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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est filmi d partir de I'angle supirieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. I '■• 2 3 32X ! i: : S • : i^^ .■ 4 5 6 Av» .•*%• J4 ^OE^GBS) '- ^. ) /Vy ^ ^> OTHKtt R Ul'is >>'^3iX2^, OF THK ^^-^^...S;;;^'****^: ^- "ui-l. . K, t!>.A.IK®©asjB^^^j_ "firiwipr. X. y. *? NORTHERN REGIONS; OR, Jsl^l^i^' UNCLE RICHARD'S op •^APTAIIV PARRY.s VOYAGE S FOR THB 09 ^ ^ORTH-WEST PASSAQE. AND f«ANKUN3 AND COCHRANES OVER^.^n ,„, '■•JilWRiiffi' • sa ."I PtfBLlSHBD BY o A ./x^ /T iP ^ *00aBACfl. •••••■ i.# ■f TABLE OF CONTENTS, PART I.— CHAP. I. Introductory Conversation. Preceding Voyagers. Tw« Ships, tiie Hecla and the Griper, (itted out, in 1819, under the command of Captain Parry. They set out in April. Difficult navigation of Pavis's Streight and Baffin's Bay. A Herd ofWalrusses. The Ice gradu- ally disappears as they enter Sir James Lancaster's Sound. Magnificent View of Byan Martin Mountains and Possession Mount. Description of the " Crow's Nest." Enter the Polar Sea by Maxwell Bay. Sport with White Whales. Their singing resembling Mu- sical Glasses. Ice Blink. Stopped by ice. Reach Melville Island, and anchor in the Bay of the Hecla and of the Griper ......P. 13 — 24. CHAP. II. X'4 Amusements on Shore. Shooting and Hunting. Mr. Fife's Adventure on shore. Dangerous position of the ships. The Griper driven on shore. Lieutenant Liddon's illness and firmness. Sailors cut a Canal, and anchor in Winter Harbour on Sunday afternoon, at the latter end of the month of September. P. 24— SO dhAP. m. Preparations made in the ships for passing the winter. Healthy state of the crew. Diet and dress of the Men. They prepare a Theatre ; Lieut. Beechy, Stage-mas- ter. Observatory built. Rein-deer migrate in Octo- U-u VI CONTENTS. ber. Wolves and Foxes left. Large white Bear. Cold very great. Adventure of John Pearson. Ex- traordinary effects of Cold. A herd of deer met. Sa- {[acity of Leader. Ice round the Ships cut away. Take eave of the Sun 4lh of November. Too foggy to see it. Stars visible soon after Noon in the middle of No- vember. Aurora Borealis visible, but not equal to that seen in the Atlantic. Ice freezes from three to five inches every day. Lemon juice bursts the bottles. The shortest Day. Occupation of Sailors during the Winter. Christnws Day P. 30—40. CHAP. IV. Scurvy. Salad-beds. Brilliant appearance of Aurora Borealis. Light re-appears the latter end of January, and the Stars are no longer visible at Noon. The Sun seen again on February 3, 20 Minutes before Noon. Work by Day-light the middle of the month. Stones collected to form ballasts Frost bites. Delight of the Men when the frost gives way. The house on Shore rebuilt. THeatre closed. Returning summer. The Musk-Ox, Rein-deer, and Ptarmigan re-appear. Shoot- ing excursion. Snow Blindness.. The ships launched and examined. Rain falls. Ivory gulls seen. P. 40 — 47 CHAP. V. Land journey across Melville Isle. View of Blue Hills. Find the Ptarmigan, Plovers, and Deer. Tame Rein- Deer. Journey over a Plain of Snow. Encamp on June 4th. Joy at finding a strip of uncovered Land. Pure Water. Ghrouse cooked for Supper. Pursue their journey to the Blue Hills. Obliged to travel by night, on account of Snow-blindness. Enter the Blue Hills. Find many birds, and Water in abundance. Luxury •f warm Food. Description €f Animals. Arrive at Table Hills, and return to Winter Harbour. P. 47 — 53 CfNTENTI. ▼U CHAP. VI. Herds of Deer. Rapid Dissolution of Ice and Fall of Rain. Hopes of sailing soon, but despair of proceed^ ing far Westward. Summer in Melville Isle. Re- call of hunting-pari\es, and an attempt to move. Ice gives way on the last day of July. Leave Winter Har- bour, after having been there ten Mcmths. Sail west- ward. Pass the Ice-berg to which they had been an- chored the year before. Capt Sabine visits a high wall of Rock, the resort of Glaucous Gulls, which are very wild and fierce. Black Whale. Musk-ox taken. Ice Floe, 42 inches thick. Another attempt to sail westward. Vexatious delays. A herd of Musk Oxen. Survey of western coast of Baffin's Bay. Csiquimaux. Visit them on Shore. Sail southward, and get clear of the ice. Remarks upon the Voyage. Return home and reach the Thames the third of October, 1820. P. 53--6€ PART II.— CHAP. I. Object of Captain Franklin's expedition to the Copper- Mine River. Arrival at Stromness. Detention of Mr. Back, and difficulty of procuring Boatmen. Ice- bergs. Dangerous situation of the Ships. Reach Saddle-back Island. Loss of Wear. Visit from the Esquimaux. Coast of Labrador. The Eddystone leaves them. Cross Hudson's Bay. Find the Wear. York Factory. Preparations for visiting the Interior. Melancholy story of an Indian Family. Steel River. Difficulty and danger in navigating the Rupids in Hill River. Skillof the Orkney Seamen. Swampy Lake. Pemmican. Woods on Fire. W hite-fall-Lake. Bea- vers. L-.ike Winnipeg. Grand Rapid. The Trav- ellers reach Cumberland House. Pass the Winter there. Dog Sledges. Christmas and New-year's Days. Cree Indians. Affecting Anecdote. Charac- ter of the Crees. Their Conjurors. One visits Cum- berland House. Cree Women. Cree Children. Vlll CONTENTS ^ Manners and Customs of the Crees. Games of the Crees. The Game of Mitten. The Game of the Platter. Game of the Cross. Tradition of the Crees. Their Re- ligion. Ceremony of Dedication. Their Notions of a Future State. Infanticide. Tattooing. Musical In- strument. Seesequay P. 66 — 87 CHAP. II. The Travellers prepare to leave Cumberland House. Their Travelling-Dresses and Equipage. Wolves. Method of Catching the Rein-Deer. Arrival at Carl- ton House. Snow-Shoes. Mr. Back visits a Stone-In- dian Encampment. Character of these Savages. Their dress. Cru«?lty of Stone Indians. Buffalo Pound. Mode of Hunting Buffaloes. Superstitious Practices of Crees. Description of Carlton House. Method of making Pemmican. Captain Frjinklin pursues his journey to Isle a-la-Crosse. Green Lake. Scarcity of Provisions.* Voracity of Canadian Voya- gers. Clear Lake. Aurora Borealis. Methyge Por- tage. Chipewyan Indians. Thumb, the Chief. Mr. Back draws a likeness of the Son. Chipewyan Chief named " Sun." Pierre au Calumet. Anecdote of an old Canadian. The end of a journey of 857 Miles. Pain of walking in Snow shoes. Pleasures of the En- campment. Fort Chipewyan. Rabbits' Heads. Tra- dition concerning the Discovery oi' the Copper-mines. Chipewyan's esteem for their Dogs. Their want of Hospitality. The party is joined by Mr. Hood and Dr. Richardson. Journal of Mr. Hood. The '* Wdr- rior." Moose-deer. The party leave (.umberland House with their Canadian Boatmen. Adventure at Otter Portage. Reach the Isle a-la Crosse. Poverty of its few Residents. The whole Party set forward. The Portage of the Drowned. Cross the Great Slave Lake. Mr. Wentzel. Conference with the Indians. Dance. Yellow Knife River, or River of the Tooth- less Fish. Arrive at their Station after a journey of 553 Miles. Akaitcho's desertioo of the expedition. P. 87—105 ¥- CONTKNTS. ix CHAP. III. Winter at Fort Enterprize. Keskarrah, thfi Tndian Guide, and "Green-Stockings," hi d'iui:;htmiaks, or Luggag**- Boats. Old Women. Love of dancing. Esquimaux of Nottingham [slands. Anchor in Frozen Strait. First traces of Esquimaux. Captain Parry explores Inlet. Arctic Fox. Christ- mas Day. Amusement afforded by School. Brilliant display of Aurora Borealis. Bears.... P. 140 — j52. CHAP. IL Arrival of an Esquimaux. Visit their Snow-Huts A Par- ty visit the Ships. Peculiar Manners. Description of Huts. Children *well-mannered. Mrs. Kettle. Tattooing. Dogs. Persons and Dress of Esquimaux Men and Women. Description of Children. Occu- pation of 3Ien and Women ..P. 152 — 165 ^' CHAP. in. ^ Description of Esquimaux Repast. Cookery. Anec- dote of a poor Idiot Boy. Ayokitt's Visit to the Ca- bin. Wolves troblesome. Wolf-trap. Mr. Richard's Battle with the Wolf. Improvidence of Esquimaux. Old Kettle. Greediness of Children. Visit from two , Esquimaux Ladies. Kettle a Thief. Preparations for Sailing. Severe Cold. Departure of Esquimaux. Parting Presents. First Flower seen. Canal com- pleted. Rural Fete P. 165—182 CHAP. IV. Danger to the Hccla from the Tides. Leave Winter Isle. Sail Northwards. Reach Igloolik. Land and find Esquimaux. Walrus-skin Tents. Hospitality. Jour- ney to Esquimaux village with Toolemak. Sledge drawn by Dogs. Ooyarra, the Fisherman. New way of making a Fire. Esquim;iux Ball. Dance of No- ses. The Ship sails farther North. Hopes of enter- t t CONTENTS. XI ing the Polar Sea. Beset with Ice. Beturn and an- chor at Iglolik. Description of Bone Huts. Annat- kos, or Conjurors Wiult r sf is in. Visits from some Winler-lsif i squiniiiux. Toolemak's Dream. Mira- culous Curr of Li;njbagG. Ksquiniaux Politeness. Second Christnuts Vuy. Anecdotes of Beais. Death of Takk.;likkita's Wife and Child. Esquimaux Fu- neral. Illness ot Widow Ka^lia. Her Discontent and Ingratitude. Inattention of Esquimaux tu their Sick. Esquimaux VilltJj.'v. Ice Huts nulted away. Esquiipaux Coquelttf t^quimaux Dandy. Esqui- maux Murders. Ships leav^ Ijilolik. Reach Winter Isle. Visit the Shoie. Heiurn to England. Hospi- table Reception at Lerwick P. 182 — 207 PART IV.— CHAP. I. i u. Motives of Captain Ccuhrane's Journey to Siberia. Leaves Er£rl{«j)d. Walks through France and Germa- ny* Visits Paris, Nancy, Metz, trankfort. Reaches St. Petersburg Leaves it Reflections. Robbers. Novgorod. Moscow. Peasantry. Gets a Drubbing. Enters Tartary Kazan. St. Peter's and St. PauFs. Inhabitants oj Perm Retiecticns on rt aching Siberia. Last Eun»pean Residence. Strawberries. Enter A- sia Cross the l-rals. Reach tkaiherinebourg- Hos- pitality. G.iid Mires ToboKvk. Tartar Women. Dwellings. Irtish. Kalmucks, Cucumbers and Me- lons. Crosses the Irtish. Beautiful Scenery. Russian Boundary. ISot allowed to entei China. Silver Mines at Barnaoule. Ofler of accompanying t^x;vith some impatience, for he had begun to be so much interested that he was vexed to be interrupted bt an expression which he could not understand. "Indeed, Charles, you must excuse an old saiH or like me for making use of sea-phrases now and 4 hen, but I am willing enough to explain them^ -■' 1- •4i. NORTHERN REGIONS. 10 n mouii- The crow's nest is a little round-house like a tub, placed at the mast's head, in which a man sits, who is called the look-out man, whose business it is to guide the ship through the ice, or to give notice ol* whatever objects he may spy. We had a distant glimpse of Cape Castlereagh, which was situated on the south of the sound ; and after that we saile^l briskly along till midnight, and still found no land fjo impede our course down this magnificent inlet. Our hopes ran high. We passed a large bay, which we christened Croker's Bay ; and indeed we had busy work in providing names for every new cape and island, which we were now hourly discovering. ,/, " But when I talk of land, you must not think qf green fields, hedges, and trees : you must pic- ture to yourselves abrupt and craggy rocks top- ped with snow,risingboldly fromthesea, in every variety of form and shape. ♦/^ " At last we came to a cape which we named Capo Fellfoot, and which we thought terminated the coast ; and as it was very foggy, and wo couM not see far, w^e began to flatter ourselves that we had really entered the Polar Sea. But a report of land again damped our hopes, a^ it seemed this was only a bay which we had been passing. Cap- tain Parry named this Maxwell Bay. " As the weather w as uow very calm and thick,, we amused ourselves with endeavouring to kill some of the white whales, which were swimming in numbers about the isbips ; but they were cunning, and would not permit a boat to come near them without diving. J was near enough, however, ta h^r one sing. You may laugh, Charles, but I can assure you it made a sound something like the jiiusicc^l gla^gQg, wlren you qlum^ily {Attempt to pftiy r'l """nfriM I i 20 NORTIIEfRN REGIONS. ihcDi; and, strange to say, I heard it most dis-« tinctly while it was swimming directly under the boat that I was in. " We saw here too some narwhals, or what the sailors call the sea-unicorn." " You have not told us," said Tom, " what was become of your consort the Griper, uncle, whom you left behind you, at the entrance of Sir James Jiancaster*s Sound." ** Oh, the Griper had overtaken us ; indeed it imd made better speed, and had not been out of sight of its protector, the Hecla, for many days together. ** Well now, my boys, you have seen us advance, by the middle of August, as far as Maxwell Bay ; imagine us all fulKof the hopes of making disco- veries, which we flattered ourselves would im- mortalize our namesf when all at once we found our progress stopped by continued floes of ice, which an ice-blink warned us it would be useless to attempt to cut through." " What is that, uncle f" asked Tom. ' !. '' An ice-blink is a bright light in the atmo* sphere, which shows that you are approaching ice, or land covered with snow. - ** Well, we steered our course southward, to escape from being surrounded by the ice, which a current was driving rapidly towards us, and we soon came in sight of some islands, which we na- med * Prince Leopold's Isles;' we then entered a grand inlet to the south of the sound, and sailed a distance of 120 miles down it. The shores appear- ed to us to be formed by islands on each side of it, and at some future time it might be thought worth while to explore it, with a view to find an opening into Hudson's Bay: but as our present object was '.V • ' f NOUTIIERN' REGIONS. 21 t!o »o westward, and as Captain Parry hoped thaj .', by this time the ice in the sound would have clea^H?^ ed itself off, we made what expedition we coijfl^^' * northward again. As we could not, however, pror ceed rapidly, we determined to explore the eastern coast of this inlet, which we christened ' Prince llegcnt's'Inlet/ Cape Kater, you perceive, is the southern extremity of our visit ; we sheltered along some cliffs in a beautiful little bay, to which w*^ gave the name of * Port Bowers.' These cliff's' look like ruined towers and battlements, and frag- ments of the rocks were constantly tumbling one upon another. At last we came to the eastern ex- tremity, which we called * Cape York,' in honour of the Duke of York, and took our leave of the in- let, after leaving traces of many of our friends, by naming points and bays after them." " Indeed, uncle," exclaimed Charles, " I must go with you on your next voyage, for I think it must be delightful to find out new nlaces and to give them names." ^ *' Well, wait, my little fellow, till I have finished my history before you decide upon accompanying- Captain Parry in his next voyage. At the time 1 am now speaking of, it was certainly very exhilar- ating, and you will enter into the delight of the crew, on the certainty we all felt that we had at length disentangled ourselves of the land which forms the western side of Baffin's Bay, and that, in fiict, we bad actually entered the Polar Sea. Impressed with the hope that we had passed from one sea to another, our Captain gave the name of Barrow's Strait to the opening through which we had made a passage from Baffin's Bay to Wellington Channel, in honour of Mr. Barrow, Secretary to the Admi- ralty, who has done so much in promoting north^tu *>•> NORTHERN REGIONS. iliscovery. It was now the middle of August, wo had six good navigable weeks before us, our ship^ had suffered no injury, we liad plenty of provisions, a navigable sea, and a crew in high health and spi-^ rits, and resolute to do all in their power to accom- plish the object of the expedition. Now you, Tom, who arc so intently studying the map, place your finger upon Behring*s Straits and Fly Cape, and draw it carefully along to the north-west corner of the newly-discovered Barrow's Strait. Observe our ships, which arc stationed in this corner, now steering their course in the direction of this line. The wind favoured us; it is impossible to conceive any thing more animating than the quick and un- interrupted run which our ships took from Beechy Island across to Cape Hotham. Rapid motion, you know, always raises the spirits ; for who, Charles, would know it to be the same boy listen- ing so gravely to me now, who, at a game of cricket, is so full of l^isterous mirth and glee ? This feeling was much increased in us by the slow and tedious manner in which our navigation had hitherto pro- ceeded in these seas. Imagine our vexation and disappointment, then, when a report was issued from the crow's-nest, that a body of ice lay directly across our passage ! For some time no opening could be seen in it, but in about an hour. Lieuten- ant Beechy discovered one narrow neck, which consisted of loose pieces of ice, instead of one solid mass ; beyond which, there was a considerable extent of open water. We immediately pushed the Hecla into this neck, and after a quarter of an hour's boring, we succeeded in getting her through it. The Griper followed in the opening we had made, and now again we were in an open sea^ pursuing our course westward. We passed vari^ NORTHERN REGIONS. i'i ous islands, the first of which wc named ' Lowtcr Isle,' the next ' Younj^,' and the next 'Davy Isl- and.' We had not a very distinct view of tlu; shores of those islands, but they were not in ge- neral so much covered with snow as we had ex- pected, nor were they very high. ** Being once more stopped by ice, we landed for a while on a new island to the south-east, to which we gave the name of * Byam Martin Island.' Here our ey#i were once more gladdened by the traces of human beings : these consisted of heaps of stones placed in a circular form, which those who had visited those regions before, knew to be the remains of Esquimaux huts. In vain did we look for any living beings, rein-deers' horns and traces of the musk-ox alone met our eyes. " During this time we moored our ships to a floe, which afterwai'ds became a common practice with us; we pursued our course westward, .and soon came to another much larger island, which appeared, howevei*,*to resemble Byam Martin Island in its general outline. We continued a westerly course, keeping land in sight, and naming every different point as we went on, till we reach- ed that degree of west longitude, by arriving at which the Hecla and the Griper became entitled to the reward of five thousand pounds, which had been promised by the King, to be distributed among such of his subjects as should reach the meridian of 110 degrees, in latitude 74. "It was on a'Sunda|r that Captain Parry an- nounced to us this joyful fact ; and I shall never forget the smile of honest satisfaction that ap- peared on the faces of my fellow-seamen. " Thus we had completed one stage of our voy- age, and, as if to make it the more striking to all ■4s< ■24 NORTHERN REGIONS. of US, we dropped enchor for the first time, since leaving the coast of Norfolk. The pendants and ensigns were hoisted as soon as we had anchored, and we sailors shouted with joy, at seeing the Bri- tish flag wave in those regions, which had till then been considered beyond the limits of the habita- ble world. But I must not omit to tell you that this was the celebrated Melville Isle, which you have heard mc talk of so often, and that the bay in which we anchored, we named in honou^of our stout ships, the 'Bay of the Hecla and the Griper.' J )> CHAPTER II. 1 '♦However flattering our success had been, you must remember that we had^^ow to look forward to the speedy arrival of winter, for in those regions there is but little summer you know, and the rest of the year is one perpetual night ; consequently we could not hope to do much more this season. The few dark hours we began to experience in the night already gave us much uneasiness, and the circumstance that we found it necessary to have the ships at those hours fastened to a floe. " But, notwithstanding every impediment. Cap- tain Parry determined upon sailing on as long as he could through Septenlber, and therefore gave orders that every thing should be ready when the ice would admit of our sailing again. As we were compelled to be quiet for the present, we amused ourselves as well as we could : a party of us took onr guns on shore to beat for game. We met NOUTHEkiN REGIONS. with a white hare, which it was difficult enough to trace, its white skin resemhhng so much the colour of the snow over which it scampered. A ptarmigan and a few snow-huntings fell to the lot of some of the hest of our sportsmen, while I who am but a clumsy hand at shooting, came home laden with two or three skulls ofthe musk-ox, and a few rein- deer's horns, the live animals of that kind being no where to be found. One of our straggling seamen was particularly welcome on his return, for he brought with him a lump of coal which he had pick- ed up, and which proved to be tolerably abundant hereabout, and particularly valuable, from the cir- cumstance of its giving a bright flame when it burns, so as to serve for the double purpose of fire and candles. Our impatience to get on was extreme, but it was madness to think of moving, and our un- easiness was added to by a very alarming occur- rence. 3Ir. Fife, with a party of six men from the Griper, had been despatched the day before in search of rein-deer and musk-oxen, and had not yet returned. As they had taken but little food witli them, and as there had been a heavy fall of snow during the night, we were afraid they had lost their way. Lieutenant Liddon dispatched three of his crew in search of them, but the snow made the atmosphere so thick, that these also lost their way, but they fortunately were at last guided by our rockets back to the ships, where they arriv- ed at ten at night, exhausted with hunger and fa- tigue, and unable to give any account ofthe absen- tees. The next day, at daylight, I went, by Cap- tain Parry's wish, and took the Hecla's fore-royal- mast, upon which I hoisted a large ensign, and planted it upon a hill four or five miles inland. We 3 A •■jwjr 26 NORTHERN REGIONS. thought the wanderers could hardly fail to see this, and that it would be a more certain method of guiding them to the ships than sending out parties, which indeed it would have been almost cruel to do; but the snow fell so thick that this plan failed. "Another night passed, therefore, without any tidings of the stragglers, and we were all anxiety to know their fate. ^ ** Next morning four parties were despatched indifferent directions, all carrying with them pikes on which flags were fastened. These pikes they put into the ground at intervals as they went on, in order both to mark the path by which they might return, and to warn the unhappy wanderers if they came near them, that relief was at hand ; and to each pike there ^^s a bottle fixed, in which was a slip of paper, giving notice that provisions would be met with at the large flag-staff on the hill. "The whole of that day there was the most piercing cold wind, and a constant drifting snow, and our horror was extreme when we found the sun setting for the third time since these poor fel- lows had left the ship. Our joyful feelings may be guessed when we heard the Griper's signal that her men, or some of them, were found. Part only as yet were returned, without Fife, and they told us that they had lost their way a few hours after leav- ing the ship, and that they had wandered about till they saw the flag-staff. Mr. Fife fancied this flag was one which had been hoisted some time before, and walked another way with two of the men, while these four made for the flag-staff. They halted for the night on their way, and made a sort of hut of stones and turf to shelter them from the weather, ^ and kindled a little fire with moss and gunpowder to wUrm their feet : and, fortunately, they never see this, :iiod of parties, el to do; iled. out any anxiety patched ;m pikes ies they vent on, 3y might 's if they and to ch was a IS would lill. he most will* -lii r^^e never |i< HH " lwn! < » j |''*| *»> »■' < ■I * n^t ^ . ft* y w »ii»* ,1 in i ■■ NORTHERN REGIONS. 27 I ' wanted food, being able to supply themselves with raw grouse, which they shot and eat. " Wc were just going to despatch some parties in search of Fife, when news was brought that he was seen returning with his two men. They had been three nights exposed to the dreadful cold, and were much exhausted by cold and fatigue ; their toes and fingers were frost-bitten, and required, great care from our medical gentleman before thej could be cured. " We had great reason to be thankful for their return, for the following night was so severe that it is scarcely possible they could have survived it. In gratitude for this act of mercy, we named the spot * Cape Providence.' ** If this does not present to you some idea of the increasing dangers of our situation,I will endeavour to describe to you the situation of our ships, when I drew this little picture. You know the danger to ships of being on shore : well, we were sailing with a fair wind along-side of the main-land, but our progress was delayed by young, or what wc call bay ice, which is ice newly frozen, and which requires efforts to cut through, although it is not sufficient entirely to stop us. We were as near shore as we could well be without danger, when we })erceiyed a field of thick ice driven by a strong current against us, which threatened momentarily to dash us against the land. Nothing could have saved us from immediate destruction had there not been a mass of thick ice, or iceberg, projecting from the main land, on each side of which one of our ships was forced by the drifted ice to take shelter. We were within a hundred yards of this point, when we saw the floe dash against it with a tremendous crash, piHng up enormous fragments of ice in a •«nm« NORTHERN REGIONS. most terrific manner, and thankful indeed were wt at having escaped a situation from which no human skill could have saved us." ** Oh ! my dear uncle," cried Charles, who had been almost breathless during this account," how 1 rejoice at your escape, and that your poor Heclu was not run aground ; but do tell me why the good Griper your consort is drawn in that forlorn situa- tion, all on one side, as if she was already lighten- ed of her crew, and half filled with water." *'I will tell you, my boy, for our calamities ap- peared to be hourly multiplying. We passed a fearful night, surrounded by terrors. In the morn- ing we perceived numerous floes which threatened ns : some of them missed the llecla bv a hundred yards ; but at length we perceived one moving up to the Griper, and we saw her turn on her side so much, that we had no doubt she had been forced on shore. Indeed it was too true, and what made it more melancholy, was that its commander. Lieu- tenant Liddon, was suffering from illness, which had been much increased from the last fortnight*s^ disasters, and the severe weatlier. " We sent some of our men round to assist the Griper in her distress ; and Captain Parry was anxious that Jiieutenant Liddon should be remov- ed to the Hecla : but he refused, saying that he would be the last man instead of the first to quit his vessel ; and accordingly he remained seated against the side of the deck, during the greater part of the day, giving the necessary orders." ** I like him for it, uncle," cried Chuilc i ; ** I hope, mama, that you will let me call that firm- ness, and not obstinacy." " I will allow you, my boy," answered his ma- ma, " and I agree with you in admiring that firm- XORTIiERX REGIONS. m ness of resolution, which nuide him persevere in pcrforniinij: his duty, notwithstandin*;- his bodily tiufFerings." '* The Griper, our distressed consort," continued uncle Richard," was not very long before she was afloat again ; but the unpromising appearance of the ice, the advanced season, and the risks we had undergone for some days past, made our com- mander think that it was time to look out for winter quarters. / , ** The yoiuig ice was formin g so rapidly, that wo were convinced that it was owin^ to the strong winds alone that the sea was not entirely frozen over in these parts ; and it seemed not improbable, that if the weather continued calm for four and twenty hours we might be obliged to pass the win- ter in our present exposed situation. It was unani- mously agreed, therefore, that it would be the wis- est plan to put back into the bay of the llecla and the Griper, which promised the best shelter. We an- chored at the south of this bay, but found that it would be necessary to cut a canal of about two miles in length, through the ice, before we could plant ourselves into the harbour which wc had de- cided upon. The sailors set to work to cut this canal with great spirit, and being fond of doing things in their own way, had several new contrivan- ces to help them on. For instance, look here, Charles, these blocks of ice were to be floated out of the canal, as soon as they had cut them; and to do this the easier, they fastened these old boat sails to them, by which a northerly breeze soon wafted them into the open part of the sea. " But the cutting of this canal was very tedious work, our first day's task took us till midnight to 3* -J-t-E ff 'Ktm m- vy'-i^ 30 3:Jf NORTHERN REGIONS. iSnish, and on the second we found that it was ne- cessary to sink the blocks of ice under the flee, in- stead of floating them out, as the entrance of the canai, through which the ships had passed, was now frozen We accomplished this diflicult job in the following manner; some of our men stood upon one end of the block of ice which was to be sunk, while others on the floe dragged the opposite end towards them. Ofl[icers and all joined in the em- ploy, and many of them frequently stood during the whole day up to their knees in water which was nearly as cold as ice. In the evening we moved the ships ; the Griper, you observe, is fastened to the Hecla, and the two ships' companies in parties on each bank dragged the ships along by ropes fastened to the Hecla. " Our work was not completed by Sunday, which we would gladly have made a day of rest, but we were afraid of being frozen up entirely, as the ice was forming with great rapidity. On Sunday afternoon however we finished it. Our ships were safely anchored in a harbour to which we gave the name of Winter Harbour ; and a group of islands which we had discoverd to the north we called the 'North Georgian Islands,' in honour of our King George the fourth, who had given great encouragement to the prosecution of useful disco- veries." CHAPTER III. " Here tve are then, my boys, at rest from all our toils ; but do you envy us our situation, Charles, shut up in the midst of ice and snow for eight or ten t it was nc- lieflce, in- ance of the assed, was icult jobin stood upon to be sunk, ►posite end in the em- )od during Iter which we moved astened to in parties by ropes lay, which St, but we as the ice n Sunday >ur ships which we 1 a group north we bonour of ven great M disco- ■.*,,■ r 10 / '^S.. from all Charles, U or ten ■■>«lMf, / A^ { s jy ZJ i ■*■* \ ,. NORTIIEUN nECIOXf. 1^ inonths to come, some of wliich must be passed m utter darkness ? Wo had many serious evils to tacc, such as you who stay at home, and have a «»ood fire always to go to, and good food of every kind to sustain you, little dream of. But to face evils steadily is half to conquer them, and there- fore we set to work to arrange every thing in the host manner that we could. ** The masts of the ship were dismantled, and we formed on the deck of the Hecla a kind of hous- ing, by planks covered with thick cloth, such as wagons are covered with, and this sheltered the up- ])cr deck from the wind and snow. The upper deck was cleared, to enable the crew to take exercise there when the weather was too severe for them to go on shore. We were so anxious to preserve our ropes and a variety of other things, that we took unnecessary trouble ; if we had had more experi- ence we should have known, that to suffer the fine snow to fall upon them would have protected them better than any plan we could have devised. ** The next thing to be considered was the health and the comfort of the men. They had hitherto enjoyed very good health, except Lieut. Liddon, who was not, however, much recovered. Capt. Parry first took measures to have their births made dry and warm ; then, both for the sake of health and economy, it became necessary to reduce the allowance of food. Donkin's preserved meat, and vegetable soup, were distributed instead of so much salt meat, and an allowance was made of pickles and vinegar, to keep oflf the scurvy. Each man was forced to drink some lime juice mixed with sugar every day. I can assure you that sailors are no better than children when their own health is concerned, for if some of us had not stood by all # il J :r !