole way across.
The following are the results of the several observations made ashore, during our stay in the harbour of Samganoodha.