Accidents > Dangers of the deep, or, Narratives of shipwreck and adventure at sea

BUFFERINGS AMONG THE INDIANS. 203
Cheap, would not have been refused. What
we had made for ourselves was in such a bung¬
ling manner, that it scarce deserved the name
even of this wretched sort of habitation. But
our untoward circumstances now found some
relief in the arrival of the Indians we waited
for; who brought with them some seal, a
small portion of which fell to our share. A
night or two after they sent out some of their
young men, who procured us a quantity of a
very delicate kind of birds, called shags and
(cormorants. Their manner of taking these
birds resembles something a sport called bat¬
fowling. They find out their haunts among
the rocks and cliffs in the night, when taking
with them torches made of the bark of the
birch tree, which is common here, and grows
to a very large size, (this bark has a very unc¬
tuous quality, and emits a bright and clear
light, and in the northern parts of America is
used frequently instead of a candle,) they
bring the boat’s side as near as possible to the
rocks, under the roosting-places of these birds ;
then waving their lights backwards and for¬
wards, the birds are dazzled and confounded so
as to fall into the canoe, where they are in¬
stantly knocked on the head with a short