>> 32 NORTTIER.N REGIONS. the while, this potion wouUl never have been drunk. IIovv to aninse nnd occupy ourselves was the next, and a very important consideration." " Oh," exclaimed Chjsrlcs, " T should not imve been lon«r in fixing upon that, uncle : you could skate nnd slide, and you could build snow houses, and hunt the white hares, and set fox-traj>s, and a hundred other things." " Well done, Charles, with your hundred other things. In some respects, indeed, we did as you would have done, we hunted all the animals we could find. Very few deer fell to our lot, for the tamer animals migrated at the end of October, and left us nothing but wolves and foxes to keep us company. Wq had fo»traps too ; and one day CaptJiin Sabine's servant, in looking at one of these traps, was followed by a white bear almost all the way back to the ships, from which several balls were aimed at him, but the sly fellow made his escape. This was the only bear we saw all through the^ winter, and it was of a pure white : I was in hopes of briging you home a beautiful little white fox, but it died in its passage ; he paid our shi}) a visit one night, and I succeeded in catching him. You cannot imagine, Charles, how the poor little creature shrunk and trembled whenever a wolf was heard to howl near the ships ; I cannot help fancy- ing from that circumstance, that they are hunted by wolves in their wild state. As for wolves, we used to hear them howl most piteously on the beach for hours together, but we seldom saw many at a time, and they were shy of coming near us, and never attacked any of us, even when evidently suffering from hunger - , ^# ** And now for our other amusements : what think you, Charles, of acting plays ?" 1 .NORTH i:RN RL«ilO.N>. 33 *' It* you h:ul but liad u pbiyliouse, uncle?" " So W(; thought, and we set to work to have »Mie prepared, and Lieut. Beeehey was appointed •itajie-niaster ; and the 5th of November we fixed 'ipon lor our first perl'ormance, as tliat is a grand iioliday, you know. '• \Vhilc our theatre was preparing, we set on foot a weekly newspaper, which we called the North Georgian Gazette and Winter Chronicle ; Captain Sabine was editor, and it was written by the ofKcers of both ships ; many an hour being thus occupied which otherwise might have been passed in thinking ofour gloomy situation. " Captain Sabine, who was astronomer to the expedition, sentaj)arty of the mentobuddan ob- servatory on shore, as well as a house to hold the clocks and instruments. This house was built of lir planks, which had been brought in the ships for the purpose of building spare boats with, and the walls were made double, the space between being filled up with moss, by which means a single stove could warm it. A house of snow, Charles, inrght not perhaps have answered the purpose, but it would have been much easier to build than this, for the ground was frozen so hard, that it w^as with the greatest difficulty we cojild dig holes for the upright posts to be put in. " While thus employed we had reason to be thankful for the safe situation ofour ships in the harbour, for on the very night of their arrival, the thermometer fell to one degree, and the sea was observed the next day to be quite frozen over as far as could be sejen from the highest hills, nor was any more water visible from this tiire. *' The following incident will give you some idea of the cold whicTi we had to suffer even in k!«is m 34 NORTHERN REGIONS. early stage of the winter, for it was only on the 10th of October that one of our sailors nearly lost his life from it : this was John Pearson, who went with a party of other sailors to hunt some deer. A stag was wounded, and, in the eagerness of the men to secure him, they forgot the order of the captain that every person should be on board be- fore sunset, and they did not return till late. John Pearson was the last of all the party, and had im- prudently gone out without his mittens, and with a musket in his hand. A party of our people most providentially found him, although the night was very dark, just as he had fallen down a steep bank of snow, and was beginning to feel very drowsy ; and 1 dare say you know, that if he had indulged this drowsiness^ and gone to sleep, it would have proved fatal to- him. ** As it was, when he was brought on board his fingers were quite stiff, and bent to the form of that part of the musket which he had been carrying ; and his hands were so severely frost-bitten, that a short time afterwards the surgeon was obliged to cut off three of his fingers. " I remarked in this man, and in several others whom I have since seen, who have been e^if posed to extreme cold, that it affects the mind no less than the body. He looked very wild, and spoke thick and unintelligible, exactly like a person who is intoxicated, so that, if I had not been sure that he could not have been drinking on shore, I should 'liave thought that he deserved punishment for get- ting drunk. * To prevent the sailors from losing their way again. Captain Parry orderecf finger-posts to be set up on all the hills, about two or three miles from Wittier Harbour. ^f ' tifiiV., m NORTHERN REGION; 35 )nly on the nearly lost I, who went some deer, rncss of the rdcr of the 1 board be- late. John ind had ini- s, and with people most 3 night was , steep bank ;ry drowsy ; ad indulged would have >n board his form of that carrying ; iitten, that ras obliged eral others |en ejfposed ind no less and spoke lerson who In sure that e, I should int for get- their way losts to be [hree miles 1^' " Pray, uncle," asked the reflecting Tom, ** at what time did your real winter begin ; I mean^ when did you lose sight of the sun altogether ?" '* About the middle of October we took leave of the sun for four months ; it continued, indeed, to rise for a few hours every day until the 4th of No- vember, but the weather was so thick that it was not visible to us. From half past nine till half past two we could just see in the captain's cabin to write and read, the rest of the time we lived by candle- light. The sky was extremely beautiful at the setting and the rising of the sun at'this period, the rich blueish purple round the horizon being crown- ed with anarch of the most brilliant red. " We were all of us rather dull on the 4th of November, when, as I have told you, the sun had set not to rise on us again for a long time. How could we tell whether our fuel might not be con- sumed before we again could hope to welcome its beams, and what should then prevent our provi- sions from being frozen and spoiled, and ourselves all dying of cold and hunger ? *' Our captain knew that, of all the evils we had to encounter, want of employment was the worst, and therefore he proposed to us to act our first play on the following day, and accordingly we perform- ed the farce of * Miss in her Teens,' much to the amusement of the sailors, whose mirth was very great at seeing some of their officers stoop to per- form the character of young ladies." " You must have found the hours pass rather tediously most days, I think, uncle," said Charles, ** if you could not go out of the ship ?" " I will tell you what our daily occupations were, and you shall judge if we did not contrive to keep the enemy, idleness, out tolerably >vell. Our offi if '■\ -, -' I, # •r Mi m NOKTHEIiN REGIONS. Ul- cers and quarter-masters were divided into four watches, which were regularly kept, and the re- mainder of the ship's crew were allowed to pass the night undisturbed. At six all the crew got up, and both decks were well rubbed >vith stones and warm sand. At eiafht both officers and men sat down to breakfast ; and at a quarter past nine the muster took place on the quarter-deck, and a strict examination of the cleanliness of each man's per- son, and whether his clothing was in good condi- tion and sufficiently warm. *' The captain and one or two more officers then generally went down to visit the lower deck, while the men were allowed to walk or run round the upper one. Every little piece of ice which was frozen in the night was cleared away from the births, to prevent the dampness occasioned by the warmth of the breath melting this ice. The bed places were very difficult to be kept dry, as we were afraid of burning a fire constantly on the lewd- er deck, for fear of consuming too many coals. '* Captain Parry took the opportunity of seeing those who were on the sick list, &nd consulting the surgeon as to their comforts and recovery. " The men were then allowed to go on shore , till noon, when they returned on board and dined ; when the weather would not admit of this, they were ordered to run round and round the deck, keeping step to a tune on the organ, or to a song of their own singing. Some of the men did not like this mode of taking exercise ; but when they found that the captain had fixed upon it for their good, and that no excuse would be taken, they cheerfully complied, and made it an occasion of much mirth and frolic. " The officers dined at two, and rambled for a e*.'. ,1* t > I man s per- NORTHERN REGION?. 37 few hoars, even on the darkest days, on shore, except when there was a very heavy snow-drift. There was little to amuse or interest us on shore, as we seldom extended our walks above one or two miles, for fear of a sudden snow-drift, which would have prevented onr return to the ships. If we looked towards the sea, one unbroken sheet of ice was before us ; if we turned to the land, snow alone presented itself to our view, with here and there a small patch of brown bare ground. There was something rather melancholy in the scene, when viewed from the summit of the neighbouring hills, on a calm quiet day. Not an object on which the eye could rest with pleasure till it reached our own diminutive colony, where the smoke qf several little fires showed the presence of man, and the sound of a few voices, which could be heard at a i^reat distance during the cold weather, broke the death-like stillness which reigned around. " In the afternoon, the men were employed on the lower-deck, drawing and knotting yarns for the rigging, and preparing other little requisite conve- niences. At six the same muster and examination of the crew took place as in the morning ; the sail- ors then went to their supper, the officers to their tea'; after which the men were allowed to amuse themselves as they pleased. Dancing, singing, and games of all kinds (for sailors are jolly men, Charles,) went on till nine, when they went to bed, and lights were extinguished. *' I suppose I need hardly tell you, that we officers spent our evenings somewhat more grave- ly ; reading and writing, a game at che«^, or a tune on thefluteorviolin, bmng our chief exi^y^ nfents-. Si A ^w i I t HI N6RtlIEtix\ REGIONS'. ' " On Sundays, divine service was performed on board each of the ships, and a sermon read ; and it was pleasing to see the attention paid by our H^ilors to their religious duties. " We acted plays once a fortnight, and they continued a source of great amusement. Unfor- tunately we had but few plays with us, and it was difficult to vary them sufficiently. Some of the officers, therefore, whom we called our authors because they were better skilled in the use of their pen than most of us, set to work, and composed a musical entertainment for a Christmas piece. "They with great ingenuity adapted it to our I audience, and to the situation in which we were \ placed, and alluded to the success we had already J met with in so happy a manner, as at once to pro- duce entertainment, and to encourage hopes of the m. ultimate success of the expedition. [^ ** You will perhaps wonder how we could mark 1 each day, when the total absence of the sun had / placed us in perpetual night. ** The whole face of nature was indeed complete- ly changed to us, but it was far from being so gloomy as yon would imagine. A considerable twilight about noon denoted the return of day, and in clear weather, a beautiful arch of red light over- spread the horizon to the south, for an hour or two before and after noon." * * That was a very short day, uncle ; and had you light enough then to see to readf' asked Tom. ** Yes, Tom," answered his uncle. ** Christmas came without bringing with it utter darkness ; in- deed the reflection of light from the snow, in ad- dition to the occasional presence of a bright mooi?, prevented iis from experiencing at any time the NORTIIEKN REGIONS. 3i> gloomy wight which occurs in more temperate climates. " Great care was taken, all the while the sun was under the horizon, to keep regular hours for our meals ; and as the days shortened very gradually, we did not feel the approach of the shortest day, though we were not sorry when it had passed* We spent our Christmas-day as much as possible in the same manner as we should have done at home. After divine service the men had fresh meat at dinner, and rather more grog, to drink the health of their friends in England. The officers' had a piece of roast beef, wliiph strange to say, had been kept without salt in our ship since May. ** A great many frost-bites occurred at this period , even when the men were walking quickly for exer- cise, and they were very difficult to heal on account of the extreme cold ; and much injury to the gener- al health of the men was apprehended, from the long confinement necessary for their cure. Mr. Edwards, our medical man, thought the stift* leather of their boots prevented circulation ; and Captain Parry, in consequence, ordered a pair of canvas boots, lined with woollen stuff, to be made for every man ; after which there were few frost- bites in the feet. " The latter end of December the weather changed, and th& year closed with milder wea- ther than wc had experienced for two months." V ! 40 NORTHERN REGiONif. *i CHAPTER IT, '' I AM very impatient for you to coritimie yoiii story, uncle," cried Charles the following evening- when seated as usual at the round table, " and 1. can assure you, I have heard nothing yet that should prevent me from still wishing to make o voyage to the Arctic regions." ** And I believe you have heard the worst of it too," continued uncle Richard ; " though in Janu- ary the severe weather returned, and the scurvy began to make its appearance among us. As this complaint is supposed to arise from salt dry food, we distributed our vegetable soups, lemon-juice, and sugar, pickles, preserves and spruce beer ; ad- ded to which, Capt. Parry had a constant supply of fresh mustard and cress, which he grew in small boxes in his cabin, placed in a warm situation neai- the stove-pipes. These are never-failing remedies, and our patients were not long in being cured. " You may be surprized, perhaps, that you have not heard me mention the Aurora Borealis, which is a phenomenon which displays itself in the north- ern regions, affording some recompense for the annual loss of the sun's presence for so many weeks. Hitherto we had been disappointed, ha- ving seen only a few faint appearances of it ; but about the middle of January we were gratified by a very brilliant display of it. I should at- tempt in vain to convey an idea of the beauty of this magnificent phenomenon : the luminous arch, which before we had seen only of a pale light, was now most brilliant, being broken into a thou- NORTHERN REGIONS. 41 sand irregular masses, streaming rapidly in differ- ent directions, and varying every moment, some- times resembling in shape a snake curling itself about, and sometimes a shepherd's crook : it is said that a sound is usually heard from the Aurora Bo- realis, but we listened and could hear none. "We now began to watch for the first re-ap- perance of the sun, and for nine days, all on board took it by turns to look out for it from the mast's head, one person not being able to watch long to- gether, for fear of suffering from frost-bites. "At twenty minutes before noon, on the third of February, we saw the sun for the first time for eighty-four days ; we could now see to work on the outside of the ships from eight till four, and delighted enough we were, to employ our- selves about something useful for the equipment of the ships. Our first job was to collect stohes for ballast, for it was calculated, that the Hecla , aktne would require, in the spring, nearly seventy tons, to make up for the loss of weight in stored and provisions that had been consumed. Wc brought the stones d<|WD upon sledges about half a mile to the beach, ivhere they were broken to a convenient size, and weighed in scales which w<,^ erected on the shbte for the purpose. " The coldest season was now approaching, but the animating presence of the sun made us rathei: imprudent : for instance, Capt. Parry was so anx- ious to enjoy daylight, and to save the candles, that he ordered the stern-windoyvs of his cabin to be un- covered. The cold then became so great, that for several weeks, it was impossible to sit in it with- out being warmly wrapped up, so that we used to tRrow oS'oiir gr!?at coats when we went cm dttlt^' 4* ''X 42 NORTHERN REGIONS. and could warm ourselves by exercise, and put them on again when we went down in the cabin. " One day, when the men were running on deck for exercise, the house on shore, which you re- member we had built to put our clocks, &,c. in, was seen to be in a blaze of fire ; officers and men all ran to extinguish it, and by pulling off the roof with ropes, and knocking down a part of the sides, and throwing snow upon the flames, we succeeded in extinguishing them in about three quarters of an hour, and saved our clocks and other instru- ments lodged there. After removing these, and covering the ruins with snow, we returned on deck till more temperate weather should enable us to dig out the rest of the things : we then had a gen- eral muster of th6 ships' companies, to see that all had put on dry clothes, after which they were em- ployed in drying the wet ones till dinner. When assembled at the fire, our faces presented a singu- lar appearance, almost every nose and cheek be- ing white with frost-bites, while our medical gen- tlemen, and two or three others fixed upon to as- sist them, were going from one to the other rub- bing the affected parts with snow, which, strange as it may seem, is the only ren^y in these cases. Notwithstanding such good care was taken, we had 16 men added to the sick list, in consequence of this accident, and 4 or 5 men were confined for several weeks. Captain Sabine's servant indeed suffered much more severely ; he and Sergeant Martin were in the- house at the time the fii'e broke out, and, anxious to save the dipping needle, of which they knew the value, they immediately ran out with it into the open air ; Captain Sabine's servant had not time to put his gloves on, and in half an hour his hands were so benumbjetl| that when taken 'J?l 4 J f NORTHERN REGIOXS. 43 (HI board by Mr. Edwards, and his hands plunged in cold water, they literally caused the surface of the water to freeze ; and, poor fellow, though all that was possible was done for him, he was forced some time after, to have part of four fingers cut off from one hand, and three from the other. " If this adventure does not satisfy you, my little fellow^ that we had something to endure in this pi- tiless region, what would you have said if you had witnessed the excessive joy that showed itself on l)oard our ships, on the first appearance of milder weather f " It was now March, and we daily watched in hopes of perceiving some change in the snow which surrounded us. ' " At length we found that the snow had melted a little upon the black paint of the Hecla's stern, and this was a pleasing sight. " We took advantage of these few days of milder weather to rebuild the house on shore, which we accomplished in a very short time. Soon after this we performed our last plays, having plenty of work now for the sailors, in preparing the ship for sailing again. The Citizen, and the Mayor of Garratt, were the farces, and our poets composed an address on the closing of the North Georgian Theatre. We were not, however, at present grati- fied with much spring weather ; April passed in the Fame manner as the former month; the snow drift- ed so much that we were sometimes obliged to dig out- the sentries when they were to be relieved. It was not till the second week in May whenj^ ptar- migan was killed, and the first tracks o^y^^eer, and nnisk oxen traced, which was a proJOpfK they return from their migration during this^^nth. We had now constant daylight, the sun never disapr ■^ r% U., ;j 'HI :^ Ct!i 44 NORTHERN REGI0N9. !| ! ) pcaring below the horizon. When the hiida be- came more plentiful, Captain Parry ordered that they should be given to the invalids, and tho '* game laws" again issued : by which all the game caught became public property, and were served out the same as other food, without any distinction between the officers and the men. '^ In consequence of going out to shoot so much, a new disorder was introduced among us, which is, in cold countries, called * snow blindness.^ It causes a sensation as if dust or sand were thrown into the eyes, and is cured by the Indians by hold- ing the eyes over a steam from warm water. We found a preparation of lead mixed with cold water a certain cure, but, in order to prevent its occurrence, every man was provided with a short black crape veil to wear when he went out." Charles. ** You must have looked like a band of ruffians in disguise, uncle." ** I suppose some of our officers thought so, for they contrived something instead, and this was a pair of spectacles with blacker green crape in the place of the glasses, which were found to heat the eyes. . ; ,.-; . .*■,, ■ ■ .>•" I " Towards the middle of May we began to cut the ice round the ships. We found it to our joy to be only six feet thick, although in the middle of the harbour it averaged four and twenty feet f this was partly owing to the thick snow which covered it, and partly to our having cut round the ships daily as long as we could at the beginning of the winter. We began our operations by digging a large ttdle under the stern in order to enter the saw « this a^orie occupied us two whole days. A few men onlji^^ould labour at this ; while the rest of the crew were employed in cle{^i:ing away tftesnow W%: tg NORTHERN REGIONS. and rubbish from the ship's side, and in cutting a trench with axes two feet wide and four feet and a half in depth, by which means they left only eighteen inches for the saws to work upon. ** The saw being entered in the hole, under the stern, was worked in the usual manner, and small pieces of ice were occasionally broken oft'by hand- spikes and ice-chisels, and hooked out piece by piece. "This cold and tedious operation lasted nine days, and on the tenth the ship suddenly disengaged herself from the ice, and was once again " launch- ed," as our sailors were pleased to call it. " An examination now took place of our stores and provisions, and the Griper was supplied with her allowance, which the Hecla had carried for her. Our ships' crews were all alive ; some of uis were busy breaking stones for ballast, other hands were occupied in getting out the sails and boats ; carpenters, armourers, coopers, and sail-makers all were at their work, bustling and busy I ** As for my employment, or rather amusement, I defy you to guess what it was, I laid out a little garden, and planted it with radishes, onions, mus- tard, and cress. But, alas ! notwithstanding all my care and attention, when the end of July came, my radishes were only an inch in length, and my other seeds failed utterly. JNot even a single crop of mustard and cress could be raised in the open air, and we were obliged to be content with what could be grown in Captain Parry's cabin, where they could always be raised without difficulty. Some common store peas, however, were found to thrive; and if we had discovered this sooner, we might at least have cultivated a quantity of t^te. leaves qf this plant, which, boiled as greens, iv)cd|id havi* I I I 40 NORTHERN REGIONS. been a g^rcat treat to persons like us, who had been without fresh vegetables for more than ten months.'* "And all this time, uncle,'* asked Tom, " were you without the sight of one green field or tree ?'* " Indeed, Tom, we were," answered uncle Richard : " but towards the latter end of May the brown soil of the country showed itself in patches ; here and there, too, we discovered roots of the; sorrel among tufts of moss, and with joy we hailed the appearance of this plant, which is a valuable preventive and cure for the scurvy, but there were as yet no leaves upon it. ** If you remember, Tom, it was September, and the winter was set in, when we sheltered ourselves within this memorable harbour : we had therefore no opportunity of knowing what were the produc- tions of the country we were near. Hitherto all had been wrapt up in one white mantle of snow : the Table hill was the most distant object that we had explored, and its surface appeared to be com- posed of sand and masses of lime-stone, w hite and brown, and disagreeable to the smell when broken. The Table hill itself was about five miles from the harbour, and formed a conspicuous object. In our excursion there we found a little pool of fresh wa- ter, of melted snow, with which we filled a bottle : it was the first that we had seen since September, and was a sign to us of an approaching thaw. On the 24th we felt a few drops of rain, and the same evening was agreeably surprised with a smart shower, which was succeeded by several others. To see water in a fluid state at all, and to see it falling from the heavens, was to us so remarkable, that I believe every soul of us was on deck to witness this phenomenon. This rain made little pools upon the .■■'49; ') \«ho had •e than ten om, ** were or tree ?'* 3red undo af May the n patches ; )ots of th(^ Y we hailed a valuable there were ;mber,and 1 ourselves I therefore lie produc- itherto all of snow : jct that we o be com- white and n broken. 3 from the ct. In our fresh wa- a bottle : ptember, haw. On the same a smart hers. To it falling e, that I ness this upon the NOftTHERN REGIONS. 4 »ce, which remained fourteen days without being j'rozen. Two ivory gulls were reported to be seeji upon the same day." CHAPTER V. *' Every thing now being in order within th^ ships, Captain Parry felt anxious to explore the Country before he left it, and he therefore deter- mined upon making an expedition on land till the ice would set the ships free. You may be assured that I was among the numerous volunteers to ac* company him. We were twelve of us altogether, and were supplied with provisions for three weeks. Two tents, formed by blankets spread across })ikes, with stones laid upoii the foot of the blan- kets, made us a comfortable and portal^le shelter. These tents, our provisions, and conjuror or cook- ing apparatus, were carried upon a strong, but light cart, built on purpose. >^^ *^ Each officer and man was furnished with a blanket made into a bag, with a drawing string at the end, a pair of spare shoes and stockings, a ilannel shirt, and a cap to sleep in. We carried our clothing and blankets in knapsacks on our backs, and three men attended us on our first day's journey to help us in carrying our luggage. '* We determined to travel as much as possible in the night, if any part of the twenty-four hours could be called night, when, as you know, the sun never was below the horizon. This we fixed upon partly in order to avoid the full glare of the sun upon the snow, and partly that we might have the If i ■«»j v48 NORTHERN REGIONS. advantage of sleeping during the warmest par.t of the twenty-four hours. *^ We left the ships amidst the cheers of the men, accompanied by a party of officers who wish- ed to relieve us of the load of our knapsacks for an hour or two. At 8 in the evening our companions left us, and we journeyed on, finding here and there some dwarf willows, sorrel and poppy roots, and moss in great luxuriance. Soon after midnight we came in sight of an extensive plain, with not a spot to break its uniformity, till it terminated in a range of lofty hills, which we had before seen from a distance, and had named the Blue hills, from their colour. J^t six in the morning we pitched our tents, and, in the course of the day, we killed seven ptarmigans, two plovers, and two deer." ** Did you find the deer very wild, uncle ?" asl^ed Tom. ** In general very much so ; but in our next night's journey, Capt. Sabine and myself having walked faster than the rest, had seated ourselves to wait for them, when a fine rein-deer came trotting up to us, and played around us for a quarter of an hour." " I hope, uncle," cried Charles, " that you were not savage enough to kill him f" ** Why, Charles, we had no gun, and we knew that the cart was heavy enough already for the men to drag, and, indeed, the poor animal seem- ed to place so much confidence in us, that we neither of us should have felt disposed to make him so ill a reward. " When we heard our people talking on the other side of the ravine, he ran up to them with- out caution, and they, less scrupukms than we, fired one or two shots at him. Happily they were NOIITHEKN REGIONS. 49 leer came us for a without eftcct, upon which he returned to us ; and when we got up and walked on, he trotted by our sides hke a dog, sometimes getting before us, and then coming back. When the rest of the party came up to us he trotted off." " The pictures of rein-deer, uncle," said Tom, *' made me fancy them to be much more beautiful animals than I found to be the case, when I went last spring to see ore exhibited in London." " Its fine branching horns are a great improve- ment to them, Tom, and probably the one you saw was without them. But it is by no means a grace- ful animal ; its high shoulders, and awkward stoop in its head, gives it rather a deformed appearance. Our new acquaintance had no horns, was of a brownish colour, with a black saddle, a broad rim pf black round his eyes, and very white about the tail. -« ** It is impossible to imagine any thing more dreary than our journey continued, over one level plain, where for an hour together not a spot of un- covered ground could be distinguished. The few patches of this kind that we did meet were most welcome, for they, not only relieved us for a time from the intense glare of the sun upon the snow, which was most oppressive to our eyes, but it was on these alone that we could pitch our tents, or expect to find any water. A brisk wind rising up, our men, as if determined not to forget that thc^ were sailors, fastened a large blanket upon the cart io the manner of a sail, which helped it or amazingly. " The moment our tents were pitched, every one was ordered to change his shoes and stockin^s^ £^nd had his feet examined. We coukl onjy dfV 5 ^ 50 NORTHERN REGIONS'. our articles of dress at noon, and therefore after our midnight halting we were obliged to put wet ones on again, which, as you may imagine, was far from agreeable. ;. " One day as we were travelling on, we came to some large stones sticking upright, and as the men were much fatigued, and Captain Parry was afraid to let them he upon the ground, he proposed that we should pick out these stones one by one, and pave a spot for our tents to be pitched upon. After an hour's work we made a famous floor, dry, though rather hard. This was our dinner time, and it was the fourth of June, therefore we loyally drank the health of his Majesty in both tents, not knowing at that time that our venerable King George the Third was dead. " As several (Jf our party were beginning to be affected with snow-blindness, you may guess what a comfort it was to us to perceive before us a stripe of black or uncovered land, the bank of a ravine. We pitched our tents on the north side of it, and by removing some heaps of sand-stone found abun- dance of pure water, which tempted us to cook the grouse we had killed, and we made a nice supper before we lay down to rest. " After leaving this ravine we came to another plain of snow, beyond whicli lay some high land, which we discovered to be a separate island, and \yhich we naniod Sabine Island. ** Captain Parry, accompanied by Mr. Nias and Mr. Reid, then left the party, in order to examine the sea to the north, after seeing us all safely en- camped behind a wall which we had built to protect us from the weather, many of us being great suf- ferers from snow-blindness. They travelled till tliey gained the suimnit of a point eighty feet in -*'■ :^M NORTHERN REGIOiNS. 51 elevation, which they named Point ]\ias, and Cap- tain Parry being anxious to discover whether it was the sea, proposed that we should remove our en- campment thither. The party accordingly return- ed to us, dined, and then we all set out tq the Point, which we were some time in reaching, on account of the depth of the snow, which made it almost impossible to take the cart along. It froze all day long, and we found it extremely cold. Our people were allowed to rest after supper, and then we all set to work to build a monument upon Point Nias. " Here we found nothing living except a flock of ducks, none of which we killed ; some stunted moss alone deserved the name of vegetation. ** Our monument was completed in about two hi Ts, and I should hope that it would last for r.i, years, as Mr. Fisher took great pains in building it. It was twelve feet high, and could be seen at several miles distance, and within it we put a tin box containing an account of our party, and one or two English coins. " As we had reached the eastern extremity of Melville Island, we now pursued our journey to the blue hills, which we soon entered upon, and were glad to be reheved from the sameness of travelling always upon a flat surface of ground. We met with a small running stream, which was the first we had seen this season, passed a few deer's horns, and killed some ptarmigans and ducks. The phi- anage of the cock grouse still continued white ex- cept near the tip of the tail, where the feathers were of a glossy black, but the hen changed from day to day, and was becoming speckled : the snow^ bunting, too, cheered us by its lively note, and ve- minded us of a better country. I 1 52 NORTHERN REGIONS^ " We now arranged our baggage so as to carry it on our shoulders for the remainder of the journey, and chopped the wood of our cart for fuel. Some ptarmigan, therefore, were cooked, and we had another sumptuous supper, which you, who have not lived on cold provisions in a rigid climate, can scarcely imagine how much we enjoyed. " After crossing a gulf of the sea, which wc named Liddon's Gulf, and travellipg in various di- rections, we returned to the point, and determined to stop a whole day there for the purpose of sport- ing, and examining its natural productions. The first animal our sportsmen met with was a musk- ox, who was feeding on a fine pasture ground. — They fired at him without wounding him, and he gallopped off to the hills. The musk-ox is an ill- proportioned little animal ; his hair is so long that he treads it under his feet, which appear too small. When disturbed and hunted, he tears up the ground with his horns, and looks round at his pursuers, though without attempting to attack them. ** I had the good luck to fall in with a large herd of deer ; three of them only had horns, and these were larger than the others, and always drove the others on when they attempted to stop. One or two mice were caught, which had biBen white, but were beginning to turn brown. We found the holes and tracks of these little creatures in every part of the island. Serjeant Martin ran after one, which, finding no hole near, put himself against o stone as if trying to defend himself, and bit the Serjeant's finger when he took hold of him. *' Here, too, we discovered the remains of Es- quimaux huts, and they appeared to be recently deserted, although it is not likely that the Esqui- maux would often take up their abode on Melville NORTHERN REGIONS. 