N^o 6

some scores of these nauseous carcasses, while the women as active as they, were securing for fire, all the Drift wood within the reach of their capacity[.] The people are excellent swimmers[.] I was no less alarmed than astonished to see the men occasionally leap from ice to ice, often falling between – plunging under, darting up elsewhere and securing themselves upon very slippery flakes[.] Yet no serious accident happened[.] The women performed their part equally well with the men. You would see them slip out of their leather smocks, despising danger, plunge into the troubled deep to secure their objects[,] nor did they seem to feel the smallest inconveniency from the presence of crowds, who lined the beach. The men and women of this place do not think it necessary "To sew Fig. leaves together to make themselves aprons – and when they appear naked in public they are not ashamed[.]"

Drift wood supplies the Villages with fuel which as well as the timbers for their houses are dragged home always by the women[.] Horses are never employed on these occasions[.]

Wood is scarce here – which is the cause that villages are often removed[.] A great quantity

of

[21]