Men may sit; they have for a sail dressed
the guts of such beasts as they kill, very fine and thin, which they
sew together; the other boat is but for one man to sit and row in,
with one oar.
Their order of fishing, hunting, and fowling, are with these said
weapons; but in what sort or how they use them we have no perfect
knowledge as yet.
I can suppose their abode or habitation not to be here, for that
neither their houses nor apparel are of such force to withstand the
extremity of cold that the country seemeth to be infected withal;
neither do I see any sign likely to perform the same.
Those houses, or rather dens, which stand there, have no sign of
footway, or anything else trodden, which is one of the chiefest
tokens of habitation. And those tents, which they bring with them,
when they have sufficiently hunted and fished, they remove to other
places; and when they have sufficiently stored them of such victuals
as the country yieldeth, or bringeth forth, they return to their
winter stations or habitations. This conjecture do I make for the
infertility which I perceive to be in that country.
They have some iron, whereof they make arrow-heads, knives, and
other little instruments, to work their boats, bows, arrows, and
darts withal, which are very unapt to do anything withal, but with
great labour.
It seemeth that they have conversation with some other people, of
whom for exchange they should receive the same. They are greatly
delighted with anything that is bright or giveth a sound.
What knowledge they have of God, or what idol they adore, we have no
perfect intelligence. I think them rather anthropophagi, or
devourers of man's flesh, than otherwise; that there is no flesh or
fish which they find dead (smell it never so filthily), but they
will eat it as they find it without any other dressing. A loathsome
thing, either to the beholders or the hearers. There is no manner
of creeping beast hurtful, except some spiders (which as many affirm
are signs of great store of gold), and also certain stinging gnats,
which bite so fiercely that the place where they bite shortly after
swelleth, and itcheth very sore.
They make signs of certain people that wear bright plates of gold in
their foreheads and other places of their bodies.
The countries on both sides the straits lie very high, with rough
stony mountains, and great quantity of snow thereon. There is very
little plain ground, and no grass except a little, which is much
like unto moss that groweth on soft ground, such as we get turfs in.
There is no wood at all. To be brief, there is nothing fit or
profitable for the use of man which that country with root yieldeth
or bringeth forth; howbeit there is great quantity of deer, whose
skins are like unto asses, their heads or horns do far exceed, as
well in length as also in breadth, any in these our parts or
countries: their feet likewise are as great as our oxen's, which we
measure to be seven or eight inches in breadth. There are also
hares, wolves, fishing bears, and sea-fowl of sundry sorts.
As the country is barren and unfertile, so are they rude, and of no
capacity to culture the same to any perfection; but are contented by
their hunting, fishing, and fowling, with raw flesh and warm blood,
to satisfy their greedy paunches, which is their only glory.
There is great likelihood of earthquakes or thunder, for there are
huge and monstrous mountains, whose greatest substance are stones,
and those stones so shapen with some extraordinary means, that one
is separated from another, which is discordant from all other
quarries.
There are no rivers or running springs, but such as through the heat
of the sun, with such water as descendeth from the mountains and
hills, whereon great drifts of snow do lie, are engendered.
It argueth also that there should be none; for that the earth, which
with the extremity of the winter is so frozen within, that that
water which should have recourse within the same to maintain springs
hath not his motion, whereof great waters have their origin, as by
experience is seen otherwhere. Such valleys as are capable to
receive the water, that in the summer time, by the operation of the
sun, descendeth from great abundance of snow, which continually
lieth on the mountains, and hath no passage, sinketh into the earth,
and so vanisheth away, without any runnel above the earth, by which
occasion or continual standing of the said water the earth is opened
and the great frost yieldeth to the force thereof, which in other
places, four or five fathoms within the ground, for lack of the said
moisture, the earth even in the very summer time is frozen, and so
combineth the stones together, that scarcely instruments with great
force can unknit them.
Also, where the water in those valleys can have no such passage
away, by the continuance of time in such order as is before
rehearsed, the yearly descent from the mountains filleth them full,
that at the lowest bank of the same they fall into the next valley,
and so continue as fishing ponds, in summer time full of water, and
in the winter hard frozen, as by scars that remain thereof in summer
may easily be perceived; so that the heat of summer is nothing
comparable or of force to dissolve the extremity of cold that cometh
in winter.
Nevertheless, I am assured, that below the force of the frost,
within the earth, the waters have recourse, and empty themselves out
of sight into the sea, which, through the extremity of the frost,
are constrained to do the same; by which occasion, the earth within
is kept the warmer, and springs have their recourse, which is the
only nutriment of gold and minerals within the same.