53 IS to carry it he journey, iuel. Some ind we had I, who have climate, can 3d. ,, which we 1 various di- determincd >se of sport- tions. The vas a musk- 3 ground. — him, and he ■ox is an ill< so long that Er too small. » the ground is pursuers, :hem. 1 large herd 5, and these rs drove the p. One or 1 white, but found the es in every 1 after one, If against o nd bit the him. lains of Es- )e recently I the Esqui^ m Melville <1 % Island, where the sum.^er season is so short that there is scarcely time to lay up a store for winter. " Finding nothing more of interest to detain us, we determined upon journeying homewards across the table hills. On the top of the highest of these hills we erected another monument, and likewise put into it a box containing an account of our visit. From the summit of this hill we looked anxiously to the sea, hopinir to perceive open water, but, alas ! nothing of the kind was to be seen. We then set forward for Winter Harbour, which we reached, and received a most hearty welcome from our brother sailors, who were all well, and who com»- j)limented us upon our robust looks. CHAPTER VI. *' The party at the ships had been going on very «riuietly in our absence : shooting imd been their ehief sport ; and they had been gratified by the sight of some very beautiful rainbows, a phenome- non exceedingly rare in those cold climates, wherie the sun has so little power. "You remember that I told you what pleasure the sight of the sorrel roots afforded us: they now began to put out their leaves, and Captain Parry gave directions that two afternoons should be de- voted by the men for gathering them, and that they should be used instead of lemon-juice and pickles. When more plentiful, our mjcn went dailv 5* , '!i im 54 NORTHERN REGIONS. lo gather lliem, and they were dressed at the messes, and eaten as salad, or pickle, or boiled as greens, or made into puddings." Tom, Is the sorrel used in England, uncle Richard ? V "But little, Tom; it is, however, occasionally used as a medicine, and in France it is cultivated, in order to put into salads ; among the Laplanders, the free use of the sorrel-leaves is considered the only cure for scurvy, and I can safely say, that the crews of the Hecla and Griper owe the good health they enjoyed at this period to the unlimit- ed use of this fresh vegetable substance, so boun- tifully supplied by the hand of Nature. "Lieutenants Beechey and Hoppner were sent, with a small party of men each, up the country to procure game. They took with them provisions, tents, blankets, and fuel, and were charged to bring word when the ice should oe seen to move or thaw ; they soon sent us in some deer, and in a few days time, the welcome intelligence that the pools upon the surface of the ice were increasing, though as yet there was no appearance of the ice breaking up. Lieutenant Beechey returned from his excur- sioa at the latter end of June, and reported, that the ice to the east was more thawed than at Winter Harbour, and that he had observed several cracks ia it, large enough for a small boat to pass ; he told HS^ too, that the deer were become very wild, but that he had succeeded in killing one, by lying down and imitating the voice of a fawn, upon which the deer came within gun-shot of him. Lieutenant Hoppner returned soon after, and reported that tfie ice was in motion, which was soon confirmed by our observing a large field of ice floating to the cji^twayd, at the rate of a mile an hour. ^ -f r^oiiTiir.RN KLc;io.\Sr oo '• V\'(3 bad now the misfortune to lose one of our <^oanicn, who had been long ill, and whose com- plaint gradually increased, notwithstanding the skill and care of our medical man. ** On the following Sunday, after divine service, poor Scott was buried ; we walked in procession to hisgrave, which was dug on a level piece of ground, near the beach; the flags were lowered, and every man and oflicer attended the remains of our unfor- tunate shipmate to the grave : the solemnity of the burial service, and the peculiarity of our situation, made it a very impressive scene. A neat tomb- stone was afterwards placed at the head of the grave, and the name of the deceased carred upon it by Mr. Fisher. , " The snow was now gradually disappearing ; the waters, which had flowed in torrents down the ravines, were becoming passable, the ice was thaw- ing, and we looked forward at length to being once again at liberty to continue our discoveries. But it was already the middle of July, and we could not reflect without pain on the shortness of the seasofi, before winter would again returo to bury us once more in snow and ice. " Our ships had been ready to sail some days ; our hunting parties were recalled, and, desirous to make a move from a spot, on which we had most un- willingly passed nearly ten months (and long ones they had appeared to us,) we weighed anchor on .the 25th of July, at half past two o'clock. Our progress at first was trifling, but on the last day of the month the wind changed, and the whole body of ice in the harbour was perceived to be slowly moving out to the south-east, breaking away at the points which form the entrance of the harbour. As we v>'cre on the point of sailing once maxc^ Captain Jj^ oG NORTHERN REGIONS* Parry left instructions with the Griper in case o(* separation, and after embarking our clocks, tents, and observatory, we took our leave of Winter Har- bour on the anniversary of that day on which we had the preceding year began our discoveries, at the entrance of Sir James Lancaster's Sound. *' We sailed round Point Hearne, and steered to the west, but the wind was against us, and the broken pieces of ice obstructed us much ; added to which, it was found that the Griper sailed worse than ever, and detained us at least seven miles a day. This, in the short season which we had to look forward to, was a great inconvenience, and we began to have serious thoughts of taking in the Griper's crew, and finishing the voyage in the Hecla alone. We^continued coast ing, and frequent*- ly landed to gather sorrel, and what little game wc could find. We then passed the place where we had been detained so long last September, and where Mr. Fife and his companions were so nearly lost ; and we recognized as an old acquaintance the berg to which we had been anchored, as well as the pile of stones we had erected on the hill above it. When we reached Cape Providence, we could perceive that there was a free and open channel beyond the western extremity of Melville Island, but the want of a breeze vexatiously prevented us from pushing on as we anxiously wished. " Beyond Cape Hay we were again stopped by the ice, and were forced to secure the Hccia in the best birth we could find for her. "We noticed, on the land near this place, what appeared to |is to be a high wall, built with large stones, and Captain Sabine went to examine it.- — He found it to be composed of sand stones^ land, fbrmcd by ^he wa:sbing away of the rock and eartU .^'•.jW ^^;'^ NORTHERN REGIONS. m aside of it. Large flocks of glaucous gulls had <;hosen it as a secure retreat from foxes, and these birds were so fierce in defence of their young, that until a few shots had been fired it literally was not safe to approach them. ** The ice continued very troublesome, the floeS perpetually threatening us, and absolutely prevent- ed us from stirring. A musk-ox came near enough to be shot, and it aftbrded us excellent food.'' ** Is its flesh like beef, then, uncle .'*" asked Charles. "The flavour is peculiar, but it appeared as it hung up as fine beef as could be seen in an Eng- lish market. A small seal, too, was caught atid eaten by the Griper's crew, who declared that it was tender and good, though it did not look so, being of a red colour. " On the ninth of August the body of ice, which had been within a quarter of a mile of us, was seen to advance, and soon after a piece of a floe whi^'h was between it and the Hecla, received the whole pressure of it as it came in. It split in several di^ rcctions with a great crash, and we presently saw a part raised slowly and majestically, and deposit- ed on another part of the floe from which it had broken. The ice where it had split was of a fine blue, transparent, and quite solid. *' The mass of ice which had been lifted in this manner having drifted to us the next day, we me«i- 8ured it, and found it to be forty-two feet in thick- ness, which you know was prodigious. This gave us very serious reflections. In fact we were con- vinced that the icy sea to the south-west of Melville Island, was peculiarly unfavourable to navigation. We had arrived here, as you may remember, in ^^pptcmbcr, 1819. after a strong nprth-wcst wind-, 58 NORTHERN REGIONS. which alone can be expected to open the ice in this quarter, and here aflfain we were obstructed the following August, after finding a clear sea all the first fifty miles from Winter Harbour. The ice not only was of increased thickness, but it pressed so closely together that no opening was afforded. ** Our situation indeed was very dangerous, ev- ery detached piece of ice that was drifted to us, gave our ship a shock which its strength alone en- abled it to supj)ort. The Griper was forced on shore again, and nearly lost, and we were hourly contemplating a similar fate for the Hecla. The wreck of both ships appeared inevitable, and the ^•llicers were assembled on board the Hecla to con- sult upon what should be done ; a sudden change of wind, however, relieved us for a time from our fears, and allowed us to guin a situation of tolera- ble security. ^ * ' ** The dangers, and the certainty that he could not proceed far westward in this latitude, deter- mined Captain Parry to watch for an opening in the ice to steer southward a little ; and accordingly we put back to Cape Providence, where the ice be- ing more close than before, our ships were no longer manageable. Our ships received most ter- rible shocks, and being in danger of becoming ^ beset* ^3ea, we made our way to the largest piece of grourmfid ice we could find, to which we fasten- ed ourselves. *' These vexatious delays, and the constant dan- ger which attended the ships, disheartened us; much, for already half the navigable season was past. Our captain thought he could scarcely be justified in persevering in the attempt to get west- ward, and he addressed a letter to all the oflicers, rec|ucstin^ ^heir advice upon the subject. \\\ NORTHERN REGIONS. 59 )cn the ice in re obstructed clear sea all lour. The ice Jut it pressed vas afforded, angerous, ev- irifted to us, gth alone en- >vas forced on were houil) Hecla. The able, and the Hecla to con- idden change ime from our ion of tolera- hat he could :itude, deter- 1 opening in I accordingly e the ice he- ps were no ed most ter- f becoming argest piece 1 we fasten- )nstant dan- jartened Ufc: '' Now, Chartes, you look very serious ; what do you think of the matter?" ** Why, uncle, I am not for returning yet, till you have tried navigating a little to the south ; and an- other thing I want to know, which is, whether your stock of provisions would hold out, and your coal," answered Charles. " Very true, my boy, every thing should betaken into consideration, for the health and lives of many brave men depend upon the Judicious conduct of their commander. An examination was according- ly made of our stores and provisions, and it appear- ed that they would at the present allowance last till November 1821, and if a greater reduction was^ made, that they would last till the end of the fol- lowing April ; our fuel could be made to last to the end of November 1821, but only by taking in the Griper's crew to live on board the Hecla for six of the winter months, and that would be a very un- healthy plan. Our ships, to be sure, were nearly as good as when we left home, and our men were all healthy. " However, the officers sent in their answers, and they were all of one opinion, that it was in vain to attempt to penetrate farther west, but that it would be desirable to look out for an opening in the ice southward ^ and to endeavour to reach the northern shores of America ; and in case that plant Fhould fail or be delayed too long, that it would be best to return home to En^rland at once. " You do not look so much disappointed as I expected, Charles, and therefore I suppose you are fully impressed with the necessity we all felt of acting according to the dictates of sober reason, rather than o( following inclination, which might })crhaps have induced /some of the adventurous II GO NORTHERN REGIONS. Spirits among us to endure the ri^urs of another winter, rather than return baffled of our hopes, and disappointed of our reward. * ** But to continue my narrative : we soon doub- led Point Hearne, and passed Bounty Cape ; there we observed that the snow which fell during the day did not thaw, a proof that the glass was below freezing point, and that another long and dreary \vinter was beginning. ** The channel, however, increased in width, and when we had sailed eight miles beyond the east- ern point of Melville Isle, we could perceive that it was ten miles in width. We kept close to the edge of the ice, in hopes of finding an opening in it to the southward, but not a single break could be discovered. ** It was a singular fact, that we arrived within four or five miles of the same spot where we had been on the same day and the same hour the year before, and that the ships were forced, as they had been then, to steer by one another, for want of a better mode of knowing in what direction they were driving. The fog froze hard upon the rig- ging, and made it difiicult to handle the ropes. ** You may trace us now, as we pursued our route without many adventures, passing Cape Cockburn in Bathurst Isle. The ice to the south- ward was composed of large floes, often without a crack for many miles together, and their surface as smooth and glassy as a bowling-green. We found, however, that the ice was leading us to the nortli of Cxarret Island, instead of the south which we had passed the preceding year, and which wirs now completely blocked up by ice. **In passing between Garrett and Bathurst is)- i^nds, we found a new one, whicU vve n.amed Baker i NORTHERN REGIONS 61 Island, and ittihe night we passed two other small ones, which Captain Parry named successively Brown and Somerville Islands. Cornwallis and Griffith Islands we left to the north, and took a. southward direction, hoping to find a passage to the west of Cape Bunny. But our hopes were again disappointed, the ice was as compact here as in every other place, and no resource was left us except to steer on to the east. ** We had now an opportunity of examining the land to the south, of which we had as yet only taken a distant glimpse, ar.dof nami ig all its most promi- nent points; Cape RenniM was called after Major Rennell, the ablest gaogra^her o^the ige. We then crossed Gamier Bay, and so< ; came to Cape Clarence, which is its most easterly pc'nt. The land along which we hadji.ai been sailhi^ Captain Parry named North Soirierset, in honour of his native country, while to the northern shore of Bar- row's strait he gave the name of North Devon, in honour of that of his brother commander, Lieu- tenant Liddon. ^ . '* Thus we had traced the ice for twenty-four degrees, without finding any opening by which we might hope to penetrate it southwards, and there- fore it was thou^' f advisable to return at once to England, to give aa account of the discoveries wc had made, and if his Majesty should think fit to be ready to c'^ ':■■ * -y , , .*- . iV ■ ~ I ,i ■''V;. i PART II. IlLa't,,!. .f.,,, ^, CHAPTER I. Uncle Richard had gone his second voyage with Captain Parry, and his return was anxious- ly awaited by Tom and Charles, both of whom had been left behind, notwithstanding they would willingly have accompanied him ; Charles, indeed, was too young, but his active and enterprising mind made him particularly well suited to the life of a sailor, preparing himself for which occupied all his thoughts* His little ship Hecla had long since given way to one of larger dimensions, which,, made under the auspices of Uncle Richard, was an exact model of the real Hecla; this he generally kept secured in a dry dock, which he had built in a recess of the large pool near the house, and eve- ry now and then the sails were unfurled, and the breeze ^vas allowed to waft it across the water* His constant companion was ihe Esquimaux dog, whioh his uncle had left as bis especial charge, and which was so far (amed as to know bow to obey the voice of his young master, although he was still a terror to all stran^rers* %%^- NORTHERN REGIONS. 67 Tom had made another short cruise, and had added to his store of information much valuable *^knowledge. Nothing escaped his observation, and when his curiosity was once excited, he had no rest until he had learnt all he could upon the sub- ject of it ; he had never felt more interested than by his uncle Richard's narrative, and every book in the study had been searched through and through for accounts of northern adventurers. January 1824 brought no news of uncle Richard, but our youthful sailors were summoned by their father, to hear the adventures of Captain Frank- lin, who had been sent out to make discoveries on the northern coast of America. " I must tell you," said their father, who himself undertook to relate these adventures to his sons, " that the object of this expedition was to visit the mouth of the Copper-mine River in North Ameri- ca, and from thence to trace out the northern coast in an easterly direction ; to correct the geo- graphy of that part of the world, and to gain such information as to the bays, harbours, and rivers^ of that shore, as might be useful to Captain Par- ry, or any future voyager^ " Captain Franklin was accompanied by Dr.. Richardson, Mr. Back, Mr. Hood and James Hep- burn, a faithful English seaman ; the whole party embark 3d at Gravesend on board the Prince of Wales, on the 23d of May, 1819. This ship be- longed to the Hudson Bay trading company, and had for its consorts the Eddy stone and Wear. The wind was unfavourable, and they were obliged to anchor at Yarmouth, where an unlucky incident happened, which damped the sj irits of the party for a time. The officers all went on shore at Yar- niuutb, when a favourable gale springmg up, the : 51 11 68 NORTHERN REGIONS. commander of the vessel found it necessary to set sail immediately, in order to get through the intri- cate passage, called the Cockle-gat, before dark ; he fired signal guns, and his passengers hastened to embark, all but Mr. Beck, who unfortunately was gone two or three miles distance, on business, along the coast, wheie he fancied he should be able to watch the first movements of the ships; by some accident, however, this was not the case, and he was left behind. Tlic ships hnd a fair wind, and after passing the bold projecting rock called John o'Groat's House, anchored at Stromness. ** It was thought advisable here to engage boat- men to accompany the expedition, lest the party should be detained when they arrived in Hudson's Bay, and therefore a notice for volunteer boatmen was put up on the church door of every parish." Tom. ** That seems a singular way of letting people know, papa." " It would by no means be an effectual way in England, Tom; but in Scotland, the lower classes never fail in attending divine service every Sunday. " The notice was given, and the day fixed upon for a meeting, when several men came, but none would promise to attend the service, th-^' *^ some of them said they would consider about *t ; and ac- cordingly, the following morning, four men only presented themselves, who, after great hesitation, agreed to accompany the party, provided they should be taken no farther than to Fort Chipewy- an, and sent back to the Orkneys free of expense : this caution is strikingly different from an English sailor, who enters readily mto an enterprise, how- ever hazardous, without a thought or inquiry. " Captain Franklin and his companions, having settled this affair, were about to sail, and were in NORTHERN REGIONS. 60 the midst of the gaieties of a ball, when the door opened and Mr. Back appeared, who had travelled by the coach for nine days without stopping in or- der to reach them ; it seemed that he came down to the beach near Yarmouth just as the ships were passing, and applied to a boatman to row him to them, who, taking advantage of his anxiety to join the ships, asked more money than Mr. Back had about him, and the man consequently refused to assist him. " On the 16th June the ships weighed anchor, cleared some dangerous rocks off the Pomona shore, and entered at once into the Atlantic ; their progress was so slow, that it was the latter end of July before they entered Davis's Strait. " The ships were not long before they were en- tangled in a heavy stream of ice, through the nar- row channels of which they steered with difficulty, for the weather was very foggy ; one of the ice- bergs was one hundred and forty-nine feet in height, and too soon were our voyagers visited with all the horrors of the region they had entered. — The currents ran in strong eddies between the masses of ice, and the Eddystone was perceived to be driving rapidly towards one of these masses. The boats of the Prince of Wales and the Wear were dispatched to assist in towing the Eddystone clear of the bergs, when the former ship was dis- covered to be quite unmanageable ; the fog pre- vented its crew from seeing which way it w as driving, till they beheld a barren, ragged shore within a fewyards, towering over their mast heads ; the ship almost instantly struck with violence on a point of rocks, and was brought close to the shore ; the blow displaced the rudder, and the current forcing the vessel along, an alarming prospect open ill I ij I :i « a 1 1 'i : % NORTHERN REGIbNS. ed to the crew ; on one side was a steep clifi' whose summit was hid in fog, and on the other a fimall bay, into which the ship was at length tossed. Shipwreck was every moment expected, till another blow from the rocks replaced the rudder, which en- abled the crew to take advantage of alight breeze, and direct the ship's head away from the cliff; but the breeze was only for a moment ; again was the ship driven to shore, and again rescued by a swell, which enabled the sailors to turn her head once more to the sea, and escape from the danger of shipwreck : a few moments only were allowed them to rejoice, for the current forced the ship violently against an iceberg, and her situation was more frightful than ever ; all was confusion, the female passengers and children rushed upon deck with fearful looks, in spite of the endeavours of the offi- cers to keep them below ; the ship was driven with amazing rapidity along the steep side of the berg, and every one expected that it would be dashed against the rocks, but it escaped this danger most providentially." " Thank goodness it was not the Hecla," ex- claimed Charles ; " and now, papa, pray let us hear how the poor consorts fared." " Stop, Charles, (answered his papa,) for the Prince of Wales is not yet safe : a leak was dis- covered, which let in water very fast. All hands were employed in pumping, and signals of distress made to the Eddystone, whose commander came on board, and set his men to assist. The leak, not- withstanding, increased, so that both officers and passengers united to bale out the water in buckets; the sails were split, and the ship surrounded by ice. The crew were obliged to rest from this severe la- bour for a short time in the night, but the watei' \ f NORTH EUN regions. 71 next morninflf was so alarmingly increased, thpt they had to set to work more vigorously than be- fore — but with very ill success, and their strength was just failing them when the> thought of trying an experiment ; this was of thrusting in felt and oakum, over which they nailed a plank, and before night, to their great joy, the leak was stopped up. As they still thought that they sliould be forced to leave the ship, they sent their old women and chil- dren to the Eddystone ; the young women were so active at the pumps that they were allov.ed to re- main. " Their own ship was now in safety, but when daylight re-appeared the Wear was no where to be found, and all feared that she had been shipwreck- ed on that barren shore.'* Tom. " But, papa, you have not told us what shore it was." " It was Resolution Island, at the very entrance of Hudson's Strait. *' The ships were now abreast of this island, but did not land here, proceeding to Saddleback Island, the next place of rendezvous, where still they found no traces of the Wear. JXot thinking it prudent to wait, they continired their voyage, and soon made Upper Savage Ish nd, where they steered close to shore, in order to allow the Esquimaux to visit them. A loud shout soon proclaimed a party of them at hand, even before their canoes could be perceived. '* They brought with them oil, whalebone, sea- horses' teeth, seal-skin dresses, deer skins and horns, and models of their canoes ; and they re- ceived in exchange small saws, nails, tin kettles^ knives, and needles. '* Captain Franklin noticed a droll practice n NORTHERN REGIONS. f among these Esquimaux, which I do not remeiu- ber uncle Richard to have mentioned, which is, that they always, when they received a thing in exchange, licked it with their tongues, as a finish to the bargain, and as a sign that it now belonged to themselves. Even so small an article as a nee- dle passed through this ceremony. ** Knives and saws were held in the greatest estimation; and the same shout was setli[» when- ever they received any thing that pleased them. ** One old man received a rusty sword from the Eddystone, and his exclamations of delight were extravagant. ** These people had some ingenuity, considering that they are without iron, and consequently with- out any instruments for working with ; the figures of men, women, animals, and birds carved out of sea horses' teeth, which the women brought, were not badly executed, though without eyes, fingers, or ears. They took a delight in mimicking the sounds and gestures of the Englishmen, and laughed ama- zingly when the Englishmen pronounced any of their words. On the whole these Esquimaux were very similar to those whom Captain Parry had seen, and as great beggars. " Captain Franklin took leave of this band of Esquimaux, and a favourable gale soon took our voyagers to the termination of Hudson's Strait. Here they parted with the Eddystone, who was bound to Moose Factory, which you will find mark- ed on the map at the bottom of the bay, and shap- ed their course across to York Factory, where to their great delight they found theii* long lost con- sort the Wear. Her adventures were shortly told : a large mass of ice had drifted in between the ship and the rock and thus providentially saved her ; ¥^^ ir NORTHERN REGIONS. 73 es, as a finish tide as a nee- and a fresh breeze had sprung up and enabled her to pursue her voyage. The cumuiunder visited the Prince of Wales, and was received as one saved from the dead. " York Factory, which you will find, Tom, at the mouth of the Hays River, is a grand depot of Hudson's Bay Trading Company. The principal buildings are in the form of a square, two stories high, and have flat roofs covered with lead ; the servants' houses are ranged on the outside, and the whole is fenced by a high mound. It is built on a marshy spot of ground, and the only walk the people have is on a platform, from the build in ^ere left to be assured Cap. irits, could be 3rt, and three their leave, in ourney. len the crew , or dragging und their bo- arly unpleas- p bank wh ch nd every now had fallen et they land- ite their sup- s, laid down (( With much fatigue, our party continued their voyage down the river, though their progress was slow, owing to the heavy lading of the boat, anil the rapids. ** To navigate these North American rivers is very different from any species of navigation you have a notion of, Charles. In the first place, the rapids, which are strong currents of water, over rocky bottoms, are very diOicult and dangerous to pass ; besides these, there are every now and then what are called portages, or places through which the boats cannot pass, but nmst be emptied of their cargo, which, as well as the boats themselves, have to be carried across and re!a len at the end of ev- ery portage. The Orkney boatmen were very clever in navigating, and ther exertions amazing : they often jumped intothe water tolift the boat over the rocks, and remained the whole day in their wet clothes. These men will carry immense loads with the utmost cheerfulness. *' Winter set in with a great fall of snow in the middle of September, and found our travellers pur- suing their course down Steel and Hill Rivers till they arrived at a depot on Swampy Lake. From the two only inhabitants of the place they received a supply of mouldy pemmican, which is buffalo meat dried, pounded, and mixed with melted fat. Leaving them to their delicious fare, Capt. Frank- lin proceeded, when lo ! a blazing forest met his eye." Charles. Why this is more wonderful than the walking wood which met William the Con- queror, papa ? " Very true, Charles ; the Indians make fires in the woods, and neglect to put them out, and the if i 76 NORTHERN REGIONS. I *i li III woods being quite dry, easily catch the tianies^ which sometiioes spread for many miles. " On the 2d of October the travellers crossed the White-fall Lake, w'lere they had busy work in carrying the cargoes on their shoulders, and launching their empty boat across several ridges of rock which separate the water, and cause various cascades. The rude grandeur of the mountain scenery struck them much ; rocks hung over rocks in huge and shapeless masses, while the torrent raged at their feet, and the bright green of the mosses which covered the face of the cliffs, was finely contrasted with the dark pines on the top. ** On this spot, they met with a lop stick, or land-mark, made of a pine tree sitripped of all its branches except a tuft at the top. '* This lop stick is a useful guide to travellers, and is generally made by some ambitious youth, who gets together a parcel of young companions, treats them with rum, and they in return strip the tree of its branches, and name it with his name. " Captain Franklin here met with a little acci- dent, which will give you some idea, Charles, of the pleasure of walking in that peculiar country. — While overlooking the men, a bed of moss gave way under his feet, and he slipt from the summit of the rock into the river between two falls. After being carried some way down the stream , he caught hold of a willow, till two gentlemen came in a boat to his rescue. " Nor was the water travelling much less danger- ous. Sometimes they came to dry channels which contained only a foot or two of thin mud. A dam alone would render these places na^^igable, and here and there they met with one constructed by beavers, which, notwithstanding their usefulness. b the iianies; liles. jllers crossed d busy work oulders, and eral ridges of cause various he mountain ng over rocks J the torrent green of the e cliffs, was i on the top. lop stick, 01 tped of all its to travellers, itious youth, companions; urn strip the th his name, a little acci- Charles, of ir country. — )f moss gave the summit ) falls. After m, he caught ime in a boat less danger- mnels which ud. A dam ^igable, and istructed by usefulness. NORTHERN REGIONS. 77 m M the Indians make a point of destroying whenever they meet them. In a single night would these industrious little animals repair the opening that the passage of a boat Had made in their dam. It was early in October that Captain Franklin landed at Norway House, on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, or muddy water. The water of this lake is in fact very muddy, and a droll story is told by the Indians to account for it. One of their dei- ties, according to their account, is a very mischiev- ous little fellow, a kind of Robin Puck ; his name is Weesakootclmst, and he has a good deal of pow- er, which he employs in tormenting. One day, howev^er, an old woman caught him and took him prisoner, and calling in a number of other women to help her, they so covered him with mud, that it took all the waters of the great lake to make him clean again, and the lake has appeared muddy ever since. " After crossing this * Muddy Lake,' they reach- ed the ' Grand Rapid' of the Saskatchawan river. The foam of the water w . ich dashes over the rocks, and forces its way through a narrow bending chan- nel, is a very grand sight ; here a flock of pelicans and some brown eagles were Ashing, undisturbed by the roaring of the cataract, while some beautiful golden plovers, cross-beaks, and woodpeckers, were fluttering about. A delicate little marmot was caught who bore in his pouch a store of vetch for winter use. They crossed the woods to the top of the * '^rand Rapid,* where the scenery was very fine, and pitched their tents at Cross Lake, where their night was enlivened with a most brilliant display of the Aurora Borealis. ' . 7* ' ■■■ ■ .^f :4 78 NORTHERN REGIOIVS. '»'« ** After travelling in this laborious manner through scenes of wild and desolate grandeur, they were not sorry to reach the depot of the Hudson Bay's Company at Cumberland House, where Cap- tain Franklin determined to stop till the winter months were over. It was great enjoyment to l^ave their canoes for a time, and travel about in sledges drawn by dogs, who seemed as pleased with the exercise as the men themselves. The indians in the neighbourhl)od of this depot were in an equally miserable state as those at Vork Factory, the hoop- ing-cough, hunger, and thj measles, making sad havoc among them. Illness prevented them from hunting, and, shocking to relate, instances were mentioned to Captain Franklin of people who had been reduced to the necessity of devouring the bo- dies of their own family to satisfy their hunger* Another sad thing is, that those, who are recovering themselves, give way to such excessive grief and •despondency at the loss of their wives and chil- dren, that they cannot be roused to exertion." Tom* I wonder, papa, that more cannot be done to assist the natives by European traders there. " It is melancholy indeed, for if these poor peo- ple could be instructed in Christianity, their minds would be supported and consoled in the midst of their hardships. This must however be a work of time, and as Captain Franklin states t!iat the pre- sent Governor is endeavouring to establish asch >ol for the younger Indians, I should hope that it would be effected by degrees. " Christmas and New-Year's day were kept up with jollity by this party of Europetins in the midst of the wilds of America, and a beaver was sacrifi- ced to their enjoy ment^ the flesh of which they .iLMk NORTHERN REGIONS. 79 .'^ found very delicate. They were joined in their evening dances by the Canadians. " In fixing their arrangements for the future, Captain Frankhn determined upon taking Mr. Back and Hepburn with him into the Athabasca departments, from whence guides, hunters and in- terpreters could best be procured, whilst Dr. Rich- ardson and Mr. Hood should reinain at Cumber- land House till the spring, and then proceed with the stores to Fort Chipewyan, With regard to the Stromness boatmen, it was settled that they should be despatched to York factory, to fetch up the remaining stores, and then return to the coast, to be ready for the first ship that might sail to the Orkneys. ** Having thus arranged their plans for the future, they had leisure to study the manners and habits of the hordes of Oree Indians, by which the establish- ment was surroundeci. The misery these Indians endured at this time, from the measles and hooping- cough, united with cold and hunger, was extreme. One night, an Indian man came into one of the houses, carrying in his arms the body of a dead child ; he was followed by his wife, ajid they told a sad tale : they had heeo out hunting, they said, but had found no food ; and, while suffering the pangs of hunger, they had all been taken ill. So accustomed is an Indian to a state of starvation, that they did not dwell much on that part of their suf- ferings. Their journey to Cumberland House was a most terrible one ; weakened with illness and of- ten with nothing to eat but a bit of skin, or a few berries, which were, at length, exhausted. For the last four days they had nt)thing to eat, and all their aaxious endeavours coald not save the life of their child ; it died just as they came in sight of h t' ('3? .^ NORTHERN REGIONc*. Cumberland House. The poor parents were in- consolable, the father in particular, who when food was offered him, threw it from him, exclaim- ing * Oh my poor child !* *' It must be allowf^d that these Crqe Indians are improvident and indolent, but they are not without some i^ood feelings, as this anecdote proves : they are hos()itable and peaceable. Their faults are easily accounted for ; as they are hunters, accus- tomed to depend upon chance for their food, they care little for the morrow. They have a habit of boasting, which is, I suppose, to give their ene- mies an idea of their strength, and are ridiculously fearful of the conjuring powers oftheir neighbours. There are noted conjurors, whose saying is, *I am God-like;' and who delude their countrymen in all manner of ways. One of these mighty conjui*ors visited Cumberland House, and gave out that al- though his hands and feet should be tied quite fast, yet, that if he were placed in a conju ring-house, he would undertake to summon two or three familiar spirits who would unloose him. Accordingly a conjuring house was made for him by fastening four willows in the ground, and enclosing them in a hoop at the top : a quantity of ropes were fastened round his body by which he was held fast, and a moose-skin was thrown all over to conceal him. He began a kind of chaunt, but the Indians, who think much more of the powers of a white man, than of those of a spirit, began to fear for him ; at last the conjuring-house shook violently. " One spirit at least is gone into him,' said the Indians ; but alas ! no : it was only the * God-like man,' trembling with cold, for he had gone in naked. He con- tinued his attempts for a few hours, when, find- ing no spirits to release him, he reluctantly gave up ■ l^^ NORTHERN REGIONS. his attempt. The fact was, that whenever the In- dians had tied the cords, he had found no ditKculty in shppin!'!-'H|:;i The Crees have several games, one of which is called mitten, and is played with four balls, three plain ones and one marked ; these four balls are hid under four mittens, and a person is desired to guess which is the marked ball ; if he guesses right he receives a feather, if wrong he gives one ; they have ten feathers, and when one person has got them all in his hand, they begin over again, and di- vide the feathers equally between the players ; and if ihe same person gets the feathers three times, he has won the game, and receives the stakes. " They have another game called the platter, which is more intricate. They take about eij^ht bear's claws, which are covered with lines ; these they shake in a wooden bowl, toss them up in the air and catch them^again ; the claws are cut straight at the broad end, and if they happen to stand up- right on this b;».;ad end when they come down again, they couiit the lines on the uppermost part, aud receive so many counters from the person they are playing with. - " *' They likewise play at a game called the cross, in which they have high stakes ; these stakes are either tied to a post, in a large pasture chosen for the game, or given to the care of two old men. — Two parties prepare for the contest by being ran- fred on each side the field, stripped, painted, and armed with a kind of battledore in the shape of the letter P; the handle of this battledore is of some length, aud its Lead is made of loose net-work, which forms a shallow bag ; this is called the cross. A ball is thrown up into the air, which each party try either to knock into their home or goal, or to catch in their net bags ; if they succeed in doing this, they jerk it out for some one else to knock it on to the home, and the other party are just as ea* m NORTHERN REGIONS. B3 »gev to strike it back to their*s ; this kinjr built a teinplii, or swcatiii^-house of arched wiiiovvs, lari^e enough to hold about twelve men ; in shape it was like an ovi^n, and was covered with moose skins, exceiit ontheeast side, which was left open to serve as a door ; a dozen red hot stones, with a few leaves scattercid about them, were put into a hole in the ground in the centre of the tent ; all was prepared for the hunter, who came forward : he was naked, and held in his hand an image of the god, rudely carved; this he placed at the upper part of the sweating- house, and proceeded to fasten his offerings round the neck of the image ; a cotton handkerchief, a looking glass, a tin box, a piece of ribbon, and a morsel of tobacco were the costly of- ferings which he presented to the god, and for which he had paid as many as twenty skins. W hile the hunter was soengaged, many of his brother In- dians entered the tent after undressing themselves, and ranged themselves on each side ; the hunter squatted down on the floor by the side of his be- loved image, and made a speech to it, told it what valuable presents he had made it, and desired it not to be ungrateful. He then set up a hymn, the chorus of which was, * I will walk with god, I will go with the animal,' in which chorus all the others joined ; then he took a pipe filled with tobacco and bear-berry leaves, and moved it slowly round and round over the red-hot stones ; the mouth of the pipe was then held to that of the image, then to- Mrds the earth, and then, in an equally solemn I*' to all the four quarters of the sky ; then he drew a ^-^ whifis from the pipe, passed it to his net ur, and so on round to the whole party ; when jwe pipe was emptied, the hunter made ano- ^piv prayer to the god, a hymn followed, and some ih:^ NORTHERN REGIONS. * l9 more water v;as sprinkled upon the hot'stones, and the attendants closed the temple by covering it with moose skins. The heat was intense, not only to the people within, but to the spectators on the outside, who were all perspiring freely ; the wor- shippers remained in the sweating-house half an fiour, and the covering was then thrown off, and the half stewed beings exposed to the air; after this ceremony was quite over, the sweaters scam- pered off to the river and plunged into it. ** With regard to a future state, an old Indian named Blackfoot, told Captain FrankHn, that it was a tradition among them, that the souls of the dead scramble up the sides of a steep rock, on the top of which they find a beautiftil plain with all sorts of game in it, and new tents pitched here and there ; they then see the inhabitants who come up to them, and in new seal-skin dresses welcome the good to the happy land ; while those who have led bad lives, are sent back and thrown down the steep rock which they had been ascending. ** Women who have been guilty of infanticide, or of killing their own children, are never admitted, into the happy country, but wander about, with branches of trees tied to their legs. They are sup- posed to he always moaning, and in still summer evenings the screams of the goatsucker are mista- ken for the groans of these poor women. " The painful operation of tattooing is here practised : the women, in general, are tattooed only in lines, down from the corners of the mo^th to the lower jaw ; but the men's whole bodie^^ arc completely covfircd with lines and figures* J|l is considered ratVer as a proof of courage, ti„f ft of ornament, for the operation is «^ very painfiu one, ;. di! Ill' •'■ 'ij I If l! 1) i h.iAM NORTIIERrv REGIONS. and lasts several days. The lines in the face art; made by a kind of awl which pierces the skin, un- der which is drawn a string dipped in charcoal water. The lines in the body are done with nee- dles set in a frame. A number of hells are fixed to the frame, which by tijeir jingling hide the groans of the person who h !;Ging tattooed, singing also goes on at the same time. One of the In- dians who had his arm cut offby Dr. Richardson, declared, that tattooing was much the most pain- ful operation of the two. ** The seesequay, a kind of rattle, and the Crcc drum, are the two musical instruments of the people. In the latter they have great faith ; an instance may be given in the poor man before mentioned, who came to the fort and had lost his child; exhausted as he was he would not leave behind an enormous drum, which he carried at his back. ** I could relate to you, my boys, a number of other characteristics of these wild people, which would surprise you, but I am anxious to accom- pany our voyagers, some of whom now prepared to leave Cumberland-house.'* " Papa, I expect some extraordinary adven- tures, for I think they have got into a wild kind of a place," cried Charles. f <1, . "^iK->J. ■ «r . '♦h: « '■ NORTHERN REGIONS. 87 CHAPTER II. *' In beginning the travels of our countrymen,! must describe their equipment, which you will think somewhat extraordinary. Their snow shoes for in- stance, which you must not im{\gine to resemble the neat leathei shoes which so exactly fit your feet, Charles. These are made of two light bars of wood, fastened to*. .er at each end, the front turn- ing up, and the back ending in a point ; the spaces between the bars are filled up with a fine netting formed of leather strips every w^here except where the feet go in. They are so contrived, that the heel rises while the back of the shoe goes down, and remains level with the snow ; the length of this elegant little shoe is from four to six feet, and its breadth a foot and a half. " A capot, or fur cap, under which a hood is worn in cold weather, leather trowsers, and Indian stockings, with a blanket over all, secured round the waist by a belt, in which is suspended afire-bag, knife and hatchet, completed the dress which our travellers put on for their journey. " Their sledges were made of two or three flat boards curved up in front and fastened by cross bars of wood, with carioles, or pieces of leather, which are aflixed to the sledge, and form a cover- ing for the lower part of the body, and each sledge was drawn by three dogs. ** The party consisted of Captain Franklia, Mr. Back, and Hepburn, and several sledges full of traders. 'jf IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 128 U£ lu ». I 2.2 Ui lb u I- u E 1.25 III 1.4 1 1.6 -■ 6" ^ Ta v2 ^ ^. ^> ^. Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MSSO (716) 872-4503 4^ \ 5V ^\ < k •$• I/. ^^ (/. ^' 88 NORTHERN REGIONS. - ■*",. " When they were on their second day's journey, they met Mr. Isbester, whose employment during the winter is to follow and find the Indians, and get their furs in order to send them to £ngland and elsewhere. And little do we think of the trouble and danger there is in procuring this luxury and or- nament ; for it can hardly be culled a necessary in our mild climate. He was going in search of a band of Indians, of whom nothing had been heard for four months, and his only guide for finding them was, that they had promised to hunt in a parti<*u!ar place at a particular time. This place was about six or seven days' journey from the place in which he then was, and he had provisions to last him till he could reach it ; but it might happen, as it often had before, that the Indians had left, and that a fall of snow had hidden their foot marks, and then where was he to look for a supply of food ? It was not many weeks before, that he, and his s«^rvant> and dogs, were four days without food, and were just 9n the point of killing one of the dogs to satisfy their hunger, when he happily met with the Indians* " Wolves, red-deer, and foxe» crossed the path of our travellers several times. A wolf passed close to a man who was beating a track in the snow, but did not attempt to touch him. Wolves are inferior in speed to the red or moose deeri whom they get at therefore by stratagem. When they see a herd of deer grazing near a cliff, they as- semble in numbers, form a crescent, and creep gen* tly, so as not to alarm the deer, till they are quite near to them. When they have surrounded them so that the deer cannot escape, they set up hideous yells, which so terrify these poor animals, that they set off full speed and arc easily driven down tho "% f'l'tf s journey, nt during lians, and gland and Se trouble ry and or- cessary in arch of a een heard ding them parti'^ular kvas about 3 in which »t him till as it often that a fall and then ^? It was s*^rvant> and were to satisfy ^Indians* the path f passed k in the Wolves )se deerj I. When ', they as- eep gen- ire quite ed them hideous hat they wn tho I'M /Wy# &ORTHERN REGIONS. 89 cliff by their enemies, who then descend at leisure and devour the mangled carcases. ** The country through which Captain Franklin was now travelling was not utterly desolate. Here and there they met with an old deserted house, in which the travellers took up their station for a night, the wolves serenading them without the walls with their hideous yells. As they approached Carl- ton House their provisions became very scanty, and the dogs were allowed to eat only scraps of burnt leather ; the cold was very great, and even whilst walking they had difficulty in preventing their skin from being frozen. They were delighted there- fore to reach the good quarters of Carlton House, where they were hospitably regaled with a hot dish of buffalo steaks. *' Captain Franklin suffered too much from swef- led ankles, owing to walking in the heavy snow shoes, to proceed immediately ; Mr. Back and himself, therefore, went to visit some Stone Indians who lived in the adjoining plains. The character of these people is not very pleasing, though their looks are prepossessing ; they are very treacher- ous, and dreadful thieves, particularly of horses, which, they say, were sent by the Almighty for the general use of man, and therefore that they have a right to take them wherever they find them. Be- sides this they strip defenceless people, when they meet them, of all their clothes, especially those who have buttons about them, and leave them to find their way home without them, however cold the weather may be. The traders have such a drerd of them that they keep men on guard while they sleep, for fear of being surprised by these people, who do not hesitate to murder if they caq. These 8* I 00 NORTHERN REGIONS. Stone Indians arc of a light copper colour, with a profusion of black hair, on which they string beads, buttons and small coral bells, the tinkling of which when they move their heads, pleases these wild creatures. Their features are regular ; they ai'e tall and well made, and their dresses neat and con^ venient. A waistcoat and trowsers of leather cover their body closely, and a buftalo robe thrown grace- fully over all. These dresses are cleaned with white mud, a kind of marl, and look bright contrast- ed with their jetty locks. Their quiver hangs behind them, and in their hand they carry a bow and ar- row ready for attack or defence ; a bag ornament- ed with porcupine quills, and filled with materi- als for lighting a fire, a calumet or pipe, and to- bacco completes his equipment. The Stone In- dians are on friendly terms with their neighbours, the Cress, and join in acts of hostility to the Slave Indians, who are like themselves, a desperate set of men. Captain FrankHn was fortunately pre- vented, by a fall of snow, from visiting an en- campment of these Stone Indians, for though they may receive a visiter kindly, and treat him hospi- tably, yet they generally send two or three young men to waylay and rob him on his way home." Charles. '* Oh ! papa,, wliat a disgusting ac- count ! and how very different are these Stone Indians from the poor Crees, who, in the midst of misery, are kind hearted." " I agree with you, Charles, and to be surround- ed with such human beings, must be far worse than to be left alone with wolves and bears, unless there could be hopes of taming and civilizing these bar- barous people. I turn with pleasure from these barbarians to give you some further account of the Crces, whose encampment in the same neighbour- fc»'*fj NORTHERN REGIONS. 91 hood our travellers had the curiosity to visit, as well as a buffalo pound. Seven tents formed the encampment ; the chief occupied the largest, and welcomed them with a hearty shake of the hand, and * What cheer !* As their visit had been ex- pected, the tents had been prepared ; fresh grass was strewed upon the ground, buffalo robes placed for them to sit upon, and the kettle upon the fire, ready to boil meat. Our travellers invited the chief to smoke with them, and the news was shout- ed through the camp, which brought a number of hunters to join the party. The women and chil- dren withdrew, according to the etiquette of the country. The calumet or pipe was lighted, and presented to the chief, who pointed it to the south, west, north, and oast, and then to the heavens, the earth, and the fire, as an offering to the spirits who presided. He then took three whiffs, gave it to another, who did the same, and so it went round the party. Some rum and water was then present- ed to the chief, who, before he drank, took a fea- ther, and, dipping it in the cup, sprinkled some up- on the ground, uttering a prayer each time. He prayed to the Great Spirit, that buffaloes might come in abundance to the pound ; then he prayed that other animals, and particularly those whose fur was valuable, might be plentiful ; then he prayed that the whole party miprht escape sickness, and ma- ny other prayers. At the end of every prayer the hunters cried out " aha :" the old man then drank a little, and passed the cup round. The whole party then smoked and conversed, and our tra sel- lers would have been glad enough, if their inter- preters could have related to them all the conver- sation, for it appeared very humorous, and pro- duced much laughing among themselves. fi^ ?'■• 11 i|i i2«B3KI' ■\\m 1 I iNORTlIERN REGIONS. Some Stone Indians came into the camp, but one only of them entered the tent, as they are not ;^reat friends with the Crces. Captain Franklin, by means of the interpreter, bego^ed the Crees to continue to behave kindly to the traders, and he jiromised to mention their good conduct to their ** great father" beyond the sea, which is the name the natives give to the king of England. ** The buffalo pound was a circular space, fenc- ed in and banked up with snow at the entrance, to prevent the buffaloes from getting out, after they had once been in. For about a mile leading to the pound a number of tall stakes were driven into the ground, which *he buffaloes mistake for men, and which prevent them from running out. A number of Indians lie concealed behind branches of trees at some distance froYn the povnids, while a party of horsemen chase the buffalo into the road leading to it. They shout and drive on the poor animals, and as they get nearer, the concealed Indians rise and set up another shout, which so bewilders the buffa- loes, that they hurry into the pound, and an arrow or gun soon despatches them." Tom. This mode of hunting the buffalo, papa, is something like that of hunting elephants in the island of Ceylon. Papa. " The Crees, who, as you have learn- ed from what I have related to you, are a very re- ligious people, have always a large tree in the centre of the pound, on which they hang strips of buffalo skin, as grateful offerings to the Great Mas- ter of Life ; and they often place a man in this tree to sing to the presiding spirit until the hunt is over and.the buffaloes all killed. ** Carlton House, which is a little provision post for the traders in fur, is pleasantly situated near NORTHERN REGIONS. 1)3 the river. The land about it is fertile, and pro- duces wheat, barley, and potatoes, and in winter the provisions are furnished by the Indians in the form of dried meat and fat. A steep bank rises above the house, beyond which is an immeasurable plain, in travelling across which, the trader finds his horse for ever stumbling in badger holes, and besides suffering from thirst and hunger, meets with no fuel to warm him except the dried dung of buffaloes. ' 7 * j^ * '^ ^ * " Pemmican is the principal food for voyagers as the least bulky, and is made of buffalo meat, dried by the Indians in the sun, spread on a skin, and pounded with stones. They bring it in this state to the forts, where the hair is sifted from it, and melted fat kneaded into it. It is then squeezed tight into leathern bags, hung out to cool, is fit for use, and if kept dry will be good a year or two. " As soon as Captain Franklin and his party were recovered from their fatigue, they made pre- parations for continuing their journey to Isle & la Crosse. Captain Franklin and Mr. Back were mounted on horseback, and the carioles and sledg* cs filled with provisions. It was February, the weather was tolerably warm, and as they met with deer, partridges, and rabbits, they had an abundant Supply of food which was particularly agreeable to their Canadian voyagers, who were very ravenous kind of people. They stopped for a time at the Company 's trading posts at the Green Lake, where they heard that provisions were likely to be very scarce farther north, and they accordingly wrote to Dr. Richardson, requesting him to bring as much as his canoes would hold. On leaving Green Lake they were favoured with a friendly salute of §uns, which were fired by women, the men being ■\ >*•-• irii" If f 01 NORTHERN RIXIONS. absent hunting. Thoy crossed the woods to the JJeavcr river, the banks of wliich were adorned with pines, willows, and po|)lars. Woods destroyed by fire every where met their eyes, and a very de- solate appearance it gave to the country. While the party were passing throup^h a deep glen, they came up to the remains of an Indian hut. The ra- pacious Canadians, hoping to find something to cat, pulled oflf the cover of a pile of wood which was near it, when to their surprise, they found the body of a woman in a leather dress, which evident- ly had been placed there very recently. The clothes she had formerly worn lay beside her, to- gether with materials for making a fire, a hatchet, and a bark-dish and a fishing line. An owl was sit- ting on atrecjust^^by, which the Canadians thought ominous, and covering up the pile again, proceeded. They next passed several lakes and swamps, till they came to Train Lake, from which traders get their birch to build sledges or traineaux ; there they met some sledges full of fish sent them from Isle & la Crosse. They • ame the next day to the Company's house at Isle ^ la Crosse lake, and were hospitably received. The Indians assemble to play at the game of the Cross in an island of this lake, which accounts for its name, and it is celebrated also for a fish called the tittameg. ** After a short rest here, our party went travel- ling along by Clear Lake and Buffalo Lake to Beaver River, enlivened by the paddling songs of their Canadian voyagers, and illuminated by the aurora borealis, which was particularly fine. At the fort here they had a dance, which the residents always expect to be treated with on the arrival of any stranger. \1 iNORTIILRN REGIONS. i).J ** Pursuing their journey tliey came to Mcthye Portage, where the scenery was very grand, even though it was winter. Ileie they overtook a party ofChipewyan Indians, and smoked a cahimet in the tent of tlie cliief, whose name was Thumb. Mr. Back drew a picture of one of Thumb's sons, with which the father was liighly dehghted, and lie rliarged the boy to be very good, since his picture had been drawn by a great chief. *' They came to another Chiriewyan tent, the chief of whom was named the Sun, and he had five sons who were luinters. FJotli of these fiimi- hes were very disconsolate at the loss of some re- lations, nor could tlie travellers get any infornui- tion from them. " They next arrived at a station in the Athabas- ca department, called Pierre; au calumet, whi ** At the foot of Moose-deer island they enga Pierre St. Germain as interpreter to the expeditiolii biU could not get a farther supply of provision. " After crossing the Great Slave Lake, they reached Fort Providence, wheft Mr. Wentzel had procured for them an Indian guide; Mr. Wentzel was a trader, whose business was to make arrange- ments with the Indian hunters, and distribute stores and provisions to the European traders. • " And now our travellers held their first confer- ence with the Indians who were to assist them in their expedition,and accordingly they dressed them- Iblves in their uniforms, and made themselves as 9» •f.*:; *-^''-''Z 102 NORTHERN REGIONS. smart as possible, as they were told the Indians thought much of appearances. The Indian canoes approached in regular order, and on landing, the chief, whose name was Akaitcho, or Big Foot, marched up with a very grave look, till he reached the hall where the officers were, and after smoking his pipe, drinking a glass of spirits, of which he handed a glass to^each of his followers, who were seated on the floor round him, he began his ha- rangue. * He rejoiced,' he said, * to see such great chiefs on his lands : his tribe was poor, but they loved white men, and he had heard too that a great medicine chief was among them who could restore the dead to life. And as he now undertook to as- sist them in their expedition, he wished to know what was the object of it f * *' Captain Franklin answered, that he and his companions were come from the greatest chief in the world, who loved peace, and was the father of the trading countries, and that hearing his children in the north were in great want of merchandize, in consequence of the distance by land, he had sent ffome people to find out a nearer way by sea, by which great vessels could bring a large supply to their country. ^ - ** Akaitcho and his guides then gave all the in- formation they could, and after they had made ma- ny promises of assistance, Captain Franklin put a medal round the neck of the chief, with which he was highly pleased, though he thought it becoming his dignity to look very grave. " A dance in the evening concluded this peace- able introduction, and after the Indians had been amused with the grotesque gestures of the Cana-^' diansy they favoured the travellers with a sight of -•*», .»>« NORTHERN REGIONS. 103 the celebrated dog-rib Indian dance. To perform this, they ranged themselves in a circle, and, with their legs widely separated, jumped all together, sideways, with their bodies bent, their hands upon their hips, and a " ^sa" at the end of each jump. " The party of Indians who were to accompany the expedition to the Copper-mine river being se- lected, the travellers set out, having a small canoe to carry the women, in addition to the three others. Akaitcho at first kept up a kind of state, but when bethought the Europeans did not observe him, he would frequently help the Indian to paddle his ca- noe along, and in a few days he was quite free and easy with them. They proceeded, travelling in the same manner as they had done before, up the Yellow-knife river, or as the Indians call it, Beg-ho-lo-dessy, * the river of the toothless fish.' But, alas ! neither toothless fish, nor any other fish could be procured, and the rein-deer were very shy. so that our party began to feel pangs of hunger creep upon them. The Ca- nadians, whose dispositions now began to show themselves, murmured many days, and then broke out into open discontent, and threatened not to pro- ceed a step farther without food. Captain Frank- lin behaved with great spirit, and ordered any one of them who dared to stop, to be instantly punish- ed, for he perceived they were trying their power with their new masters, and that if he gave way to them at first that they would continue disobedient. In consequence of this firm conduct they behaved tolerably well for a time, and every supply of deer brought in by the hunters restored their spirits. "** A number of lakes brought them, at last, to the spot which the Indians recommended for their winter establishment, and accordingly they eu« Jh * 104 NORTHERN REGIONS. camped there. It proved a very well chosen situ- ation, commanding a fine view, and sheltered by- pines thirty or forty feet high. — ** Thus had they accomplished a journey from Fort Chipewyan, five hundred and fifty-three miles long, and as it was Sunday when they arrived at this station, they spent it in rest and thanksgiving, and all united in hearing divine service read. '^ Akaitcho and the Indians who had staid behind hunting were warned of the arrival of the travellers at their destination, by a large fire on a hill. The voyagers divided into two parties, the one to find wood and build a store-house, the other to fetch the meat as the hunters killed it. A flock of gees^\ ■■H 1^ VZG NORTHERN REGIONS. he has been allowed to offer his thanksgivings fur his escape in a civilized coantry. '^ Belanger was soon tolerably well again, and the recollection of this accident was lost in new evils ; among these, hunger was the most acute, tripe de roche and pieces of singed hide being con* sidered a capital meal. Snow fell in showers, and their blankets scarcely kept them warm. When they encamped at night, they lighted a fire to thaw their frozen shoes, and put dry ones on ; then they wrote their journals, and prepared their sup- per. They eat it in the dark and then went to bed, and kept up cheerful conversation till the warmth of the blankets had thawed their bodies and enabled them to fall asleep. When they had no fire, they went to bed in their wet clothes, for fear they should freeze so hard as to prevent their being able to carry them next morning. " Peltier, the Canadian, had been carrying the canoe, but he grumbled so much, that it was given to Vaillant, who got on pretty well with it. Cap tain Franklin, who with Dr. Richardson had been away from the rest of the party for a short timc> returned, and found the Canadians over a willow fire, seated at a repast of pieces of skin, bones ol' deer which had been killed by the wolves thr year before, and old shoes. Peltier and Vaillant were with them, who declared that the canoe had had so many falls, that it was good for nothing, and that they had therefore left it behind. * * This news was a thunderbolt to Ca^^in Frank- lin ; he knew the canoe was their only hope, and he entreated the men to fetch it. They refused, the officers were not strong enough, and for their thoughtless obstinacy the voyagers had to suffer far *2 ' ' NORTHERN REGIONS. 12: jnore than they could have anticipated even in their desponding state. " They resumed their march, but the snow had hidden the foot marks of Mr. Back and the hun-- ters who were gone before, and the voyagers be- came furious at the thoughts of being deserted. ^ " Next morning they killed five small deer, and thanked a kind Providencefor this welcome supply* * * The greedy Canadians eat so voraciously, that their portions were soon consumed, but with the strength they had gained, they marched on till they came to a part of the Copper-mine river. — The loss of their canoe was now felt, and the more, as neither a ford nor wood for a raft could be found. Mr. Back and the hunters were again sent forward with some hopes of meeting the In- dians and getting assistance from them. He was directed to cross the lake as soon as he could meet with wood for a raft, and to send a speedy supply of food to those behind. '* The remaining party were with some difficulty collected, and cheered by finding a putrid deer, 011 which they breakfasted. They set to work to make a raft of willows : but the willows were green, and when finished it had so little buoyancy that one man only could be supported upon it. It would suffice to transport the party, however, if a line could be conveyed to the other shore, and Belan- Gjer and Benoit, the strongest of the men, tried to do this, but they failed for want of oars. Every plan was attempted, and at last Dr. Richardson said he would swim across the stream with the line, and haul the raft over. He plunged in with the line round his waist, but he had not swam long be- ^e his arms were benumbed with cold and he a)uld not move them : he turned upon his back^ M i 11 1 1 128 NORTHERN REGIONS. and had nearly reached the shore, when his Ic^s too got benumbed, and he began to sink. His ter- rified companions pulled the line, and dragged him back again almost lifeless. They rolled him in blankets, placed him before a good fire, and he fortunately was able just to speak and tell them how he ought to be treated. Towards evening he was able to converse a little, and they removed him into the tent. He had lost the sense of feeling in one side, and when stripped, even the Cana<» dians shuddered at the skeleton form which ap^ peared before them. " It was his being so dreadfully thin and starved that caused the cold water to take so powerful an effect upon him. What increased the pain he suf* fered was that when he was getting into the wa- ter, he trod upon a dagger and cut his foot to the bone, but this did not stop him in his brave attempt. ** The raft plan failing, St. Germain undertook to make a canoe out of the pieces of canvas in which they had wrapped up their clothes. In the mean time Mr. Back returned without any news of the Indians. Officers and voyagers daily grew weaker and weaker, the former not being now strong enough to gather tripe de roche for their meals, and Samandr^ the cook refusing to exert himself, Hepburn, the faithful Hepburn alone re- mained active, and collected the supply, for the daily mess of the officers. ** The canoe at last was finished, the whole par- ty transported one by one across the river, and Mr. Back, with Beauparlant, St. Germain and Be- langer, again sent in search of the Indians. The remaining party, after eating the remains of their old shoes and scraps of leather, set off ovei range of black hills,' The tri^e de roche disagrel 0- '. ^ 1 NORTHERN REGION'S. Itld i'ug with Cr^ i 132 NORTHERN REGIONS. i! !l served with pleasure that they set about cheering and warming Belanger, and forgot their own suf- ferings in their care for another. ** WhenBelanger was recovered, he returned to Mr. Back) and Benoit and Augustus were sent in another direction in search of the Indians, the party at the Fort being now reduced to four. Two of these, Adam and Samandr<^', were unable to stir, so that Peltier and Captain Frank lin had to share the fatigue of collecting the wood, pounding the bones, and preparing the two meals which Captain Franklin insisted they should eat every day. " The tripe de rochc now became almost too frozen to be gathered, and the strength of the par- ty declined daily. When they sat down they could scarcely get up jigain, and had to lift one another from their seats. Their mouths were sore from eating the bone soup, and they left it offand made soup of the skin instead of frying it. Peltier, the strongest among them, was now almost unable to fetch wood. One day they heard the sound of voices : " Ah, the Indians !*' they cried with joy j but, alas ! no, it was Dr. Richardson and Hep- burn, carrying each of them their bundle. Both parties were shocked at the sight of each other's thin skeleton faces and hollow voices $ and Dr. Richardson entreated the others to look and speak more cheerfully, little thinking that his own ap- jiearance was quite as melancholy. Hepburn had brought a partridge, which they warmed at the! fire, tore it into six parts and swallowed raven- ously. * Hood and Michael are dead,' said Dr< ^ Richardson ; * and where are Perrault and Fonta- ♦ lioj' * They have never been heard of.' NOrwTHERN REGION'S. im ^' Dr. Richardson brought liis prnycr book, and read to them some prayers and psahns, and, ratlicr more composed, the whole party went to bed. ** Tli€ next night, when the voyagers were all reposing, Dr. Richardson gave Captain Franklin an account of what had passed since they had been parted. • • j " * When you took leave of us. Hood and my- self sat over our willow fire, and read in some good !)Ooks which a lady had provided us with before we left England. VVe were much comforted, and talked cheerfully ; and, if my poor friend were alive, I should look back with delight to this period of my life. A few days after, Michael, the Tro- quois, came with your note, begging i?s to remove to a clump of pines. He said that Solomon Be- langer had left the fire before him, and that he sup- posed he had lost his way. He brought his gun with him, and shot us some hares and partridges, and Hepburn exclaimed, * Oh, how I shall love this man if he does not tell lies like the other voy- agers.' We got to the pines, and Michael left us for a day or two : his conduct was very extraordi- )iary and very savage, sometimes refusing to hunt or to cut wood, or to do any thing we wished him ; and once he answered Mr. Hood surlily, * it is no use hunting ; you had better kill and eat me.' — Poor Mr. Hood was daily getting weaker ; the tripe de roche gave him so much pain that he could not eat more than a spoonful at a time. Our minds were weak as well as our bodies ; we felt as if we could not bear our horrible situation anv lonffer — we tried not to talk of it — our only study was not to complain. ^ 12 1 134 NORTHERN REGIONS. M K ? •* * One morning we begged Michael to go and hunt, but he lingered about the fire cleaning his gun. I went to gather some tripe de rochet leaving Mr. Hood at the fire arguing with Michael, and Hepburn cutting wood at a little distance from the tent. In a few minutes 1 heard a gun and Hep- burn's mournful ciy ; and, getting to the tent as soon as 1 could, I found that poor Hood was life- less. A ball had been shot through hia head. Mi- chael attempted to make out a story that he had been shot by accident ; but the ferocious looks of this fellow and his confusion, convinced us both that he was the murderer. Our horror was be- yond every thing ; but Hepburn and myself care- fully avoided letting him know that we suspected him, for we kneiv that if he had done the wicked deed, he would not hesitate to kill us. (( 4 \Yc carried the body beneath some willows, and that evening read the funeral service in addi- tion to the evening prayers. ** * The next day we patched our garments and set out travelling. M ichael was very surly, and for ever was saying that we thought ill of him, and that Hepburn told tales of him. In short, we felt sure that he meant to kill us, and we were too weak to hope to make our escape from him. The first'^occasion on which he left us alone, Hepburn told me many things which made me decide what to do; and, as soon as he joined us again I took ray pistol and shot him through the head. This was B painful deed to perform, but the danger to the faithful Hepburn made me think it right to do it. Our journey since to this place has been a painful and fatiguing one." *• Thus ended the Doctor's sad story; and n^w the two united parties put forth all their strength io ) go and Ding his » leaving ael, and from the nd Hep- I tent as was life- )ad. Mi- t he had looks of us both was bc- elfcarc- Lispected D wicked willows, in addi> cnts and , and for m, and , we felt ere too 1. The lepburn de what I took This ngcr to It to do been a nd now jngthto ii /■("i Jhfit In i !i'l! U m ¥ ' * NORTHERN REGIONS. 135 provide food, Scmandr^ and Peltier getting daily worse. The poor fellows soon were too ill to eat e- ven what food could be got them, and in the course of a few days they died. Their connpanions remo- ved the two bodies into a further part of the house, but they were not strong enough to carry them out or to bury them. This loss of their brothers in misfortune was a great shock to all the party, and their spirits were very low. Their stock of bones was finished, and the fatigue of taking the hair offthe skin to make it into soup, was now too great for any of them. The hardness of the floor, which was only covered when the)' slept by a blank- et, had caused great soreness to their skeleton bo- dies, but even in the midst of these hsrdships, they could enjoy three or four ''ours sleep at night, and, strange to say, their d jw were always about the pleasure of feasting. L» proportion as they lost their strength, they lost the power of directing their minds. They were pettish with one another without any reason. If one recommended the other to take a warmer place, the other was angry be- cause he could not bear the idea of moving. " Hepburn at last cried out, * If we do ever reach England, I wonder if we shall recover the use of our understandings.' "At last Adam appeared dying. Captain Frank- lin was employed in cheering him, and Dr. Rich- ardson and Hepburn cutting wood, when a musket shot was heard, and three Indians came up totho house- The two officers knelt down and returned thanks to heaven for their deliverance, and Adam tried to get up but fell down. The Indians had been sent by Mr. Back, and brought some dried deer's meat and tongues. Dr. Richardson, Cap- tain Franklin, and Hepburn eat voraciously, and jg IM Hi IIH H| ^ 1 iH yH i IH 11 ' 1 1 I H 1 1 u 1 1 1 1 ^ M m \ 1 m I 'ft ^ III 1 ; H ^^|b Hi 11 1 iH 1 |jri|i iM M 1 HhhI ffif 'i ■ 11 1 1 1 HI wii I 1 1 n II 13G NORTHERN hegions. of course suftcred dreadfully, and had no rest ali night. Adam could not feed himself, and therefore was better off. The Indians jrave him small pie- ces at a time, and would not let him eat too much. One Indian was then despatched to Mr. Back to request him to send some more food ; and Crook- ed-foot and the Rat, the two others, remained to take care of the party_ These kind creatures never rested till they had made the travellers somewhat comfortable. They buried the dead bodies, cleared the room of the dirt, kept up cheerful fires, and persuaded the travellers to wash and shave them- selves. Their robust forms, which appeared quite gigantic aside of the poor travellers, surprised them as much as the active manner in which they set about every J;hing. A fresh arrival of food and Indians, completed the happy feelings of our suf- ferers, and before very long, they had finished their journey to the camp, aided by the tender cares of the Indiants, who fed them like chil- dren, cooked for them, and prepared their en- campment. Thus you see, my boys, there arc kind hearted savages, as many, many stories will prove. " The reception of this sad party at the Chiers camp was very striking ; they were looked at with compassion, and in solemn silence for a quarter of an hour, as a mark of condolence. Their old friend Akaitcho would not suflfer a word to be spoken till they had tasted food. He cooked for them himself, which in general he would have con- sidered as very unbecoming his dignity. The next day every Indian in th«) tribe came to see them, and to show their pity for what they had suffered. These poor creatures themselves were in great af- fliction, having lost three of their relations in a ^ 'iff NORTHERN REGION?. 137 rapid. Every morning and evening they sang the names of their lost relations amid showers of tears. % . " A very few days brouoht letters from Mr. Back, as well as from England, by which they had the joy of learning of Captain Parry's safe return, and that they themselves had received promotion. Mr. Back, however, had not sent the presents which had been promised to Akaitcho for his assis- tance to the expedition, for which Captain Frank- lin was much vexed. ** After taking leave of Akaitcho for a time, the party again set forward, and soon reached Fort Providence, where they were once more in a com- fortable dwelling. They fell on their knees in gratitude for this blessing. ^ *' Mr. Back had a sad story to relate, but it shall be a short one, as I see, Charles, your face is quite long with the dismal adventures of the part3^ ** You remember that Mr. Back set off with Solomon Belanger and Beauparlant, to get succour at Fort Enterprize, and send it to the others whom ihey had left behind. Their journey was of the same melancholy kind as that of the others. lu crossing the lake, Belanger fell into the ice two or three times, and was got out by the others fastening their worsted belts together, and dragging him up; then, by lighting a fire, they prevented his clothes, from freezing ; but it was long before he could get warm, though he was so near the flame as to burn his hair : a gun cover and an old pair of shoes pro- vided him with a meal or two. Their arrival at Fort Enterprize, had occasioned them the same disappointment as it did the others. Mr. W^nt;^! J2* ''mmi 'f Hi .^P \i I! mm :}u 138 NORTHERN REGIONS ^ v had taken away the trunks, and left no guide tu direct them where to find the Indians. " According to St. Germain's advice, the party next went into the woods to look for deer. Beau- parlant became very weak, and complained that he could not go on. Mr. Back comforted him, and told him that a few steps further they should find fuel to make a fire. * Well, take your axe, Mr. Back, andl will follow, I shall be with you when your encampment is made.* This was the answer that the poor fellow made, and the last words he was heard to utter. Mr. Back and St. Germain soon found some deers' heads peeping out of the snow. They had been left there by the wolves, and were without eyes or tongues. * Thank God we are saved,' l^irst from their lips, and they shook hands for joy. " It got dark, Beauparlant did not come ; they fired guns, and he answered the signals. They had not strength to go to him, but Mr. Back hoped that he had lighted himself a fire, which, with his blanket, would keep him warm through the night. Next morning St. Germain went to fetch him, but returned with his bundle only, and his eyes filled with tears. He had found the poor fellow dead. He was frozen to death. Mr. Back was horror- struck. *' Belanger returned from the party at the fort, and the melancholy tale of the five he had left there,, made the interpreter St. Germain shed tears in telling it. ** After another interval of long suffering, the cry of * footsteps of Indians' was heard from Be- ianger, and the sight of the Indian boy with some meat completed their joy. They joined Akaitcho's camf) in the eveuing, and the good old man was NORTHERN REGIONS. 139 much affected with the story of their sufferings, and instantly despatched the timely succour to thf? party at Fort Enterprize, without which they would soon have perished. "As we have seen the two parties safe, little more is to be added. Captain Franklin and Dr. Richardson travelled in carioles to Moose-deer island, where they were joined by Mr. Back, and where, surrounded by kirjd friends*, they regained gradually their health, so that by the return of spring, they were able to walk. Hepburn, how- ever, was confined to his bed by a rheumatic fever six weeks. In May they embarked for Fort Chi- pewyan, from which place they had the pleasure of sending to Akaitcho and his companions the stores and presents which had been promised. u *' They were very glad to be able to do this, ei5pecially as the leader's mother having died, the tribe had broken every thing in their grief, and were in great distress. At Fort Chipewyan Captain Frankhn sent home the remaining Ca- nadian voyagers; and furnished with a canoe and a guide, and accompanied by Augustus, arrived at York Factory, after a journey of five thousand tivq hundred and fifty miles.'* its m a.'- 140 XORTIIERN REGION?, PART III. CHAPTER I. m The melancholy sensations caused by the his tory of Captain Franklin's adventures and suffer- ings were hardly worn off, when Tom and Charles watched a post chaise drive up the long avenue, and running to the portico, they reached it in time to open the chaise door for uncle Richard to de- scend. Charle^ shook hands with him with unal- loyed delight, while Tom fixed his searching eyes upon him, as much as to say * have you been suf- fering depredations and hardships like those we have been hearing of?' But uncle Richard look- ed younger and more cheerful than ever, and soon satisfied even Tom that his adventures had been of a very safe and amusing nature. ** For, de- pend upon it. my boys, I have had a merry time of it among those Esquimaux animals, as we call ihera ; and if I do not make you laugh with my sto- ries of them, you do not deserve to hear them." The whole family were too well assured of the power uncle Richard possessed to amuse and in- terest them, not to press him to give them the whole narrative of his voyage as he had done be- fore ; and uncle Richard, flattered by their deter- mination to be pleased, was not long in consenting. Tom's maps had been ready spread upon the study table for several days ; and Charles, who had tre^n studying short hand , was provided with a little -•.'"-©■Vt:..., NORTHERN REGIONS. 141 red book and pencil, to take notes of the most in- teresting parts of his uncle's history. Various^ sketches which their uncle had made, lay in a port folio at his eJbow, but were not produced be- forehand, in order to have their full effect when aided by explanation. ** As you took the trouble, my friends, to follow me in my last voyage, T shall skip over the particu- lars of this, which was very similar, merely stating that we left London in May 1821 ; Captain Parry commanding the Fury, Captain Lyon the Hecla, in which ship I too had the honour to be, and the Nau- tilus transport accompanying to convey our stores. It was more than a month before we saw the first ice-berg, when we old sailors laughed at the young- ones, for hastening on deck to look at these huge floating hills of ice. Our scene of action here be- gan. After unloading the Nautilus and taking her goods on board, we despatched her back again to old England, with heaps of letters and messages, and saluted her crew with three cheers as they dis- appeared from our view^ We had a little diversion on our passage in falling in with a ship carrying some Dutch people who \yere going to colonize on the Red River. As we got near to them we ob- served them waltzing on deck, the men in grey jackets, the women in long-eared mob caps. With our ships surrounded by ice and the thermometer at freezing point, we could not help laughing at this unseasonable ball; we found on getting up to them they had been a long time upon the voyage, and almost despaired of ever getting to their jour- ney's end. They had done what they could, how- ever, to make themselves happy ; several marriages had taken place, the surgeon acting as a parson, and the happy couples were always married on fine days, when they could have a dance in the evening* 142 NORTHERN REGIONS. (( ■.^i Our voyage was becoming tedious enough, a;" we had been nineteen days going sixty miles, but as we had no ladies on board, we could not make i?o merry as our Dutch neighbours ; we had some sport, however, with a huge bear, which wc spied lying comfortably on a piece of ice ; he was chas- ed by two boats, and moved quietly to the water : he swam rapidly, but boldly turning his face to his pursuers as long as he had any strength, and wc had hard work to kill him ; he was a very fat and bulky fellow, of a yellow white, and very sticky to the touch ; our seamen partook of the llcsh, and liked it pretty well, and a large tub of oil for win- ter store was procured from it. " Wc were now off Savage Islands, which yon may observe are but at the beginning of Hudson's Strait, when we had our first interview for this sea- son with the Esquimaux, which is a general name for all the inhabitants of the most northern parts of North America, and whom you may consider as friends, for I shall make you familiar enough with them, before I have done. A shout, as usual, an- nounced the approach of their canoes, and ' ha,' * ha'a, resounded loudly through the ships ; fivo Oomiaks and thirty canoes, were by the side of us in less than an hour, and a merry barter there was betwixt us ; their curiosities being as eagerly de- manded by us, and our iron and toys by them. — . The Oomiaks or luggage boats, which convey the women, were each steered by an old man with an oar, who seemed to have some kind of authority over the ladies, whom he occasionally kept in or- der by a box of the ear ; there were some few boys, but the rest were chiefly women, who at first were shy, but afterwards became noisy enough ; NORTHERN REGIONS. 143 as for the features of the fair sex, I ^vish I could describe them ; you might indeed sec them for ever without discovering the colour of their skin, un- der the coating of blood, grease, and dirtj which oovers it ; their jet black locks, sometimes knot- ted up, but generally streaming in wildness about, added to their frightful and disgusting appear- ance. ** The old women are so truly hideous, with in- ilamed eyes,|wrinklcd skin and black teeth, that I am not at all surprised, that former voyagers re- ported that they had seen witches on this shore ; I, indeed, would rather compare them to a dressed up Ourang Outang. I must not forget to tell you, that after a bargain was concluded, the ceremony of licking was never omitted, even a razor was' drawn over the tongue, as unconcernedly as if it Imd been made of ivory ; I cannot describe to you the confusion and din of this scene of barter ; all so eager to sell, that many went away bereft of al- most all their clothes ; in exchange for a nail, I got a spear with an ivory head, and a line and bladder attached to it, in fact iron in their eyes is of the same value as gold in ours. ** We soon found that our new friends delighted in dancing, and a fiddler was despatched to the ice to play for them ; jumping and stamping with all their might, was the only figure they attempted, and the fiddler, who was a merry fellow, soon oaught the infection, and it was not long before the wliole floe of ice was covered with officers, Bsquimaux, sailots, and all jumping away The women savages were amazingly pleased with a rosy young sailor, and patted his face, and danced round him wherever he went. A great joke among these queer people was, to come and give a shout 144 NORTHERN REGIONS, K in one of your ears, and at the same moment, a good box on the other, which made the person so assailed look wondrous silly, to the great amuse- ment of all about. There was no end to the ft- musement these people afforded us, united with the boisterous mirth of our own crews. '* When all parties were thoroughly tired, and my fellow messmates gone to bed, I took a turn round, to look at the various groups of our new friends, who were eating their suppers in their boats ; lumps of raw flesh of seals, fat birds, and entrails, formed the delicious meal, and a young girl, whom we had styled the belle of the party, was biting the inside of a seal into pieces, and distributing it to her neighbours in the boat. '* Our shipsjeceived various other visits from the savages, whilst they remamed in the neigh- bourhood ; but I do not remember many other striking peculiarities, except, indeed, one which shocked me much. I think I told you, that you might have any thing for a knife ; what do you think of a woman offering me lier child, a little girl of four years of age, in exchange for a knife which 1 was bartering ? This melancholy fact, shows us how dangerous any uncontrolled passion is, when those untutored beings, at other times so fond of their children, would be ready, for the love of gain, to part with them to strangers. ^* In passing Nottingham islands shortly after, we had still a more picturcscjue party to visit us. There was only one boat full, and it was commanded by a fat old woman, and among her noisy crew lay, at the bottom of her boat, an infant, in sound slum* her; great pains indeed had been taken to make it comfortable ; its two legs being crammed into i.V. ^ NORTH r:ii.N ki:gions. 145 u boot, and its mouth was iiilcd with a larp^c lump of whales' blubhor, which every now and then it gave a suck at, in its sleep, which was uniiroken in spite of many a thump and kick. The young girls ia the boat gave all they received to the old lady coxswain, who deposited them in her usual pocket, the mouth ; buttons, nails, needles, pins, and beads, all found their way there, and as she never stopped talking, they soon found their way out, a girl being stationed beside her to pick up the stray articles. " Our object now was to leave the usual track of Hudson's Bay, and steering north-west, we soon entered something resembling a deep broad strait, to the north of Southampton Island, and bounded on the north by islands. Here we were again be- set and thumped pretty severely by the ice, and a<»ain in a few hours an oj)on sea aj)pearcd, in the midst of which, unicorns played around us.' A shoal of these beautiful fish with their long horns and their ^ssy backs, spotted like coach dogs, is astrikino" sight. In vain did 1 attempt to kill one; but 1 ascertained its size to be twenty feet long, in- cludifig its horn, whicli is five or six. " Was not this a strange worhJ we were livii||^ in f human beings dressed in skins, and looking like animals, walking Uj) to our ships across the ice; bears prowling about as if not expecting to meet with disturbance ; and hundreds of white whales close beside us under the rocks ! ** On the 17th of August we anchored in a large and lovely bay, off a low shingle beach. The country beyond was rich in arctic vegetatioii ; such as mosses, grasses, poppies, and ground willow ; and our sportsmen shot birds of various and beati- tiful kinds. -.. *, . . =; 13 m m '■r\; i46 #; NORTUEUN REGIONS. i?;ttinH ** The remains of Esquimaux huts, in the form of lime-kihis, were seen ; and a curious building made of the two jaw bones of a whale set upright, and covered with whalebone, to which our sailors helped themselves plentifully, to make brooms for their ships, leaving a boarding-pike in exchange, to be found by the invisible owners, whenever they should arrive there. " We had now ascertained that we were in the Frozen Strait, discovered by Middleton ; and, after some days sailing, we passed an opening to the south called Sir Thomas Koe's Welcome, and ran into Repulse Bay. Here we went on shore, and found various traces of the Esquimaux; for these cu- rious people move from place to place just as it suits their convenience for seal hunting ; and to raise a town, with them, is hardly the work of more hours than it is of years with us. Circles of stones with which they fasten down their skin tents, ]ju*oken ar- rows, knives' made of wood, ivory, and slate, mo- dels of canoes, and a variety of other articles, show- ed that the Esquimaux had not deserted the es- tablishment very long. ** While most of our people went shooting on the shore, pleased at taking the first walk in North America, I was busied in searching for natural cu- riosities, and I soon found a complete skeleton of a whale; it was lying on a little nook in the steep side of a hill, and being much too heavy for the savages to have conveyed, I was puzzled enough to know how- it could get there. I found, likewise, two tailless mice, who were such voracious little things, that they not only devoured bread, cheese, meat, and grass, but, in a few hours, when 1 looked into the bouse into which I had put them, one of them had half eaten the other up. NOlTllimN REGIONS. 141 ** We were now satisfied that we were really on the coast of America, and therefore we continued coasting Repulse Bay, but were so constantly de- layed by the ice, that our prog'ress was little. We passed Gore Bay, and came to the entrance of a small inlet, which Captain Parry, with two boats provisioned for a week, left us to explore. He soon met with some natives, three of whom ran by the side of the water till the boats landed. — When Captain Parry went up to them, their salu- tation was truly ludicrous ; for, with the greatest gravity they stroked their breasts in silence. They led them to tents, which were all unfurnished, but where they found women and children, and the ap- pearance of all were more prepossessing than any that had been met with; the absence of the smell of train oil was a^ great improvement ; these peo- ple subsisting chiefly on deer, instead of seals. — Some presents of course were made to these peo- ple, but nothing charmed them so much as an empty tin canister, which they hugged and kissed in rapture. These sober people contrived, how- ever, to steal a pewter jug, and two spoons, before the visit was over, but the thief was soon discover- ed. I am sorry to say she was a lady, and nowise ashamed at being found out, for she laughed im- moderately. She had on a pair of immense boots, one of which she pulled off and sold willingly enough, but nothing could induce her to part from the other ; this led to a suspicion, and the things missing were at last discovered, concealed in this said boot* " Captain Parry returned to the ships, without finding any outlet, and after naming this inlet ' Ly- on Inlet,' we attempted to move out of it ; but the ico still beset us with innumerable floes, and we m 148 XOILTIIERN REGIONS. ■ i;':l '!' • m were forced to anchor in a snug birth which wc named ' Safety Cove.' " We went ashore to walk twice every day, in order to observe the state of the ice, and in, one of my walks I was much amused with watching an ermine hunt a mouse by its tracks, just as abound does a fox. In Icokina^ for this beautiful little crea- ture among the snow after he was killed, I actu- ally trod upon him, so pure a white was his body, and his blac tail being hid under the snow. " After waiting for many a day it was decided that as no more summer would appear this year, \ye must pass the winter in this spot, and therefore every preparation was made, similar to what had been done before, both for the safety of the ships, and the comfor| of the men. Before we left Eng- land, a large subscription had been raised for purchasing theatrical clothing, and play-bills were soon made out, every officer cheerfully putting his name down, and those who were fixed upon to perform the parts of ladies, generously cutofFthe beard and whiskers they had saved to protect them from the cold ; our theatre was large, our dresses were good, and we began with the play of the " Rivals," which was performed with bril- liant success and unbounded applause. " We had little aniusesncnt now, but what the few animals we could find afforded us; of these, foxes were the most numerous ; n^nny had been caught, some killed and some kept by the ships as pets. The Arctic fox is smaller than those in England, and being covered with white woolly hair, resembles a shock dog ; its eyes are bright, and its look cunning, and it is impossible to ajv- proach it unawares, for it wakes in a moment from the soundest sleep. These suspicions little fellows NORTHERN REGIONS. 149 the esc J icen hips ISO in jolly ght, aj>- rom ows never enjoy iheir food, unless they can first hide it, which they generally do by heaping snow over it, pressed down with their nose ; mine, vibich I kept up, and delighted to watch, I frequently observed to coil his chain round and round the meat, when there was no snow within reach ; ar»das the chain of course unrolled itself, every time he left the spot, he would patiently coil it over and over again, till at last he was forced to eat his meat, without having been able to hide it first. " Our first Christmas day was a most cheery one ; after divine service on board the Fury, we had good roast beef dinners, with cranberry pies and puddings of every shape, with a full allowance of spirits, and our crew, not very sober, forced ev- ery officer to go in turn out upon the lower deck, and have his health drank in three cheers. The next day we had a famous ball, and a merry fellow personated an old cake woman, with lumps of fro- zen snow in a bucket, and his cakes were in such request, that he was obliged often to supply his bucket ; our mirth, however, was stopped, by a re- port of a bear being seen on the ice between the ships, and arms were prepared, but old bruin ap- peared not. " The new year, 1822, was now ushered in, and found us all in good health, and in excellent spirits ; nothing 1' ad contributed more to this last circum- stance than the school in which the men had taught and been taught ; there was not a man now on board, who could not read and write^ and, on Christmas day, sixteen copies were sent to our Captain, written by men who, two months before, had scarcely known their letters. There was somethinff vcrv picafcing in the interest our honest 13* (J - ■■■ •: t\ ;,,.:■ <.''} loO XOaTIli:ilX llEGIONS. tars took in learning, and these copies were sent up with the pride of a good little school-boy, ra- ther than of a stout and able sailor. " You will remember that I described to you in may last history the effect of the sun's total ab- sence from the earth ; that it was far from gloomy. We were in a very diiferent latitude here ; we never entirely lost the sun, although it shone with dimin- ished brightness, which would have been rather painful to the eyes, if it had not been for the bluish colour which always accompanies the light of the sun in frosty weather. The nights were very beau- tiful, the moon and stars shining most brilliantly in the clear sky ; the aurora borealis delighted me more than ever ; its first appearance resembles a shower of fallen stars, such as a rocket emits, which come trickling* down the sky : the sudden light bursting upon one, makes one fancy one hears ii noise, but after much observation, I am still in- clined to think it merely fancy. One dark and calm night, I stood upon the ice till midnight, watching this beautiful phenomenon ; it began in an arch, which spread finm east to west : it lasted a quarter of an hour, when a storm arising, the arch became agitated, then shut forth into rays and streamers, and spread over al! the heavens, flying with the rapidity of lightning, and giving an air of magic to the whole scene. No wonder the poor untutored Indians imagine the spirits of their fathers are riding in the storm. " For two or three days, about this time, the tracks of a little animal had been seen about the ship, and at last he jumped from under a heap of sails. None could agree about its colour, which the greater part however thought was brown, when lo, and behold, it was canght in a trap, and proved si />///»• J.in 3i*c sent boy, ra- I to you :otal ab- gloomy. ve never h dimin- 1 rather le bluish ht of the 5ry beau- liantly in hted me einbles a ts, which den light hears fi still in- nd calm ^vatching |an arch, quarter became I'eamers, ^ith the Iraagic to itutored lers arc ime, the Ibout the heap of , which n, when Id proved ^'V- , A wr-f""--' * to I # fiel w\\ cri in: n atti 4 I NORTHERS REGIONS. loJ to be a white and most beautiful criuiiic. Ah ! Lousia, if I had done as I wished and brounuff-box. This old nian'ij right name was * Bladder/ but, as he carried a brass kettle which had been given to him, he was called by our sailors * Kettle.' " And now, Charles, are you tired of these sa- vages, or should you like to accompany me in my next visit to them ?" *' Oh, uncle, pray let me hear a great deal about them ; I am quite amused with their old habits, and I expect even to like them, for I have not heard a word of their stealing or begging as yet," cried Charles. ** I can Lisureyou, Charles, you feel as I did; I was quite impatient till the next day's visit, for 1 took it into my head we should discover more character and ingenuity among these savages than we had anticipated, and we V>egan our acquaintance Under favourable circumstances, since, as you ob- served, neither begging nor stealing has at yet ta- ken place. *' When we went to the huts the next day, all the men were ranged in a line to receive us, and after stroking their breasts, retired to their huts to welcome us there, which they did quickly and respectfully. ** A day's smoke had greatly diminished the transparency of the inside of the huts, though they were still very light ; and now you may look at my little drawing, with these various clusters of huts, some with two and some with three domes. Thir- teen families lived in this little village, each family in a separate dome. I entered one of the largest huts by a passage about a yard across, and high enough for one to enter by stooping a little. It was very long, but led into a shorter one which opened through a hole in the dome ; this was about seven foct high and the same across, and led into three /Uye i %%,. ■A : ' 1 ■ 1 j 1 ' '%: yj/y,' /^/.9 • * M ! If. '• 'I k. m U i -^ \\ '^^i ::iORTnERN regions. 155 ,- bcd-roofeJ buildings. The arches were laid in t/ - circhitectural order, and the slabs were cut out of blocks of snow about two feet long and four or six inches thick. A seat was raised on one side, which was used as the bed-place of the family, and this was covered first with whalebone and sprigs of andromeda, then with a warm covering of deer- skin clothes, and a substitute for blankets formed of deer-pelts, which had fringes of leather sewed round the edges by way of ornament, and which covered the whole. " You must not imagine that the hut I have in- troduced you to was without windows ; a broad piece of transparent fresh-water ice, form- ing part of the roof and placed over the door, lighted each dome, and gave a pleasing light, tree from glare, similar to what is thrown from ground glass. What think you of this snow habi- tation, which was completed, as they told me, by two men in a couple of hours, one man cutting the slabs, the other laying them .^" Tom. " I think, uncle, that they are amazingly ingenious to make any kind of house out of snow; and, how they can be warm or durable, it rather puzzles me to imagine. " The snow, you must remember, is frozen very hard, and is thick and almost as solid as stone ; there is no sun to thaw them, for, of course, they vanish when the summer re-appears. The furni- ture of the inside I am now going to describe to you ; I cannot say it would suit our notions of comfort. " The first thing that struck me on entering the hut, was a frame or kind of table made of old fish- ing spears ; this supported a long wooden hoop, a- cross which a net was spread, to hang wet clothes or skins on, to be dried by the lamp ; on this frame 156 NOUTUERN REGIONS. m u the master always puts his gloves when he comes in, first carefully scraping off the snow. ** Suspended from these frames hung a stono Toffin-shaped pot, and beneath this was a stone lamp, the most important part of the furniture, as it afforded both ii^ht and heat to the interior of the dome. The middle of the lamp is filled with fat ; round the edge is ranged the oil and wicl<8: these latter are made of moss, trimmed by as- bestos, stone or wood. A bunch of moss hangs a- gainstthe wall to supply the lamp; the lamp was propped up by pieces of horn and wood, just high enough from the ground to have under it a whale- bone pot to catch the oil that dropped from it. ** I must remind you, however, that I am now describing a large-sized dome, and that many which I afterwards went in had none of this grand frame, their pots being suspended from a bone fixed in the wall. 1 was much amused by going into one where the man fitidtwo wives: the senior wife, who was a tall I'at lady, had a large lamp at one end of the dome, and a large pot which held a gallon ; while the y^iiniger wife, who was a little round body, had a tiny lamp and a pot, which only held a pint. Captain Parry had a mind to buy one of these lamps at the time it was burning; and you will have some slight notion ofthemVe^j^ of our new friends, as to what they eat, when I tell 3^ou, that the woman lo clean it scraped with her fingers the soot and oil with which it w^as covered, and put them into her mouth. She then d ed the lamp quite clean with her tongue, and •d-humouredly joined in the laugh we all rais- K. \ at the sight of her sooty face. *' . large wooden tray resembling a butcher's fray is used in every hut, as v;ell as a variety of m^' e comes a stone a stone iture, as terior of ed with 1 wicks: by as- hanga a- impwas ust high a whale- HTl it. am now it many is grand 1 a bone >y going ic senior lamp at 1 held a a little , >vhich nind to urning; e nicety .vhen I d with it was le then e, and 11 rais- tcher's ^icty of NORTHERN REGIONS. 157 different sized vessels made of whalcbonr- wood, and skin. *' In this and many succeeding visits to the huts, I formed a very favourable opinion of the children, whose modest and gentle manners might shame many a wellrhred but spoiled child in England ; and, though my nephews and nieces, I trust, are ex- ceptions, I silently determined that when I return- ed home I would tell them many a story of the pleasing and orderly conduct of these young sava- ges. It was not their outward appearance which prepossessed me, for in their large dresses, and smothered with dirt, when their faces were hidden, they resembled puppy dogs, or young wolves, or bears ; but these faces were rosy, fat, and good- humoured — the picture of health, with jetty loclis and sparkling black eyes%" Charles. Oh, uncle, I wish you had accepted of the woman's offer in exchange for your knife ; and I should have delighted to have imitated the modest manners of your little savage. " You are inclined to be sancy, I see, Charles, answered the good-humoured uncle — but I must proceed with my atory. The hut I was visiting was Kettle's, whose wife, Oomgna, received me most politely, and presented me with a piece of rein-deer fat^ which of course I ate. In return for her civiHty I presented her with a looking-glass and some few trinkets, which delighted her much, as, excepting a small bracelet of beads, the women have no orna- ments except the kak-keen or tattoo, with whi'^h the body is covered. Now I will describe to you this kak-keen, for, being as anxious as Tom to know the bottom of every thing, I put myself into the hands of Mrs. Kettle, whom I adopted for my Ti .1** fell I im & ii< I ['■ "In ti 158 NORTHERN REGIONS. * Amana,' or mother, and begged that she would tottoo a pattern upon my arm. " Accordingly she got a fine needle, and with her teeth tore a thread off a deer's sinew : this was the sewing apparatus. She next put her fingers to the bottom of the stone pot, not to make her hands blacker, that was impossible, but to collect some soot, which, with a little oil and a good deal of sali- va, she made into a mixture; then taking a piece of whalebone well blackened, she drew upon my arm a variety of figures. What the figures werelcan^ not say, but her companions were called upon to look, and they all enjoyed a good laugh over them. She began her job: after blackening her thread with soot, by taking a pretty deep stitch in my arm, putting her thumb on the place as she drew the thread through, and beginning one stitch where she left off the other. 3Iy flesh was tough, and she broke a needle and got on slowly, and after some dozen or two of stitches, my curiosity was satisfied, and I begged her to give over. Her operations were finished by rubbing the part with oil to stop the blood. The inflanimation and pain which fol- lowed this ornamenting of my arm, was not very trifling, and therefore the Esquimaux ladies may be said to pay dear ibr their ornaments^ which look like light blue lines upon their skin. With this pain- ful ornament their whole bodies are covered over. " We found our new acquaintance in every hut good-humoured and merry; and their perfect hon- esty delighted us ; they would not even call a bead their own till they had asked permission to do so. I was determined, in fact, to put their honesty to the proof, and I left behind me in Kettle's hut all the valuables I had brought with me either for bar- ter or for presents ; knives, scissors, looking-glasses lie woukl md with this was ingers to er hands ect some il of sali- i piece of my arm sre I can'' upon to er them, r thread my arm, Irew the ^here she and she ter some satisfied, )erations il to stop diich fol- not very s may be lich look his pain- ed over, very hut 'ect hon- 11 a bead to do so. nesty to s hut all for bar- •-glasses NORTHERN REGIONS. 1.59 and all. I left a number of savages behind me, and yet when I returned, not an irticle was mis- sing, they had all been carefully covered up. Most of them, indeed, after the merest trifle had been given them, such as a needle or a button would return soon after to offer a pair of mittens or a skin, or something which they thought would be valuable in return. ** I musi not forget the dogs which are so im- portant a part of an Esquimaux establishment; while young they are taken great care of, and we I saw, during our visit this day, many litters, with their mothers lying on the beds of their masters; but the full-grown ones were in a starving state, as, in consequence of the great eating powers of their masters, there is little food left for them.— - Fortunate)v for us, hun^^er had a contrac#^eiFect on them to what it has on dogs in general, and these terrific animals were particularly gentle and tame. The Esquimaux prevent them from run- ning any great distance by fastening the foro-leg to the neck, so that if they attempt to run they fall. This is a very necessary precaution, as their ene- mies, the wolves, are always at hand to attack them. *' And now, having introduced you to the habita- tions of my new friends, I shall describe to you their persons, in which I may be assisted, perhaps, by this little drawing All notions of admiration will, I am aware., be destroyed in a moment. They are a liUle race, most of them being shorter than the smallest man of our acquaintance in England : the men look robust, but their bodies are slender and their necks thin and shrivelled ; they are up- right, though with their feet turned a little inwards, and legs bowed. Strange to say, brought up as they arc witlihardy habits, and with such extra or- % m ■^l* '•!; ,.'-*- 160 NORTHERN REGIONS. 'HV ' n "Mmi \-:ym IP dinary appetites, they were not so strong as our own seamen ) whom we often set to carry weights which the Esquimaux scarcely could lift. They can wrestle, hut they can neither run nor jump ; nor do they bear cold with the indifference I should expect in persons all their live&. accustomed to it* The men are seldom fat ; the women, who lead very sedentary lives, are frequently much bloated* The skin of both men and women is very smooth, from being always oily, and when washed, is not much darker than that of a Portuguese. The women and children are often rosy, but the men are very sallow. Their faces are very peculiar — the shape varies, being sometimes oval and some- times round, with very high cheek bones, in which case the nose is buried between them, so that you might put your hand over both cheeks and not touch the nose. Some of them had high Roman noses, but the eye was the same in every one — the inner corner turns down, as in the Chinese, and they are small and black, expressive w^hen anima- ted, and very beautiful in children, as I have be- fore remarked. What gives them an odd look is, that the skin between the eyes is drawn quite tight like a drum. A crow's foot in the corner of the eye, which with us denotes old age, is seen even in children, and old people are covered with wrin- kles most abundantly, from their forehead all down their faces. The mouth is kept open with a kind of idiotic stare, and is large, but not ug^y ; their teeth are like round ivory pegs, very flat at the end ; and their chins small and pointed, never becoming what we call a double chin. Their hair is coal-black, coarse, and straight, and tho men have very little beard. «* Thus much for the general appearance of this -.rf NORTHERN REGIONS. 161 ^ as our weights They r jump; I should led to it. 'ho lead bloated, smooth » d, is not e. The be men iculiar — id some- in which that you and not I Roman ne — the le, and anima- lave be- look is, ite tight the eye, 3ven in h wrin- ead all with a t ug^y ; flat at I, never leir hair \fj men ofthis people. This was the winter dress of my old friend Kettle — a deer skin outer coat, with a large hood. This hood was ornamented with white fur from the thighs of the deer. The front of this coat was cut off at the bottom of the waist, and formed into a skirt behind, which nearly reached the ground. A fringe of little stripes of skin ornamented the bottom ofthis skirt. When it was windy he used to tie a piece of cord or skin round the waist of his coat ; at other times it hung loose. Within this dress was another of exactly the same shape, only the inner one was trimmed with beads instead of strips of leather. This inner dress was thinner than t^e oth- er, and served as a shirt and an in-door dress, with the hairy part worn next the body. *' Besides these two coats, he had a large doer- skin cut open, with sleeves, by way of cloak ; hut lie seldom wore this, keeping it chiefly for o, blan- ket. His deer-skin trowscrs had no other tast '?iiir.o" round the waist than the string, which was tied very tight, and they were ornamented in the same gay mamicr as his coat. Two pair are likewise worn of these, and my friend's upper ones were made out of the deer's legs in tasty stripes. They never make these trowsers io reach lower than the knee-cap ; and thou2;h they suffer dreadfully in cold weather, and are frequently frost-bitten in Uiat part, yet they will not add an \vh to the length of their trowscrs. *' His hoots reached up to his trowsers, which just covered the tops. lie wore two pair, both nuide of deer skin, one with the hair next the leg, the other with the hair outside. Bet^veen the boots he had a pair of slippers, and over all a stror.g seal- skin shoe, reaching up to the ankle, and fastened by a drawing string. In summer, when the J4* i.*.> fi WW iV seal-sklij so neatly ery kind Then dry, , if once 36 of ice He after- summer, ely made iside. In- 5SS, and, u will be icquaint- entsthey of differ- i, and of- so as to rn round eth hung in differ- h fine la- r a pearl i a musk of some aintance men, al- 3 was d\i' ame, ex- it as well nmense. ;he head it is two *d at the maoota« ESQUIMAUX MALE COSTUME '■ '■■■ 1 ■-' S 1 1 ! W rP ''i " ^ ?i ',ttoni of mimals, but they at work ^he wife ^vhen he and the e paring ff, they jr them , gives A ce- 5' hair, ; thcv .NORTHERN REGIONS. 167 /; CHAPTER III. ■ » '' After this minute account of the dress and ap- pearance of the Esquimaux, you will be able to fan- cy yourselves with me in my visits to the huts, which were almost daily, as I found something to amuse me, at least, in the novelty of all I saw. *' My next visit happened to be just after they had caught some seals ; and blood, bones, blubber, and flesh, were strewed about ; the lamps were ab lighted, the women were cooking mixtures of blood, meat, and entrails. I entered Kettle's hut, and saw there two women sitting enjoying themselves over a large pot of boiled seal's blood and oil, which they sipped with as much delight as your mama would sip her tea. After this delicate meal was finished, the younger lady licked her fin- gers clean, then scraping the spots of oil from her jacket and boots with a knife, she cleaned that al- so with the same useful implement, her tongue. The elder lady rather took a pride in the blood which covered her, and wondered at the folly of her companion in taking such useless trouble. " In passing one of the huts, I observed the en- trance half blocked up by snow, and looking in, I saw a poor idiot boy who had been left by his pa- rents while they went to the ships. He was about iive years old, and was busy devouring the contents of the lamp, the oil, moss, and blubber, which he was eating, being varied by a bite now and then oft* a very dirty lump of snow ; while I was looking at him he was seized with a fit, and, before we could break down the snow door to get in to him, he had ". Hfi^. I C r,< - 'ii» ^B: S ,.^.. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 ■ 30 1^ m 1^ 12.2 I 1.1 r-^IS 1.25 ii U 11.6 u <^ v^ /2 7 V /J Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 145S0 (716) 872-4S03 ^ U.. ^ ^ -4t i!;'-'r'l 168 NORTHERN REGIONS. forced himself out of his pelt blanket, and was ly- ing on the floor. The fit was a severe one, but he gradually got better, and the neighbours who were present seemed to laugh at the whole affair, and contented themselves with saying that the child had eaten too much. *' When I returned from this visit I was accom- panied by Ay-o*-kitt, a young man who was become a great favourite with me. He paid me a long visit in the cabin, and I set some food before him, insist- ing that he should use a knife and fork as we do, wipe his mouth before drinking, and not put a piece larger than an orange in at once, the natives in ge- neral cramming their mouths till they can no longer breathe. I aflerwards made him wash his hands and face, when I saw him cast very longing eyes at my nice piece of yellow soap, which I at last gave to him, and he devoured it in a moment. ** The wolves continued to torment us most ter- ribly ; I had purchased a couple of Esqurmaux dog^, but the snow house which I had built for them was no security; they were carried off in the night by the wolves, after defending themselves bravely, for the very ceiling of the hut was sprinkled with their blood and hair. On the alarm being given, we saw a wolf cantering off with the dead dog in his mouth, clear of the ground, although the dog was full as large as the wolf. I fired, and the animal was obliged to let go his prey ; but when I went with two other men to fetch the body of the dog, we observed the whole pack of twelve wolves spy- ing us through the gloom, and sideling along us as we returned to the ships. In fact, not a night pass- ed without some depredations by these animals. '* We set a trap similar to what the natives use, in order to try to got rid of our troublesome neigh- NORTHERN REGIONS. 169 hours. The trap was composed of strong slabs of ice, long and narrow, and was just large enough to hold the wolf without his being able to stir in it : the door let down by slides, and was kept up by a siring, which passed along the top of the trap, and then was let down through a hole in the end. At the bottom of the string w^as a whalebone hoop, on which was fixed the flesh bait. The hoop was slightly hooked to a wooden peg, which was fixed to the opposite end of the trap, and when the bait was touched, the hoop went up, and the door fell down. " One evening a wolf was taken in the trap, and three balls were fired at him while he was confined in it. After tying his hind legs we dragged him out tail first, by a rope ; this rope he bit through in a minute, flew at Mr. Richards, who was the nearest to him, whose arm lie bit, after seizing his knee and being thrown off. And now, my boys, observe the advantage of presence of mind. " Mr. Richards, instead of being overcome by terror, grasped the animal's throat and flung him back, at the same time retreating a step or two himself. " The wolf gladly took the opportunity of escap- ing, having done no more harm than tearing Mr. Richards' clothes and slightly hurting his arm. If Mr. Richards had been less bi#ve, or if he had not chanced to be a strong and powerful man, he would have been killed. The enemy, however, was found frozen to death the next morning : a raven who had picked out one of its eyes, hovering over its carcase, was the first to attract our attention to it. *' We soon discovered that the Esquimaux are very improvident, as, notwithstanding they had 15 V ^' XOaTIIEftN REGIONS no liai'bingci's ofspring, that wc counted thcni as tlicy came. I wished much to bring home a snow bunt- ing, the pUimage of which is beautiful ; their wings are jetty black, and on their bredst i^^a cream-co- loured mark in the shape of a horse-sl^e, which contrasts most beautifully with the snow^whitencss of their body. Their heads and necks were deli- cntely tinged with pink, from the buds of the saxi- frage which they eat ; and these lovely creatures are as tame as a robin, and very nice to eat,iial- thougli we could scarcely fhid in our hearts to kill them. * '. *' In consequence of this encouragement from the more open staleoftiie weather, we again set forth for a land exploring journey, the particulars of which will not interest you, though it served to give us some idea of the month of May in the arc- tic regions. % *' The object of this little tour was to discover to what point the ships might sail without thede-,' lay of coasting in order to explore inlets, and sa •, far it answered the purpose. Nothing could b* , more flat and uninteresting than the country; no vegetation gladdened our eyes, which were afflict- ed with snow-blindness ; while the partial thaw, though it did not supply us with water, made us perpetually slipping in as we walked, and kept us in a damp and dripping slate when under shelter of our tents. We saw no birds, but plenty of deer, though they were thin ones. ** We found, on our return to the ships, that our companions were grieving for the loss of James Fringle, a seaman, who had died during our ab- sence. His grave had been dug near the observa- tory, and we buried him next day, and fired a volley over his body. HI t % 180 NORTHERN REGIONS. !• ^ ** I was greeted by a straggling Esquimaux, who had not yet followed his party, with a ' very well, I taank you,' accompanied by a dandy bow, which he had bee^^ taught to make at the ships ; and, "*^ when I tojd him we had seen deer, he determined to take his wife and another family who still haunt- ed the ships, in search of them. They were wretchedly poor. Captain Parry gave them a bone sledge, on which they placed their Idads, one • dog* and a bandy le<^ged little puppy being all they ^ had to drag it. They thought the journey they were about to begin might take them forty days, and yet, without a morsel of food besides a little bread and a few candle-ends, they set off in as . high spirits as if in a land of plenty. When they took leave of us. Captain Parry presented each man with a boarding-pike, and Captain Lyon with a hatchet ; while a poor woman who was divorced from her husband, and had no one to rejoice for, , stood with the tears in her eyes, not even begging for any thing for herself. Captain Lyon gave her a knife, and made her completely happy by tell- ing her, that as soon as she brought her husband with her. he too should have an axe. ** We soon had plenty of new visiters in the shape of birds : the grouse at first were white ; but the raven, strange to say, keeps its black plumage throughout the year. The king-duck, which is something like an eider-drake, is a most brilliant creature ; and we saw, too, a large flock of long- tailed ducks. ** Wc now set to work cutting a canal into the open water ; and the process being the same as that I described to vou on a former occasion, I need not dwell upon it now. *♦ I hadjny curiosity gratified in the sight.of a '# z, who r well, which ; and, mined liaunt- werc hem a Is, one ill they y they r days, a little f in as n they i each in with vorced ce for. Egging ve her »y tell* isband in the e ; but image lich is illiant •1 long- tto the me as sion, I It, of a i NORTHERN REGIONS. 181 swan's nest with three eggs in, and an enormous pile it is. It is a curious construction, built of lit- tie pieces of peat, which is a kind of turf, no larger than a walnut, neatly placed one upon another. The eggs are laid in a hole at the top, whichJs a foot and a half in diameter, so that the female bird is seen in full length while sitting. The eggs were a dull white colour, and made three good meals for one of our invalids. " It was the ninth of June when we saw the first flower ; and is it not singular, that it was the same day of the same month on which we had seen the same flower (saxifrage) at Melville Island, on our former' voyage ?" Tom. But, uncle, you were much further north at Melville Island. ** Yes, it is true, we were as many as nine de- grees farther north ; but I fancy, in the arctic re- gions, that makes but little diflbrence, as we had various proofs of it both in the vegetation and in the showers of rain. " After fifteen days' hard but cheerful labour, the canal was completed ; and, fancying that the next day we should leave Water Island, several of us went to the little hill called Cape Fisher, to take leave of the place on which we had passed so many months, and to which we all had a feeling of attachment, notwithstanding its barren and comfortless appearance. *' On this spot we painted the ships* names; and, after shooting and roasting a few buntings for supper, we each took a piece of yackee, or Es- quimaux stone, and thus ended our rural and cold f6te." Charles. Before you leave the island, pray 16 • • lat NORTHETRN REG ION.?. tell me, uncle, had you not some gardens this time as before f " Indeed, Charles, we had a hot-bed covered with glass for each ship, and this garden was a favourite lounge, and produced us, besides mustard and cress, peas, two inches high, and radishes as thick as a thread. Captain Parry's stoves, too, were very productive in mustard and cress.*' JM-i, \ \ CHAPTER IV. ^ *' Thus passed our first winter ; and you will remark, that though our knowledge of the natives was much increased, yet we had not made much progress in discovery. For two hundred and sixty- seven days, which is nearly three quarters of the y«ar, w^e had been frozen in ; but at length we sailed forth, and were well pleased to be once more proceeding in a northerly direction. '* As we advanced, the tides became tempestu- ous, and threatened theHecla, whose only way of escaping was to shelter herself behind a fender of ice. The floes of ice were at length, however, driven against her with such force, that a weaker vessel must have been knocked to pieces. We got through it, however, and continued coasting it at a slow rate, the Fury being before us, until we were stopped by the ice. Landing for a short time, therefore, we were gratified by a sight of a fine cataract and some magnificent scenery, such as we bad never before witnessed in these regions. ** Whilci we were still stationary, we had a regu- ■^,'> NORTHERN REGlOxNS. l83 lar battle with some walruses, a herd of which lay facing us with open mouths on the ice. ** A male and female, and their cub, were apart from the rest. We wounded the old ones, who, after a desperate resistance, were killed, and taken alongside our boat. The cub had kept close to them all along, getting first on the back of one and then of the other, and its presence made them more fierce in their defence. *' At length, from the crow's nest, we discovered Esquimaux tents, in the very spot laid down for our guide by Iligliak. We went in our boats to visit them, and now knew enough of their lan- guage to answer their questions of * Where do you come from ?' * What do you want ?^ " They were all related to our friends at Winter Island ; and, therefore, after the first shyness was worn off, they were delighted to hear news of them, and we each of us had soon an attentive audience in each tent, to whom we told all we knew. Some of the old men carried a spear mado of a single piece of ivory of an unicorn's horn. " This band of Esquimaux live in tents covered with walrus' skins, and not in snow-houses, like their relations. They appeared very poor and miserable, their dirty deer-skins scarcely afford- ing them sufficient covering to keep them warm at night. They were well behaved ; and, when we entered their tents, thanked us, and begged us to sit down on their deer-skins. " Of their hospitality we had most convincing proofs, for when we left them to return to the ships, we launched our boat in a thick fog ; and^ after being beaten about by the ice for some Iiours, we were obliged to save it as well as'ourselves by drag- ging it back to the beach. Here the natives met -* siiiiiii 18t NORTHERN REGIONS. US in spite of the inclement weather^ and got our boat up the steep shingle bank. As we could not stay by her, we were obliged to trust to the honesty of the Esquimaux. After making them a long speech, which I dare say they did not understand, about some tin pots which we would give them if they let the boat alone, an old man seemed to make them an oration, and then they all followed us without touching the boat, although it contained so tempting a store of wood and iron. ** They then led us to their tents, took oiF our wet garments, and clothed us in their own furs, which they stripped off their backs. ** The women came and volunteered a dance for our amusement, to which they added various gri- maces and cries, which they called singing. We then tried to sing them some noisy chorusses, but oar teeth chattered with cold. The women, per- ceiving how cold we were, tucked us up under our deer-skins, over which they spread boots, mittens, and raw duck -skins, while the men stopped up all the holes in the tent with bunches of feathers. " With these kind and hospitable attentions wc soon got warm, and enjoyed a comfortable night's rest, for which we the next day repaid our friends, by making them presents of every thing which wc had in our possession. ** We took leave of the Exquimaux ; and, not- withstanding the fog, reached the ships in safety, but we found them still beset with ice. ** On my next visit to Igloolik, I visited their win- ter huts, which are curiously constructed of the bones of the whale, walrus, and unicorn, filled up with moss and earth. They were domed at top, and most filthy inside, and all around the outside lay skeletons of animals mingled with human heads. NORTHERN REGIONS. 185 long Here I shot a snowy owl, which is a rare and beaa- tiful bird : it is considered as being of a species between an eagle and an owl, and, like owls in general, it sees as well by day as by night. " To see a little of the country, as well as to improve my acquaintance with these good-humour- ed Esquimaux, I determined upon going a few days' journey with Toole-mak, the old man whom Captain Parry had commissioned to procure a supply of fish for the ships. *' We set off, with four men accompanying us in our sledge, and three hoys in another, and a team of eleven dogs. We left the island of Igloolik, and travelled along the ice, and passed a number of red granite islands, bold arid barren to view, but \vg soon found the holes in the ice difficult to pass. " Dunn, the old man, and m} self, walked to an island to look about us, and found that there was water instead of ice a little way further, and that we could not proceed except with a boat. As we' could not, therefore, reach the fish in*r- place, we speirt a night on one of these rocky islands, and I was obliged to distribute our four days' supply of food among the whole party that night, for the Es- quimaux, ever improvident, had brought none with them. The next nioinmg wc saw a group of thirty islands, which I named the Coxe Group* Dunn caught us a deer, by the usual stratagem among th(yp^tive3. He hid himself behind a stone, the singular cry of a deer, which soon f these simple animals, and he came p allow himself to be shot. We all n a skin, and enjoyed an excellent squimaux fashion ; and, I can assure you, so wellvfere the bo^cs picked, that not even IG* and imitatj attracted near e sat s meali 186 NORTHERN REGIOiNS. the dogs would gnaw at them a second time. You must remember, Louisa, that this was the first In- dian meal I had ever been present at, and my first feeling was of disgust at the raw repast. I deter- mined to be a spectator only, and to confine my- self to eating a little preserved meat which I had saved from the last night's supper; but t was tempted to try a part of the spine, and found it, in- deed, excellent ; and, if I were often situated in a similar manner, I know not if I should not even reHsh, as a dainty, raw venison." Charles. And how did you like their mode of travelling, uncle — drawn by dogs ? ** You would have been delighted to have been with us, Charles ; their sagacity was beyond every- thing. An old dog was placed at the head of the team as guide, and no well-trained soldier could obey better the word of command. As for beat- ing, it was out of the question ; for, however tired, the cry of a seal or bear was enough to set them off full gallop across the ice. It was a fine sight to «ee us racing away all in full cry, as if dashing- along in spite of wind and water. Sometimes one of our dogs would get entangled and tossed over, when our driver would jump from his seat in front, and nimbly arrange all, and set ofl^ again. As for harness or reins, the long-lashed whip and the hol- low tones of our driver answered the purpose well enough ; and the dogs would have gone orderly enough through any difficult pass, if tj^eir constant biting and fighting had not somewha^i^errupted them. The noises the men made, .3bich are scarcely more musical than the growla^tlite dogs^ formed a most stunning concert. " Our reception from Ooyarra, the fisherman, was truly hospitable, while his wives and parents #■ 'i^>1|1*.; NORTHERN REGIONS. 187 assisted in taking my wet clothes off and drying and mending my boots. I wrapped myself up in my blanket bag and hoped for a little sleep ; but, no, one native after another came in, and all were too curious to know how I could have got into my bag, to allow me much repose. They all thought I had sewed myself up in it. ^ ** I learnt the following day a new way of mak- ing fires of blubber and bones. The woman who is about to cook the dinner chews a piece of blub- ber, and then spits the oil from her mouth upon the fire to keep it burning. ** A number of strange customs excited my cu- riosity, and you will scaicely believe the story I am going to tell you. I was dozing in my tent about the middle of the day, when a native came and led me by the hand, desiring Dunn to follow us, to a ball. We entered a tent, where a number of women, ranged according to their ages, sat round the room in solemn silence. It was an Es- quimaux ball ; the dancers were two men, who ad- vanced to the middle of the tent, near the pole of it. The principal dancer moved slowly to the fa- vourite tune of Am-naa-ya-a-ya, and when a little tired, walked up gravely to the second man, who was the assistant, and holding his head between his hands, rubbed noses with him, amid the 'houts of all the lookers on. He did the same thing over again for several times, till at last he led the as- sistant to the middle of the tent, and rushed out into the air to cool himself. The assistant then chose a partner, and so on till several couples had danced. But, alas, they were not contented unless I, too, joined in the diversion. I was led up by a filthy fellow, who seemed to consider it an excellent joke, and, with all the ladies laughing at me, I was I I I 188 NORTHERN REGIONS. m obliged to stand up and have my nose rubbed like the rest. When my turn came to choose a part- ner, you may depend upon it, Louisa, 1 picked out the prettiest girl in the room to dance with, which highly flattered the old dame her mother. I went on dancing for some time, till at last I too became weary ; and, after a present of needles to the ladies I made my escape. Dunn had more wisdom than myself, for when he saw the liberty that was taken with my nose, he made his escape, and no entreaty could get him back into the room again. " These poor wretches have notions of receiving visiters, as appeared from their kindness to me ; for whatever tent I visited, the master always rose and gave me the best seat. Th^\v exchan iNORTIlERN REGIONS. 100 ten familiar spirits with whom Toulc-mak professes to hold this kind of communication. ** But though these poor people have no religious worship, they are not idolaters, and their notions of a future state are very straight forward. There are two places to which they believt; the souls of the good go, heaven, and the centre of the earth ; the first is for those who have been killed by bears, walruses, or any other animal ; the second is di- vided into three, the lowest of which is a place of perfect happiness. . "Winter orders were again given, and every preparation made as before : our observatory was built, and messengers six times a-day were appoint- ed to keep up regular communications between the ships. We depended upon our new e?quain- tances at Igloolik, for our amusement during the long period of darkness which we must look for« ward to, for you must remember, that we had moved our station several degrees farther north than the winter before. " It was not long before a few of our old friends at Winter isle, came to visit their relations at Ig- loolik, and well pleased were we to see one another again. Tagorlat was among the number of these visiters, and was truly happy at once again coming to our ships. Her poor idiot child had died upon the road, and the whole party had undergone great hardships. ** And now, Charles, you should have seen us sporting our handsome team of dogs. I myself drove eleven fine creatures. I purchased them from the Esquimaux, to whose credit it must be related, that they would not sell me these valuables animals, until they had bargained that none should 17 m mti ;'!"-»ir :'■■'> 194 NORTHERN REGIONS. be killed. It had happened, to the disgrace of the ' Kabloona,' that once or twice the dog had been killed as soon as bought, and in one instance the heartless sailor not only killed the dog, but asked the owner to assist him to skin it. For this pur- pose, he put his knife into his hand, but the Esqui- maux threw it from him indignantly, and walked away without speaking a word." '^ I trust the sailor felt ashamed of his inhuman- ity," cried Charles, indignantly. ** It was a strik- ing lesson to us all, and 1 believe we had not before given credit to the Esquimaux for having such noble or strong feelings." ** We were present at a marriage between young Toolooak from W inter island, and a damsel of the Igloolik tribe. The ceremony is simply this. The bridegroom enters the hut of the bride, and seats himself down beside her, and is from that moment lord and master of herself and her hut. The bride was fifteen, the bridegroom two years older. Both looked very sheepish and shy when they came next day to visit Captain Parry. He made some pre- sents as a matter of course. ** Toule-mak, the conjurer, was a knowing man. One day he went into Captain Lyon's cabin : * I have had a dream,' said he, * which was, that a spirit in the shape of a Lyon came and brought me an axe.' " * I too have had a dream,' answered the Cap- tain i * 1 dreamt that an old fellow was turned out of my cabin for being a beggar.' This last dream was instantly realized ; and the conjurer took the joke very good-humouredly, though he had to walk upon the cold deck, instead of sitting by a good fire* ** We bade adieu to the sun on the second of D^ember, arid much as you wish to become a t c I ■ s \ \ \ XORTHERN REGIONS. id5 bold adventurer, Charles, I cannot help hoping that you may never know the melancholy feeling of loosing sight of that noble luminary altogether." Tom. I think you have no reason to complain, uncle; for you had no illness either among you or the Esquimaux. I have not heard you even men- tion your doctor's name. " Do not, Tom, be in too great a hurry ; I was just going to tell you of a cure which I performed myself upon a native who came to me with a fit of lumbago. He begged I would give him some soap, for his wife to wash his back with. This was done in my presence, by his good lady, with an injunction from me to repeat the washing every day till the soap was done. I then held my musi- cal snuff-box to his back for a short time, and the cure was completed. After many thanks, and the offer of his wife's boots, he returned home quite well. " You may laugh at this story; but, simple as it was, the natives are not utterly devoid of dis- crimination. Toule-mak one day gave me a very striking lesson. He came into my cabin, he slept with me, and he made a point of eating of every thing which I eat, and of doing whatever I did. During the visit he said to me, * When you give me any thing, I eat, and I say very good : when the Kabloona come to see us they turn up their noses, and when we ask them to eat, they say * ve- ry bad.' Now pray, my little niece, to whom would you give the prize of good manners ?" Louisa. Your question puzzles me, uncle ; for though I think you might have avoided turning up your nose, or saying any thing to offend, yet I cannot think you could very well have sat down and partaken of their messes. \ 19G NORTHERN REGIONS. <* Habit, however, I belieye, Louisa, makes our food nearly as repugnant to them, although it cer- tainly cannot be quite so disgusting. "However, I determined, if possible, to profit by the lesson, and I soon after paid Toule-mak a visit, with the intention of staying all night, to see something more of his incantations. '* My politeness was now put to the proof; I found the family at a sociable meal, over a full and smoking pot of seal's flesh, and I sat down with them, and eat like one of them. I next was called upon to partake of a frozen slice of raw walrus. I even forced myself to eat of this, and received in turn the thanks and praises of the family, particu- larly as they all declared that they knew the Ka- bloona were not fond of raw meat. Toule-mak, my host, was so pleased, that he promised me a visit from Toonga as a reward. I have before describ- ed to you the ceremony of calling up this spirit,-^ and it was done in the same manner this time. When this was over, I had a new seal's skin spread for my bed, and in the midst of the family, who were arranged in a similar manner about the floor, I laid myself down to rest. ** Our breakfast lasted at least four hours, the hut being constantly filled by fresh comers, among whom was my old friend Kettle. Toule-mak im- mediately addressed him by the name of thief, when to my great amusement, the old fellow sat down, and gave a most humourous account of his robbing * Pari,' as he called Captain Pafry, at which the whole party laughed immoderately. Thus ended jiiy visit to the huts, and as if the natives had made a resolution of behaving well to me, it was the only time that I remember visiting them when the .litikSu.V' .!£. ^ ;». '1„ r.rr^ \M4 1^ '' ; /Wy^ mm» !M3r m J97 mil NORTHERN REGIONS. 197 word ' Pilletay,* (give me) was not repeatedly ut- tered. ** Our second Christmas day arrived, and found us all in good spirits, and able to enjoy some ex- cellent old English roast beef, which had been hanging a year and a half, and would have kept still longer. This second year, however, tried the best men among us : and those who had suffered but little the first were forced to confess themselves weaker in this. I, among the number, was oblig- ed to add considerably to my clothing, and we all suffered much from cold feet. ** About this time I heard some curious anec- dotes of bears from a very intelligent Esquimaux named Ooyarra. To hunt and watch them used to be a favourite amusement of his, when young ; and he boasted of having killed five in his life time. ** Two walruses and their cubs were one day lying asleep on a piece of broken ice, when a bear was seen to swim slyly up. He crept gently to the top of some lumps of ice, behind the walruses, and loosening a block with his nose and paws, he roll- ed it, till it fell upon one of the old ones, which it killed. The other walrus and its- cub rolled into the water, and the bear then descended and feasted very leisurely upon the dead walrus and its poor cub, which had no power of escaping after the death of its parent. ** The bear has recourse to stratagems almost a^ singular in catching the ooghiok, which is a species of the large seal, which, being of a timid nature, always lie close to the edge of a piece of ice, in or- der that they may, by one roll, get into the sea, in which they are safe from the persecutions of their . 17* rf- m iiM ii * ?:r vm,t m,: 103 NORTHERN REGIONS. enemy. They are restless creatures, sleeping in short naps, and rolling their head from side to side, something like your little brother Charles, when he gets himself to sleep. And they do as many other wild animals do, turn the way from which the wind blows, fancying that there is an enemy coming from that quarter. The bear, when he spies one of these animals, swims up to him in an opposite di- rection to the wind. He goes, in short dives, and contrives his last dive so that he pops out of the water just close to the seal, which, poor thing, sees him coming, and has no means of escape left. If it rolls into the water, it falls into its enemy's clutch- es ; and if it lies still, the bear makes a spring, and fastens his destructive jaws upon him. ** My attention was now much occupied with visiting the hut of Takkalikkita, whose wife and child were dangerously ill. The cold and damp 5^ituation in which we found them, induced Captain Lyon to take them into his cabir> where the poor woman died. The first care of poor Takkalikkita, after the death of his wife, was to dress the corpse exactly the same as if she had been living ; it then was sewed up in a hammock, with the face lefl open, by the husband 's desire. The poor man was greatly relieved when we told him the body should be taUen to the grave in a sledge drawn by men, instead of dogs ; for he related, to our great hor- ror, an instance in which the dogs had actually eaten a part of the dead body, while they were taking it to its place of interment. The dogs were carefully tied up, and I went with the party on shore, where a grave about a foot deep was dug. The body was placed on its back in this grave, and .5%e husband cut the stitches which had fastened the li^mtnock : and though he did not throw it open, / NORTHERN REGIONS. 199 he made us dnderstand that he wished it to be left unconfined. We then covered the body up, and lefl it* Takkalikkita staid behind to address a few words to his departed wife, and then followed us." Louisa. And what became of the poor baby, uncle ? " Ah, poor little thing, I must tell you that the father had appeared to us, as far as we could un* derstand him, to wish that the child should be bu- ried alive aside of its mother ; and, I believe, hor- rible as this seems, that many of these northern people fancy that an unweaned child cannot live many days after the death of its mother, and there- fore, that it is kinder, by burying it alive, to save it from the few days of suffering that it might linger through. ■* When we returned from the burial we found thatthe elder daughter, Shegar, had been nursing the poor little baby her sister, and had marked upon her forehead a spot of soot as a sign the child must die. The father seemed convinced of this too, and 1 had much difficulty to persuade him to let me attempt to feed the child with some soup." Louisa. And did it live, uncle ? '^ You shall hear, Louisa. After much persua- sion, Takkalikkita left me to do what I liked with the baby, saying, that I might take it home to my own country, for if it lived or if it died, he should never consider it his own child any longer. His affection for it, however, was strong, for, in the middle of the night, I was disturbed by loud sighs ; and, looking up, I saw the poor fellow standing mournfully gazing upon his poor child. I got up and entreated him to be composed, and lie down. He did so ; and, when I returned to look at the !?;^ \ \ :^00 NORTHERN REGIONS. child, I found that she was dead, and that the poor father had perceived it. Takkalikkita then told me that the child had seen its mother, who had beckoned for it to come to heaven, and that he was not surprised the child had died, for that in- fants never survive their mothers, and Shegar's black spot had made its death certain. *' The poor little babe we buried in the snow ; and I went with Takkalikkita a day or two after to visit the grave of his wife. [ observed him look carefully all around in the snow ; and seeing no foot-marks, he muttered to himself * no wolves — no foxes. — Thank you — thank you.' Then he began to talk to his wife, and told her which way the v\md blew. Then he began a kind of song; Jind, then suddenly breaking off, he said * takba,' which means ' enough,' and walked away as fast as he could. ^ , ^ " This inoffensive quiet family was now sent back to their hut with m.my presents, and not till they had gained our esteem by their gentleness. Before I have done with my friend Takkalikkita, I must, however, tell you, that although he married two more wives before the end of the month, he continued to visit daily the grave of his first wife. " There was much sickness in the huts, and many of the natives had died since we had been there ; and so carelessly do the Esquimaux bury the dead, that the body of another man had been almost entirely eaten by the dogs. " A widow named Kagha was so dreadfully ill and miserable, that she too was removed to the Hecla's cabin to be nursed ; but her ill temper gave us all a dislike to her : she never spoke but to complain, that as many presents had not been given fo her as to the other invalids. As long as she ^ixgr % NORTHERN REGIONS. 201 was ill, great attention and care was shown her, and when a little better, she was removed to tho hut of a relation of her own, who promised to take care of her; and, though we clothed her with blankets and a new suit of clothes, she kept grum^ bling on to the last, and seemed determined that we should never have a better opinion of her. *' But, attending to the sick, nursing them, or comforting them, is not among the good qualities of the Esquimaux ; and Kagha, though surrounded by relations, was soon again reduced to such a state of misery and filth, that Captain Parry had her removed to the hospital. Her friends had left her all alone, shut up in a small snow-hut. One wick of her lamp was burning ; and her hair was frozen to the bed-place in a quantity of blood which she had spit up. All attempts to recover her were useless, and she died soon after her re- moval. She was actually starved to death, although she had a number of relations near her, whom we discovered had never been to her, or supplied her with any kind of food since she had left the ships. This fact, although true, is almost too shocking to believe — it showed utter selfishness and insensibili- ty to each others' sufferings in these Esquimaux. The body of Kagha was not removed from the ship for two days, but not a creature made the slight- est inquiry about her, or seemed to care or know when she was buried." Tom. I should imagine, uncle, that the ill temper of this woman had prevented them caring^ about her. ** It might possibly increase their insensibility ; but it was not the cause of it, as I have seen a va- riety of instances of it, some of which I have not mentioned to you. .% JlM i' r :cJ«le?:. 202 NORTHERN REGIONS. ** Having heard of a village about twenty miles off, I drove over to visit it, and found a party of twenty-eight Esquimaux living in six small snow huts. Plenty reigned here ; and orie young man had made himself so ill with eating, that I took out my knife and bled him, ordering at the same time his mother not to let him taste any meat for many days, and to let him have nothing but soup. The youth looked very surly, and seemed to con- sider me as his murderer. *' My reception at the most miserable of the huts was truly hospitable, and compensated for the un- comfortableness of the place, whose snowy roof kept dripping down upon us- A.s for food, they would have stuffed me if I had been inclined ; and I in return took the baby, who was covered by a fox-skin, sewed up like a jacket, and singing all manner of baby songs, quite won the hearts of its parents. I slept in this small hut, with the lamp close to my nose, and a young seal for my pillow. ** It was with delight we perceived our t^ccond spring returning, but it did not find us all in such good health as the former one. Mr. Elder, the Hecla's mate, who was making this voyage for a third time, died of the dropsv after a few days* confinement. It was with difficulty we could dig him a grave, as the earth was still so hard as to resist the stroke of our pick-axes. The funeral service was read over his grave, and two volleys fired. ** And now a general breaking-up was about to take place. The ice was thawing ; the Esquimaux were driven out of their snow-huts, which were quickly disappearing from the face of the earth ; the scenes of so much merriment, so much feast- ing, and latterly of so much illness, were now NORTHERN REGIONS. 203 nearly levelled with the ground, without leaving a trace behind ** In this general movement, our plans for the future were to be determined upon ; and, as wc had had plenty of time to talk them over during the winter months, this did not take long. ** It was found im possible for both ships to proceed on the voyage of discovery, as the provisions would not hold out for another winter. It was decided, therefore, that the Hecla should return home as soon as the ice permitted, and that the Fury should continue sailing northward. Captain Parry bravely resolving that, as long as he could, he would continue his search for this much-wished- for western passage. ** Before the ice broke up then, we had much to do ; our two fine teams of dogs and our sledges effected the removal of all the Hecla's stores to the Fury. These fine animals would drag an ama- zingly heavy load at the rate of a yard a minute from one shipto the other ; even the heavy anchors were conveyed in this manner. ** A stray Esquimaux or two occasionally visited the ships till we left the place ; and, one widow, whose name will amuse you, if you can make it out, Ang-ma-loo-too-ing-a, walked fifteen miles to see us. She was very pretty, and quite con- scious of it. As I sat at my table reading, and seeming to take no notice of her, I saw her go to the glass, look in it, and put her head and face in pretty attitudes, and smile to show her teeth, which she rubbed with a piece of paper. She ap- peared quite charmed with her fine black eyes, and at last could refrain no longer ; but, coming up to me, said, * O ! how pretty my eyes are.' ^* Another man, with his wife, came to see iisv ■ ^'ir m 'ij,. .l4i: 204 NORTHERN REGIONS. This man had received many presents, and, among others, about six shirts, which he wore all at once, the cleanest at the top. He was a well-made tall fellow, and some of us gave him a suit of English clothes, in which he strutted about quite proud. His wife too made him a green baize great- coat, with a white collar and cuffs, so that he thought him- self a * Kabloona' complete. He was an intelli- gent man, and told me many things which I had not heard before, and some of which I would wil- lingly have disbelieved, had not they been confirm- ed afterwards by Toule-mak. ** Some years ago he told me that there had been a grievous fumine, and that one band of Es- quimaux had attacked another, and, horrid to tell, eaten the dead bodies of their enemies. *' He told me, likewise, in some of the tribes of Esquimaux, murders are not uncommon, but that a man is never killed unless he is alone and asleep. His relations never revenge his death immediately, but wait for some opportunity, which it is difficult to find, for the murderer never lies down to sleep when others do, but he wanders about in the night, and sleeps in the day when all his neighbours arc about, and he is therefore in no danger. '* Toule-mak and his wife came to take leave of me, but, as I found they began to beg for presents, I gave them nothing, which made them very an*- gry, especially when they saw me load otheis who came at the same time, but did not beg. Toule- mak, however, politely desired me to give his com- pliments to the Englishmen's conjurer (meaning the king,) and I was directed to deliver this po- lite message to him : ' Toule-mak speaks King George the Fourth welly well, I taank you.' ** Having taken leave of these amusing people, I NORTHERN REGIONS. :>05 m ihall cut short which 1 fear has al- y narrative ready been rather tedious. ** We made various excursions up the country, hut saw nothing very new ; hut, notwithstandinjs: our daily hopes of «fetting free from the ice, and leaving Igloolik, we v ere actually detained on the same spot till the middle of August, having been there nearly eleven months. ** This lonpr detention caused a considerable al- teration in our plan». The health of our crew was not as it had been at the beginning of the spring ; and Captain Parry felt so sure that he should risk the lives of many of his men by continuing his voyage and s|)ending another winter in the arctic l^egion^, that he resolved that the Fury should re- turn as well as the Hecla, as soon as cither could he released. ** The happy day at length arrived. We broke through the ice, and sailed again in open sea, and took a final leave of the island of Igloolik, which, though an insignificant looking island, is an im- portant Esquimaux establishment, having no less than four villages upon it. ** After a dangerous and troublesome voyaffe through the ice, we reached the coast of Winter Island, our old station, and some of us went in boats to visit the shore. The graves of our mess- mates remained undisturbed ; and radishes, mus- tard, and cress, and onions, had survived the winter, sheltered by a warm covering of snow. It is re- markable, too, that we again saw the aurora borealis at Winter Island, which we had scarcely had a glimpse of all the time we had been at ig- loolik. " We again set sail on the 1st of September, 18 <•. ■■K-\ 206 NORTHERN REGIONS. the ice and fog preventing our proceeding rapidly- It was about this time that we had the misfortune to lc;5e another of our companions, and he was deeply regretted. You remember the name of Mr. Fife, who was one of our party in the first voy- age. He had been long ill of the scurvy, was a stout man, and had got very fat during the winter, and had used hut little exercise. He had a dis- li e, too, to acids, which are a very necessary an- tidote to the scurvy. " Our ships were now in very great danger, having never encountered more terrific ice-bergs, and we were in hourly expectation of some great disaster to the ships. We, providentially, escaped, however, and afterwards had a very speedy voyage till we got to the Shetland Isles. " We landed at Lerwick, and an old sailor like myself has seldom experienced such feelings as at that moment, when, after an absence of two years and a half, I once more set foot upon British ground, among my own countrymen, and heard all that had happened to our country during that length of time. ' " The inhabitants of Lerwick flocked out to meet us clothed in their best dresses, and we landed amidst their cheers. The town was illuminaied at night, and a number of tar barrels burnt in every street. Every inhabitant was ready with his compliments, and every door was hospitably open- ed for our reception. " On Sunday, we all attended church, and the venerable Mr. Menzies gavp thanks for our safe return in a most beautiful prayer, which drev/ tears from the eyes of every one there, who seemed rather as if they were rejoicing for the return of beloved relations, than for that of mere strangers." XORTIIERN REGIONS. 207 ^iV ■-*-■- PART IV, CHAPTER I. rii Surely, uncle, this is the agg of adventure,'' said Tom one morning, as he entered with a book under his arm, " and I think you will agree with me when I tell you that I have met with some ad- ventures still more wonderful than yours." " Well, Tom, let us heai what it is, for in re- turn for my long stories, I shall be very glad to be amused with some fresh adventures, provided they are, like my own, true." . Tom. What do you think, uncle, of a man tra- velling from England, through Hussia, across the wilds of Siberia to Kamschatka, the very remot- est extreme of Asia, and almost entirely on foot, and with very little money ? Uncle Richard. It sounds very wonderful, and wild ; what can have been the motive for so extraordinary an enterprize, Tom f ToiM. My hero was Captain Cochrane, an offi- cer in the British Navy. He had been a great traveller before, having made a pedestrian tour through France, Spain, and Portugal, and served in the West Indies for ten years. This gave him, I suppose, a love of travelling, for he oifered his services to government to explore the interior of Africa, in search of the source of the river Niger. For some reason or other, it seems this offer was rejected, and he was so bent upon enterprize, that 206 ZS'ORTIIERN REGIONS. lie obtuiiicd leave of absenec for two years, and de- termined to travel absolutely round the globc; traversing Europe in the first place, then Asia, and crossing over by Behring's Straits to proceed through America homewards. And this nice lit* tie journey, uncle, he resolved to undertake on foot. Now what do you think of the scheme f XJiNCLE Richard* I think, Tom, it was as glo- rious a one as Charles, in his most boastful mood, would be anxioi^s to undertake. I conclude, how- ever, that he gave up a part of it, for if he had crossed over to America, and traversed its wilds, I doubt whether he would have lived to have told the tale; but, at all events, Tom, if he perform- ed half of what he intended to do, I shall think him a bold and adventurous fellow. '' I should like to hear more of him, but his books there under your arm look formidable to a sailor like me, who am better pleased when talking than when reading; so suppose, Tom, you undertake to tell mc all you think worth remembering of his adventures, and I will promise to be a patient listen* cr,as well as Charles here, restless fellow as he is." Tom's vanity was not a httle gratified at beirn*' thought capable of affording amusement to his uncle, and therefore when evening came, it was with modest pride that he spread out his maps and began his narration. *' With the determination to trace the shores of the Polar sea by land^ along the coast of North America, while Captain Parry, and you, uncle, were attempting to do it by sea. Captain Cochrane left England in the year 1820. He filled his knap^ sack with every thing that he considered requisite, added to a few papers and documents ; and witli r P ii L ci NORTHERN REGIONS. 209 this humble equipment, he prepared to visit the unknown wilds of Asia and America. ** After crossing the channel, he landed at Dieppe, and pursued his walk throu*^h France, passing through Paris, Nantz, and JVletz. Enter- ing Germany, he passed through Frankfort and Leipsic, and was not very much delighted with cither of tlicse two cities. *' He left Germany without regret, and entered Prussia, where the good roads enabled him to pro- ceed more rapidly. After visiting Berlin, he pro- 'ceeded through Dantzio, Konisgberg and Narva, and reached St. Petersburg at the end of April, not having been quite three months in performing a journey of 1600 miles." Uncle Richakd. That is nearly at the rate of twenty miles a day, which, for so long a con- tinuance, was a tolerable performance, and I must own, excites my Curiosity to hear more of this brave Captain. Tom. Captain Cochrane stayed a short time at St. Petersburg, and obtained from the Emperor Alexander several documents which might be ne- cessary for his safety in travelling through his do- minions, and particularly in Siberia, which is so re- mote from the seat of government. With his knap- sack re-filled by the kindness of the English resi- dents at Petersburg, he once more quitted a home, and he could not avoid, as he gave a last look at the city, reflecting with grif ^ that he was about to quit the habitations of civilized man, and enter up- on the abode of wild beasts or savages. ** He silently reflected upon the best line of conduct to adopt, and resolved to respect the feel- ings of mankind wherever he should be, to trust J8* 210 NORTHERN REGIONS. for his safety to their humanity, rather than to his own strength, and to be humble-minded and lowly. ** His good resolutions were soon tried, for he had not proceeded far before he was attacked by rob- bers, one of whom dragged him into a wood by his collar, and the other pushed him on with the point of his bayonet. There they stripped him, and tied him to a tree, and after insisting upon his eating some black bread, and drinking a glass of rum, quietly took possession of all his clothes, together with the contents of his knapsack. They then made oft', and a boy passing soon after, released the Captain from his captivity, who, almost naked, flung his empty knapsaci^ over his back, and went on in this manner, till he was a hundred miles be- yond St. Petersburg. '* At Novgorod, the Governor supplied him with clothes, and promised to find out the robbers, and have them punished. ' I shall be in Siberia be- fore then,' said the Captain. *' From Novgorod to Moscow, his journey was very agreeable, the peasantry, though in a servile and wretched state, were hospitable, and provi- sions were cheap. " He stayed but a short time to admire this won- *'derful city, and with another fit of low spirits, he took leave of his friends there, and again set forth upon his pilgrimage. He reached Nishney Nov- gorod, which is a kind of Birmingham to Russia, and with a new pair of English shoes which were given him, and a fresh supply of provisions, he embarked upon the famous river Volga, in a small vessel bound to Kazan. The Volga is a magnifi- cent stream, and the number of vessels of different sizes and shapes made the scene very picturesquer A lofty chain of mountains on one side occasionally m^ NORTHERN REGIONS. 211 gave it an air of grandeur, but on the whole it was not very interesting, and our traveller would wil- lingly have gone on shore again, but a large bag of money which he had to carry prevented him. Uncle Richard. Money, Tom, I thought you were relating the adventures of a poor tra- veller ? ** I intended to surprise you, uncle, for, to tell you the truth, it was copper money, and the whole value did not amount to a guinea. He was not rich enough to leave it behind, but he spent some of it in laying in afresh stock of provisions accord- ing to his agreement with the master of the ves- sel. Flour, boiled and mixed with water and oil, and black bread, was what he provided, and a very small sum of money purchased his store. " They soon entered the extensive and rich province of Kazan, through which the noble Volga runs. The manufactories of soap made from the fat of Astracan seals, and the gold and silver em- broidery of boots, shoes, and bo«hets employ numbers of people. " The city of Kazan is a very large one, and contains a very handsome church, called * St. Paul and St. Peter,' which was built by a private gentleman in honour of the Czar Peter, who h^ once favoured his house by making it his resting place for a night. " He stayed a very short time in Kazan, and proceeded through Perm and Kongour till he ap- proached the borders of Siberia. He could not avoid contemplating with some uneasiness his en- trance into a country which he had heard of only as a scene of cruelty and misery. He proceeded, however, and gently ascended the Ural mountains, which form the boundary between Europe and Asia. ii # jei2 NORTHERN REGIONS. He had a cold walk when he approached the sum- mit, apd at the last European station he dined, and took his leave of his own quarter of tlie ^lobe. While yet standing as it were between Euiope and Asia, a group of little children presented him with some wild strawberries and cream ; this is the custom of the country, and the strawberries are remarkably fine flavoured. "He passed these majestic barriers, the ascent and descent of which was so gtadual as to be al- most imperceptible, and he slept in Asia that day, and reached Ekatherinebourg the next. %v " On entering Asia, Captain Cochrane remark- ed that the cottagers were all cleaner and more civilized than on the European side of the Urals. Whatever village he came to, they always set be- fore him streshee, which is cabbage-sou p,and bread and milk, nor could he ever prevail upon them to let him pay any thing. A pipe of tobacco, or a glass of bodkaor whiskey, was all he could prevail upon them to accept in return, and therefore he consigned his purse, which was getting rather empty, to his knapsack, and gave himself no far- ther trouble about paying for his fare. " Another thing he remarked, that after he quit- ted Euroj}.e, he saw no more oak trees, which never grow in Asia ; mice, too, are said to die as soon as removed over the Ural mountains ; while the sable is an animal never met with out of Asia. ** One of the cottagers undertook to teach him a little more of the Russian tongue. He knew that ^kchorosko^ was the Russian word for * well;^ but he did not know that * Icchudo* meant * i«ltin.? anlthe cold so annoyed him, that he preferred walking. After sheltering for a night at a yourte or hut, he con- tinued his route, alternately w ilking and riding, and was cheered by the attentions of the Yaku^L who brought him milk, meat, and clotted creano, mixed with wild raspberries. ^* The river Lena he now exchajnged for the foi se ro at •%T itSi^ ■*i!t> NORTHERN REGIONS. 227 Aldan, which is another large river, which took him to a town of the same name Horses here were procured with some difficulty to carry them on for one hundred miles into the Kolyma. These horses are small, but of a fine breed, and a Yakut for a wager, will ride one of them a hundred and seventy miles in four and twenty hours, in a good round trot, which would surprise our sportsmen at home* *' Their nights were now passed in the open air, in the following manner. The first thing on reaching a spot suitable for shelter was to unload the horses, loosen their saddles, take their bridles oflT, and tie them to a tree. Toset-the Yakuti to fell timber for a fire was the next, while the Cap- tain and the Cossack cleared the snow with wood- en spades. With branches of the pine they form- ed a seat, which, with the fire in the centre, and a leathern bag beneath them, made them com- fortable. The kettle soon boiled, and then their sufferings were forgotten. But poor Captain Coch- rane was worse clad than any of the party, and while one side of him was roasting, the other would be freezing, on which account he was fre- quently obliged to get up and run about to warm himself. *' In ascending the mountains which form a kind of barrier between Northern Sibeiia,Captain Coch- rane occasionally took shelter in a charity yourte, which is a kind of hut, built by some kind people for the accommodation of travellers. In these yourtes a large opening in the roof serves both for window and chimney, the centre of the hut isleft for the fire-place, and at some little distance round Hre ranged snug little cells for sleeping places. The . <^iitside is banked up with snow, and the roof is ' ■; hi *'1 liHl ' II 1 ■ I! ■fe 'li j.-i ) > PI ias *^ NORTHERN REGIONS. covered in with the same. The distance at which these yourtes are placed is inconvenient ; if they were at twelve miles a-part instead of twenty-five it would be much better. The country was very picturesque, and the vallies between the mountains furnish fine timber. Animation only is wanting, for in a journey of half the length of England, not a single dwelling-house was met with. ** After leaving Baralass, the weather became dreadfully cold. Parties of Yakuti on horseback armed with bows and arrows for hunting, were here and there met with, who were always civil and obliging, and from a Yat>ut prince they re- ceived a bowl of frozen milk. They soon entered the valley of Tartan, and i illed adeer, the marrow out of the fore-legs being given to Captain Coch- rane as the most dainty part. The deer weighed about two hundred pounds, but it served only for a single meal ; for three or four Yakuti will easily devour that quantity, it being with them as with the Esquimaux, always either gluttony or star- vation. " Captain Cochrane saw a child not above five years old ; the little fellow was crawling in search ef tallow spots which had fallen from a candle ; and hearing from the people about that this was eaten in common with every thing else, he gave him three whole candles, which he devoured one after the other ; a few pounds of sour frozen but- ter, and a lump of yellow soap, were then eaten Op by this promising child, and he probably could liave done more if Captain Cochrane had not de« $(ired the people not to give him more. ** It is no wonder that men can eat so much, ^hen they are accustomed to it from their earliest infancy- A Yakut will eat forty pounds of meat ^# ^.^ '¥ «. * NORTHERN REGIONS. 229 a-day, however putrid it may be, and he ^rUl drink off tea or soup in a boiling state.*' Uncle Kichakd. I might fancy, Tom, that you were telling me some of my own tales over again, so much do the eating powers of these Asi- atic, resemble those of my Esquimaux friends. Tom. ** They are not selfish, however, with their greediness, for Captain Cochrane remarked, that in Siberia, whoever will share the trouble of getting, may be sure of obtaining his part of the food ; and he always made a point of joining in the occupation of whatever party he met. The Siberian fishermen have an ingenious contrivance for casting their nets under the ice, by means of large holes which they cut at distances, and slide their nets from one end to the other. ■ ** You must now, uncle, follow my traveller over terrible roads ; often and often was he obliged to help the natives to clear the snow before his horses could proceed. Sometimes they were obliged to unload, and drag the baggage for many yards. When they got off this tedious path, and went along the river, they were not much better off; for the ice was so slippery, that without first of all chopping it up with hatchets, they could not get on at all. They tied cloths to the horses' feet, and tried every contrivance ; but with all this, they could only just go by very short steps ; and the} often fell groan- ing under their burdens, in a manner most dis- tressing to witness. Captain Cochrane had two horses for his own use, and his plan was to lead one over a rough part, and to tie him to a tree and return to fetch the other. '* This laborious life lasted three days, and his feet pained him so much, that it was most fortunate 20 i* I;; I r. w 1i ^Wvi 1] m i I Cm I N ^^: 230 NORTHERN REGIONS. that they came to an extensive plaint now and then meeting with a charitj yourte, in which they could at least rest theit weary limbs. '* A few more dangerous passes over tremendous mountains, where not an object met his eye, ex* cept a few little crosses, on which the Yakuti, as they pasi^ed, cast a horse's hair, in token of grati- tude for their deliverance, brought him at last to Zashiversk, a miserable town on the banks of the Indigirka river. The desolate scenery around this place can hardly be described. He had tra- velled from Tabalak tothis place, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, without meeting a single human habitation, and he now reached a town in which there were only seven inhabitants ! ** Two clergymen, two,ofIicers, a post-master, a merchant, and widow, form the society of the place ; the river supplies them with fish ; but as not a blade of grass grew near, and no horses arc kept within thirty miles, there is difficulty in bring- ing hay for the support of two cows. *' The hospitality of the people was as great as their poverty, and Captain Cochrane lived in lux- ury on the j^esh of hares, wolves, bears, elks, and rein-deer ; and, what he considers as the greatest treat he ever enjoyed, frozen raw fish.'* Uncle Richard. I can bear witness for him there. I have eaten a whole fish in this state, and prefer it to the finest jelly, or oysters. It is cut in slices with a sharp knife, from head to tail. Tom. * * With a bag of these dainties, my travel- ler again set forth, after taking a grateful leave of his hospitable entertainers at Zashiversk. The frozen surface of the Indigirka river gave himself jand his companion almost as much trouble as ever ; and as he rode along, exposed to the cold bleak a NORTHERN REGIONS. 231 north wind, his knees had a feeling of dcadness in them, for which he could not account. An old pedlar passed him, and, by signs and words, told him that he would lose his legs if his knees were not better protected ; he offered him a pair of his own souturee, or knee-preservers, made of rein- deer*s legs, which Captain Cochrane gladly ac- cepted. The warmth they gave him had a won- derful effect in restoring the use of his knees, which convinced him of the necessity of taking care of the extremJtLes." Charles. This reminds me of your golden rule, uncle : * Follow the custom of the natives, in whatever climate your are.' Uncle Richard. It is but natural to sup- pose that experience must teach those who live in a cold climate, the best mode of adapting them- selves to it. Tom. ** My travellers soon began to suffer from snow blindness ; but their own sufferings were for- gotten when they reached a habitation in which all the peopje were starving to death. They had ac- tually resigned themselves to die, and were not willing to be disturbed. A little warm tea roused them, and they summoned resolution to go with the party to the next station, where they obtained a supply of fish from peasants almost as poor as themselves. ** They stopped a few days at Sordak, another poor Russian station, and proceeded towards the Kolyma. The first yourte they came to was oc- cupied by noisy children, growling dogs, and, worst of all, a scolding hostess. Poor Captain Cochrane unluckily hung his cap and gloves to dry upon the pegs which held the images which she worshipped, and the woman was very angry and furious, till the ';f* m 232 • IfORTIIERN REGIONS. Cossack I to pacify her, told her that he was au English priest, and pointed to his long beard to confirm this fib of his. From this time he always went by the name of English priest. . *' lie now reached the Kolyma ; and crossing its noble stream, entered Sredne Kolymsk, and took possession of an empty house in the town. About one hundred people form the population of the place, and they are supported by fish from the ri- ver. The people came and threw themselves upon their knees before the supposed priest, for his bless- ing, and brought him presents of sables, which he in vain begged them to take back. To return a present they consider a great insult. <* He left his faithful Cossack behind him, and, accompanied by a poor fellow, followed the course of the Kolyma. He was now to the north of the Arctic Circle, but had not lost the sight of the sun, which was the only thing that cheered his desolate path. ** The horse-track now was at an end, and you must fancy my traveller in a kind of vehicle drawn by a team of thirteen dogs. A blanket and pil- low, besides his bear skin, formed a kind of bed inside, which was covered over with a frame of oil- cloth. He attempted to lie down in this bed, but felt so dreadfully suffocated, that he took kis knife and cut his way out of it in a great passion, and tossing the covering into the snow, he exposed his face and neck to the air, and thus proceeded. He still * suffered from want of exercise, and at last became so drowsy, that the driver had great dif- ficulty in rousing him .from this dangerous state of stupefaction. ** He was carried fifty-five miles by the same dogs, and afler a perilous journej, he reached '» NORTHERN REGIONS. 233 Nishney Kolymsk on the last day of the year. His sufferings had been great ; for notwithstanding the care of Mr. Minitsky, he was worse clad than any of the poorest guides or attendants ; and if it had not been for the providential present of the knee-caps, nothing could have enabled him to reach the end of the journey." t ri I 'i 4'V" *^ S 1 1 vfi" #■ if^ .';1 CHAPTER HI. * *' Captain Cochrane was received at Nishney Kolymsk by Baron Wrangel, who gave him a room in his own house ; and he was lucky in the time of his arrival, for the next day being jiew year's day, he was overwhelmed with presents. First, while he was at breakfast, came two large fish about two hundred pounds weight each ; this he was told was for his winter's store, as every one had already laid in theirs, and it could not be supposed that he had brought any with him. Next came a leather frock, to be worn while he was in the Kolyma. It was trimmed with sable and martin fur. Boots, trowsers, shoes, and stockings, were added, suffi- cient for a year's wear, besides which was • -oar's skin for his bed, a leather blanket lined with hare's skin* and gloves sent him by the ladies. " Baron Wrangel was preparin,«3UTHERN REGIONS. JJ43 lounf CHAPTER IV. *' To take leave of Baron Wrangel, in whom he had found a friend and brother, was very melan- choly ; but Captain Cochrane was anxious to be- gin his travelling before the ice was likely to break up. At the latter end of March, therefore, he set out in a narte, drawn by thirteen dogs, accompa- nied by a Commissary, Cossacks, and Yakuti. He determined to travel to Okotsk, by the direct road, in opposition to the advice of every one at Nish- ney, who warned him of the dangers he would certainly encounter. His dogs drew him eighty miles the first day, and he soon reached Sredne, where he was greeted affectionately by his old Cossack servant, Peter TrechekofF, in whose house he lodged. It was a pleasure to him to find that the good character he had given this man had caused him to be made a Serjeant. " He spent two days with his old friend, wait- ing for a new Cossack, who had been appointed to attend; he, poor fellow, being newly married, did not like to go so far from home, and leave his young wife, just as the busy fishing season was about to begin. He was obliged to submit^ how- ever, with the promise of being allowed to return direct to the Kolyma, and he had the comfort of knowing that his wife would be just as well pro- vided with her store of fish as if he were at home to catch for her. Such is the friendly custom of this poor place ! ** A fall into a snow pit was their first adventure. Their horses scrambled up the sides of the pit and ran away, l/saving them and the baggage to farecri? 244 ^ORTIIERIV REGIONS. well as they could. They walked on to the next yourte, which w&j about ten miles off, and des- patched people for their horses and baggage. ** While this was going on, a shamanct or sor- cerer, afforded abundant amusement to Captain Cochrane. A short coat, ornamented with little bits of iron, the size of a pen-knife blade, embroi- dered boots, cap, and gloves, was the peculiar dress he wore. He seated himself near the sick person whom he was going to cure, smoked a pipe, then struck his tambourine, and sung a most melancholy song. Then he began to jump about ; and he roared and screamed so horribly, and made such dreadful faces, that he had every appearance of being a madman. He next drew his knife, and seemed to plunge it into his body, but no blood ap- peared. The fact is, the shamanes are enabled, from habit, to draw in that part of the stomach, in which it appears as if the knife were entering^ He then dismissed the party assembled to hear him cast the demon out of the sick man's body, and told them to come the next day, for that the evil one would not obey until a fat mare had been sa- crificed to him." Uncle Richard. The blindness and weak- ness of the people in being deceived by such im- l^ostors is most wonderful. Tom. These sorcerers are even more impudent than your old friend, uncle ; for they profess not- only to cure diseases, but to change the weather, give success m hunting, and find stolen things. " Verchney Trolymsk, still on the river Koly-^ ma, was the next village, and was two hundred and fifty miles from Sredne : here, however, tho travellers allowed themselves only a day's rest, ani again set forth over dreary and desolate wild».. KOIlTBIiarj REGlOi\S. •^ After crossing a mountainous pass, the country on one side became more luxuriant, and our travelleriS were supplied with food in a manner quite original. The country was full of partridges and hares, and the wandering Yakuti had set up multitudes of traps for the benefit of other travellers, this condi* tion being understood, that they should set the trap in their turn. It consists of a log of wood, supported by a little wooden fork. The partridges^ touch this fork, and the log instantly falls upon them and crushes them. " When this charitable supply was at an end, the Cossack suffered much from hunger, not be- ing able to partake of horses' flesh, and his guide being almost blind, thrir journey was not a very merry one ; the snow was deep and soft, and the scene most dismal. Not a blade of grass or moss for the eye to rest upon. " The scenery became very magnificent as they approached the Lake Boulouktak ; but the poor home-sick Cossack became much worse ; and af- ter staying to nurse him five days at a yourte. Cap- tain Cochrane was forced to proceed without him, taking in his stead a Yakut, a stupid, gluttonous, lazy fellow, six feet high. With this sorry com- panion he traversed the mountainous paths leading to the^ river Omekou, but they soon got bewil- dered ; and having ascended a steep and slippery rock, and slid down a precipice a hundred feet high, they would soon have been lost if the sick Cossack had not reached them just at this time, and led them into the right [>ath. ** In this desolate place, however, they were ojbli-. ged to pass the night after supping upon horse flesh ; but when morning came, the grand puzzle waSj kow' 31* m M i: I '^46^ NORTHERN REGIOWS. to ascend ilic mountain. It wasr so slippery that the Cossack and himself were obliged to creep up the sides, cutting and hacking the rce withhatchets^ to get some kind of footing. Then they made a long string of leathern thongs, and dragging up tho baggage, let it down the opposite side. But how to get their horses up, they could not devise. Thc^ poor creatures, accustomed to aU manner of dan- gerous travelling, were very tame and tractable^ and with hard labour got to the middle of tho as-^ cent, but they could get no farther, the fatigue was too great, and they were forced down again, and reached the bottom in a miserable state. The si- tuation of the whole party was terrible, they had been without frre, and the horses without food for two days, and the greedy Yakut grumbled at his hard work and poor fare, not having been allow- ed more than twenty pounds of meat a day. " As their luggage and bedding had been re- moved, they passed the night in a wretched state > The two next days they succeeded in passing over the horses they wished to take with them, and kill- iag one for food, they again started. But they had Ipst five fine travelling days, and they paid dear tbr this unlucky accident. " The weather was now becoming mild an<* pleasant, and the country often abounded with game, but the little rivers were breaking up. and they were often obliged to wade through themv Their Yakut giant, whothought only of eating, wa& t^ecome very careless and saucy, and the Cossack was forced to bring him back to subjection by a good flogging. They left him at last, and travel^ ling as fast as possible, soon came to the beautiful valfey ot^Q OmekojiywheTeja Yakut prince g^i> 7 iH as- I • III ti '-^^ ;.t: V :--■., -vi*' -*»* i s, yoaTEERiV iiEGro?{s. 24^ ihein hal^a rein-deer, and, what was the greatest treat to Captain Cochrane, tea and milk. *^ Two or three of these princes accompanied him to the yourte of the Yakut Prince of Omekon, Peter Gotossop, where the hospitable reception he met with, and his bed of rein-deer skins, rewarded liim for his sufferings and toils. " The rich valley of the Omekon is filled with (lattle and horses, the latter of which are so much prized by the Yakuti, that they will not let them be loaded, scarcely ridden on ; in fact, they are al- most kept for show. The beautiful scenery, the clean yourtes, with their hospitable inhabitants, the good fare, and happy look of this valley, might Well have tempted our weary traveller to have re*- mained there, and the natives united their warm persuasions to prevent him from continuing his perilous journey. *' But he was resolute, and he set out in search of the Tongousians, from whom he hoped to get a supply of rein-deer. He fell in with them at last, and sending a herald to their chief. Prince Shoumieloff, he was received by him in full statea His dress was a black suit of velvet ^^en, a cocked hat, a sword, with medals in abundance hanging fi'om his neok. These empty honours had been sent him in exchange for his property. Formerly he was rich, and called many thousands of rein^- deer his own; now he is poor and has but a few hundred. He is obliged to live upon fish, which the rein-deer Tongousian considers a great hard« ^hip. '' After much persuasion and a few glasses o^- ^Vodka, he agreed to provide Captain Cochrane; with rein-deer to take him to Okot^k; ^lAhfi^Sict lie v>mhi QKTCiomQaTiy him hiofi^S^ tl Hl ) ii / :i4tf NORTHERN REGIONS. *' The rein-deer are caught as the IVIexicani^ Catch their bullocks. A man mounted on a well trained rein-deer, takes in his hands a long line formed into a noose at the end. He gallops quick- ly past the wild r^in-deer, throws the noosft ovef its horns, and thus secures him. " With fifty fine rein-deer and the prince as hi^ guide, they left the valley, but the snow rapidly melting, made the travelling so fatiguing, that many of the poor rein-deer died of fatigue. The prince was very angry, and threatened to leave the party. The difficulty of passing the mountains increased, more rein-deer died, and the others were weak and exhausted. In fact, after some few quarrels with the prince, who attempted to cheat him in no very princely manner, they all returned to the Omekon, and Captain Cochrane was obliged to procure horses to take him on towards Okotsk. v. .. " After a long and dangerous journey they reached the ford over the Okota river. The stream was about twenty yards across, the horses and baggage passed in safety to the opposite shore, and as they were puzzled how to get a canoe which was fastened there, he fastened a rope round his body and swam over, and returned with it, to the great gratitude of his companions. ** Hunger and fatigue were their portion for many days ; sometimes they had a partridge be- tween four ; at others, only a few berries. They set to work, and felled timber to construct a raft ; upon this they embarked with their baggage. ** This raft was so ingenious, that it deserves notice* About ten logs of trees fifteen feet long coaiposed the body of it } they were crossed by five others, and two to make a seat for the person who took care of the baggage. The logs were fasjten^ 'i^ NORTHERN REGIONS. 24d cO together by leather thongs, and appeared strong enough to encounter a good thump. Other logs were made into oars to steer with, the Captain himself being steersman. They had some difficulty in hauling this concern into the middle of the stream, but when once it was so, it floated along so rapidly, that they were almost giddy when they passed the trees and rocks. No accident however happened, and they were in hopes of getting to Okotsk to breakfast, when lo ! on turning a cor- ner, a large tree growing out into the river, with its branches jutting out in all directions, threaten- ed them with certain wreck. The Cossack and Yakut crossed themselves. Captain Cochrane quietly watched : they struck, and the raft reboun- ded and was upset. The two men, however, were able to keep hold of it, and it drifted them in safety down the stream to an island. Captain Cochrane clung to a branch of the tree, his body under wa- ter, head and hands only above. He made an ef- fort and sprang upon the top ot the tree, the branch broke and he fell down into the water, and was likewise carried by the current to the island. *' Here then they were all safely landed, but in a most terrible plight, separated by a rolling chan- nel from the side of the river they were anxious to reach, without any means of reaching it." Uncle Richard. Necessity is the mother of invention, and sailors have always a thousand resources, which you land-people who live in quiet ease at home, have no idea of. I have no doubt your traveller hit upon some very ingenious mode of extricating himself, Torn. Tom. You shall hear. He first of all got some ilry clothes, and warmed himself by exercise.-— Then to save tho baggage and raft was his next I i>50 NORTHERN REaiONS. ■ra mi ] ! . ' km care, aud in that he succeeded. Night was ap^ proaching, and he felt sure that if they remained in the island they might be washed over, nor could he venture to launch the raft in the dark. He walked to the end of the island, and there he found a tree which had fallen from the river side, nearly half way across the narrowest part of the stream. The current was so strong, between the island and the tree, that it would have been mad- ness to have attempted to swim, and therefore he resolved to build a bridge. Charles. A bridge, Tom, why how could he build a bridge in one day, without stones, bricks, or mortar ? : Tom. He did though, and you shall hear how lie managed it. He fetched the logs which re- mained from the broken raft and his baggage to the spot opposite the tree. Four of his heaviest luggage bags he fastened together, and put them into the water ; to these he fastened two logs, which did not however reach the tree. He walked along this bridge carrying with him two other logs which he fastened to the end. One more log completed his bridge, which now reached the tree Over this slender bridge the Cossack followed hwi, and they both reached the opposite shore in safety : nothing, however, could induce the Yakut to trust his body upon it. " Captain Cochrane therefore returned to him, and cutting up a leather bag, he made a long line, one end of which he threw over the river to the Cossack, and fastened the other to the island. He then collected his logs and made them into a small raft, whichj having a line fast to each end of it, the Yakut was drawn sifely over by the Cossack, and •%f NORTHERN REOION'S. ^5J ty means of the other line, Captain Cochrane drew it back in order to follow. ** In crossing over himself, however, the raft upset, and he got a good ducking. He managed to keep hold of the raft and was dragged out, but in so cold a state, that his clothes resembled a coat of ice. ** All this was accomplished by ten o'clock at night, and you may suppose the piiity were quite cheery, when, by means of flint and steel, they had the benefit of a blazing fire. But in fact there was now almost as much danger of being burnt to death as there had been of their starving, for the woods and the grass were so dry, that the flames spread till the whole forest was in a blaze. • " This immense fire however had one good ef- fect, which was to tempt the other Yakut guide to swim his horses over the rivev to join the party, which was a most seasonable arrival, as, from the great scarcity of food, the Yakut; wo'jld have been unable to return to their own cou?itry without. ** They spent the night in drying their clothes, and preparing for their next day's journey, and at length, after being five days v» ith no food hut a few berries, they reached the aboflc of a Yakut prince, in a small island of the Okota, from whom they got a small supply of horse flesh, which they now considered a dainty. " Reentered Okotsk «^ j^it morning, where hik; haggard appearance, hi& iVo^t-bitten face, long red beard, and long hair, excited the astonishment and pity of all who saw him. He was leceived with Idndness by the chief. Captain Ushinky, and felt a degree of pride at having at length, after so many perils and escapes, reached ♦he s^^orcj? of the Norfb Pacific Ocean. 252 NORTHERN REGIONS^i / -S. ,:■ '* