the whitenefs of her neck: her eyes were black, and fparkling; her eyebrows the fame colour, and moft beautifully arched; her forehead fo remarkably clear, that the tranflucent veins were feen meandering in their minuteft branches: in fhort, fhe was what would be reckoned handfome in England. But this fymmetry of features is entirely deftroyed by the fingular cuftom of wearing lip-pieces*. Their habitations are the most wretched hovels that can poffibly be conceived; a few poles ftuck in the ground, without order or regularity, enclofed and covered with loose boards, conftitute an Indian hut; and fo little care is taken in their conftruction, that they are quite infufficient to keep out the fnow or rain the numerous chinks and crannies ferve, however, to let out the fmoke, no particular aperture being left for that purpose. The infide of thefe dwellings exhibits a complete picture of dirt and filth, indolence and laziness; in one corner are thrown the bones, and remaining fragments of victuals left at their meals; in another are heaps of fifh, pieces of ftinking flefh, greafe, oil, &c. in fhort, the whole ferved to fhew us, in how wretched a state it is poffible for human beings to exift; and yet these people appear contented with their fituation, and probably enjoy a much greater portion of happinefs and tranquillity, than is to be found under the gilded roofs of the most defpotic monarch. 'Tis probable, that the chief teafon why these Indians take no greater pains in the structure of their habitations is, that their fituation is merely temporary: no fooner does the mafter of a tribe find game begin to grow fcarce, or fifh not fo plentiful as he expected, than he takes down his hut, puts the boards * For a description of this ornament, fee page 140 and 163. into his canoe, and paddles away to feek out for a fpot better adapted to his various purposes, which, having found, he prefently erects his dwelling in the fame carelefs manner as before. Whilft we lay here, thefe people fupplied us very plentifully with halibut, which we bought of them for beads and fmall toes. The place where thefe halibut were caught, is in the offing round the point of land we first made in the morning of the 23d of May. Our whale-boat was one day fent with feven hands to this place, on a fishing party; but their fuccefs was greatly inferior to that of two Indians, who were fishing at the fame time, which is rather extraordinary, if we confider the apparent inferiority of their tackle to our's. Their hook is a large fimple piece of wood, the fhank at least half an inch in diameter; that part which turns up, and which forms an acute angle, is confiderably fmaller, and brought gradually to a point? a flat piece of wood, about fix inches long, and near two inches wide, is neatly lafhed to the flank, on the back of which is rudely carved the reprefentation of an human face. I cannot think that this was altogether defigned as an ornament to their hooks, but that it has fome re ligious allution, and poffibly is intended as a kind of Deity, to ensure their fuccefs in fishing, which is conducted in a fingular manner. They bait their hook with a kind of fill, called by the failors quids, and having funk it to the bottom, they fix a bladder to the end of the line as a buoy, and should that not watch fufficiently, they add another. Their lines are very strong, being made of the finews or inteftines of animals. One man is fufficient to look after five or fix of thefe buoys when he perceives a fifh bite, he is in no great hurry to haul up his line, but gives him time to be well Y booked 3 hooked; and when he has hauled the fifh up to the furface of the water, he knocks him on the head with a fhort club, provided for that purpofe, and afterwards ftows his prize away at his leifure: this is done to prevent the halibut (which fometimes are very large) from damag ing, or perhaps upfetting his canoe in their dying ftruggles. Thus were we fairly beat at our cwn weapons; and the natives conftantly bringing us plenty of fish, our boat was never Kent on this business afterwards. They dress their victuals by put ting heated ftones into a kind of wicker basket, amongst pieces of fish, feal, porpoife, &c. and covered up clofe; fometimes they make broth and fifh-foup by the fame method, which they always preferred to boil ing, though we gave them fome brafs pans, and pointed out the mode of ufing them. They chew a plant fomewhat like tobacco; to which, however, they add a mixture of lime. When we came into this har bour, on the 23d of May, our at tention was a good deal engaged by the fight of a number of white rails, on a level piece of ground, not far from a creek fituated to the fouthward of us. Thefe rails were about a mile and a half from the veffel, and appeared, at that diftance, to be conftructed with such order and regularity, that we concluded them beyond the reach of Indian contrivance, and confequently that they were erected by fome civilized nation. Captain Dixon, willing to be fatisfied in this particular, took an opportunity of going to the fpot, and to his great furprize found it to be a kind of burying-place, if I may be allowed to call that fo, where dead bodies are not depofited in the earth. The manner in which they difpofe of their dead is very remarkable: they feparate the head from the body, and wrapping them in furs, the head is put into a fquare box, the body in a kind of oblong cheft. At each end of the chest, which contains the body, a thick pole, about ten feet long, is dro.e into the earth in a flanting pofition, fo that the upper ends meet together, and are very firmly lashed with a kind of rope prepared for the purpose. this arch, a fmall piece of timber About two feet from the top of goes aerofs, and is very neatly fitted to each pole: on this piece of tim ber the box which contains the head is fixed, and very ftrongly fecured with rope; the box is frequently decorated with two or three rows of fmall fhells, and fometimes teeth, which are let into the wood with great neatnefs and ingenuity; and as an additional ornament, is painted with a variety of colours; but the poles are uniformly painted fixed upright in the earth, and on white. Sometimes thefe poles are each fide the body, but the head is ready defcribed. always fecured in the pofition al Sound are not the leaft intimidated The natives of King George's at the deaths of their countrymen. The crew of a fhip from China, on a trading expedition to that place, quarrelling with them, feveral Indians were killed on the fpot; notwithstanding which, the reft continued to negociate with as much curred. unconcern as if nothing had oc NORFOLK SOUND. fhape, and features, nearly refemble THESE people, in their make, thofe juft defcribed; the women here alfo ornament, or rather diftort their lips, and flie who wears the largest piece of wood, is generally held in the highest eftimation by her friends, and indeed by the community in general. ting the under lip of the females, never takes place during their infancy, but from every obfervation I was able to make, feems confined to a peculiar period of life. When the girls arrive to the age of fourteen or fifteen, the center of the under lip, in the thick part near the mouth, is fimply perforated, and a piece of copper wire introduced to prevent the aperture from clofing; the aperture afterwards is lengthened, from time to time, in a line parallel with the mouth, and the wooden ornaments are enlarged in proportion, till they are frequently increased to three, or even four inches in length, and nearly as wide; but this generally happens, when the matron is advanced in years, and confequently the muscles are relaxed; fo that poffibly old age may obtain greater refpect than this very fingular orna ment. Their traffic, and indeed all their concerns, fo far as fell under my obfervation, appear to be conducted with great order and regularity; they conftantly came along fide to trade with us at day-light in the morning, and never failed to fpend more than half an hour in fing. ing before the traffic commenced. The chief of the tribe has always the entire management of all the trade belonging to his people, and takes infinite pains to difpofe of their furs advantageously. Should a different tribe come alongside to trade, whilst he is trading, they wait with patience till he has done, and if in their opinion he has made a good market, they frequently employ him to fell their fkins fometimes, indeed, they are extremely jealous of each other, and ufe every precaution to prevent their neighbours from obferving what articles they obtain in exchange for their commodities, : About twelve o'clock they conftantly left the fhip, and went on hore, where they ftaid about an hour; which time, as we had frequent opportunities of observing, was taken up in eating. This evidently fhews, that they have at least one fixed meal in the day, and that it is regulated by the fun. They likewife frequently left us about four in the afternoon; but this time was not fo exactly observed as at noon. Towards the evening we in general had far the greatest number of vifitants; but by this time the trade of the day was pretty well over,, and numbers came only by way of relaxation, after the fatigue of their various employments, though fometimes we had excellent fkins brought us in the evening, by traders who had been out during the day amongst their neighbours in the adjacent harbours. It was one fine evening, when we were furrounded both by traders and people brought by curiofity, that I counted 175 people, as I have before obferved: and I am pretty confident, that the conclufion I drew from that eftimate, will be the extreme number of inhabitants living in this found. When the traffic of the day is pretty well over, they begin to fing, and never leave off till the approach of night; thus beginning and ending the day in the fame manner. One peculiar custom I took notice of here, which as yet we had been ftrangers to, The moment a chief has concluded a bargain, he repeats the word Coocoo thrice, with quickness, and is immediately anfwered by all the people in his canoe with the word Whoah, pronounced in a tone of exclamation, but with greater or lefs energy, in proportion as the bargain he has made is approved of. The cloathes wore univerfally on the coaft are made of skins fewed together in various forms; I just mention this now from a remarkable Y 2 circum circumftance. One of the chiefs who came to trade with us, happening one day to caft his eyes on a piece of Sandwich Ifland cloth, which hung up in the fhrouds to dry, became very importunate to have it given him. The man to whom the cloth belonged, parted with it very willingly, and the Indian was perfectly overjoyed with his prefent. After felling what furs he had brought with great difpatch, he immediately left us, and paddled on fhore, without favouring us with a parting fong, as is generally the cuftom, Soon after day-light the next morning, our friend appeared alongfide, dreffed in a coat made of the Sandwich Island cloth given him the day before, and cut exactly in the form of their skin-coats, which greatly refemble a waggoner's frock, except the collar and wrift-bands. The Indian was more proud of his new acquired drefs than ever Lon, don beau was of a birth-day fuit; and we were greatly pleafed with this proof of thefe people's ingenuity and difpatch: the coat fitted extremely well; the feams were fewed with all the ftrength the cloth would admit of, and with a degree of neatnefs equal to that of an English mantua-maker, I was one day endeavouring to get the meaning of fome words in their language from one of their chiefs, and on pointing to the fun, he took great pains to make me underftand, that notwithstanding our apparent fuperiority in poffeffing va rious ufeful articles, which they did not, yet that our origin was the fame with their's, that they came from above as well as we, and that the fun animated and kept alive every creature in the univerie," PHILOSOPHICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY, DISCOVERY OF TWO SATELLITES REVOLVING ROUND THE GEORGIAN PLANET. BY DR. HERSCHELL. [From Philofophical Transactions, Vol. 77.] T HE great diftance of the Georgian planet, and its prefent fituation in a part of the zodiac which is fcattered over with a multitude of fmall ftars, has rendered it uncommonly difficult to determine whether, like Jupiter and Saturn, it be attended by fatellites. In pursuit of this inquiry, having frequently directed large telescopes to this remote planet, and finding myfelf continually difappointed, I afcribed my failure to the want of fufficient light in the inftruments I ufed; and, for a while, gave over the attempt. In the beginning of laft month, however, I was often furprised when I reviewed nebule that had been feen in former fweeps, to find how much brighter they appeared, and with how much greater facility I faw them. The caufe of it could be no other than the quantity of light that was gained by laying afide the fmall fpeculum, and introducing the front view. It would not have been pardonable to neglect fuch an advan tage, when there was a particular object in view, where an acceffion of light was of the utmoft confequence; and I wondered why it had not ftruck me fooner. The 11th of January, therefore, in the course of my general review of the heavens, I felected a fweep which led to the Georgian planet; and, while it paffed the meridian, I perceived near its difk, and within a few of its diameters, fome very faint stars whose places I noted down with great care. The The next day, when the planet returned to the meridian, I looked with a moft fcrutinizing eye for my fall ftars, and perceived that two of them were mifling. Had 1 been lefs acquainted with optical deceptions, I fhould immediately have announced the existence of one or more fatellites to our new planet: but it was neceffary, that I'fhould have no doubts. To this end I noticed all the fmall stars that were near the planet the 14th, 17th, 18th, and 24th of January, and the 4th and 5th of February; and though, at the end of this time, I had no longer any doubt of the existence of at least one fatellite, I thought it right to defer this communication till I could have an opportunity of feeing it actually in motion. Accordingly I began to purfue this fatellite on February the 7th, about fix o'clock in the evening, and kept it in view till three in the morning on February the 8th; at which time, on account of the fituation of my houfe, which intercepts a view of part of the ecliptic, I was obliged to give over the chace and during thofe nine hours I faw this fatellite faith fully attend its primary planet, and at the fame time keep on, in its own courfe, by defcribing a confiderable arch of its proper orbit. : While I was chiefly attending to the motion of this fatellite, I did not forget to follow another fmall ftar, which I was pretty well affured was alfo a fatellite, especially as I had, on the night of the 14th of January, obferved two fmall ftars which were wanting the 17th, and again miffed other two the 24th which had been noticed the 18th; but, whether owing to my great at tention to the former fatellite, or to the clofenefs of this latter, which was nearly hidden in the rays of the planet, I could not be well affured of its motion. Indeed, towards morning, when a change of place, in fo confiderable an interval as nine hours, would have been most confpicuous, the moon interfered with the faint light of this fattelite, fo that I could no longer perceive it. The first moment that offered for continuing thefe obfervations was on Friday the 9th, when I faw my first difcovered fatellite nearly in the place where I expected to find it. I perceived alfo, that the next fuppofed fatellite was not in the fituation where I had left it on the 7th, and could now diftinguish very plainly that it had advanced in its orbit, fince that day, in the same direction with the other fatel, lite, but at a quicker rate. Hence it is evident, that it moves in a more contracted orbit: and I fhall therefore call it in future the first fatellite, though laft difcovered, or rather laft afcertained; fince I do not doubt but that I faw them both, for the first time, on the fame day, which was January the 11th, 1787. I now directed all my attention to the first fatellite, and had an opportunity to fee it for about three hours and a quarter; during which time, as far as one might judge, it preferved its courfe. The interval which the cloudy weather had afforded, was, however, rather too fhort for feeing its motion fufficiently, fo that I deferred a final judgment till the roth; and, in order to put my theory of these two fatellites a trial, I made a fketch on to paper, to point out before-hand their fituation with respect to the planet, and its parallel of declination. The long expected evening came on, and, notwithstanding the most unfavourable appearance of dark weather, it cleared up at laft. And the heavens now difplayed the original of my drawing, by fhewing, in the fituation I had delineated them, the Georgian planet attended by two fatellites, Į con |