These Indians are considered civilised; but what their
character may have gained by a lesser degree of ferocity, is almost
counterbalanced by their entire immorality. Some of the younger men
are, however, improving; they are willing to labour, and a short
time since a party went on a sealing-voyage, and behaved very well.
They were now enjoying the fruits of their labour, by being dressed
in very gay, clean clothes, and by being very idle. The taste they
showed in their dress was admirable; if you could have turned one
of these young Indians into a statue of bronze, his drapery would
have been perfectly graceful.
One day I rode to a large salt-lake, or Salina, which is distant
fifteen miles from the town. During the winter it consists of a
shallow lake of brine, which in summer is converted into a field of
snow-white salt. The layer near the margin is from four to five
inches thick, but towards the centre its thickness increases. This
lake was two and a half miles long, and one broad. Others occur in
the neighbourhood many times larger, and with a floor of salt, two
and three feet in thickness, even when under water during the
winter. One of these brilliantly white and level expanses, in the
midst of the brown and desolate plain, offers an extraordinary
spectacle.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157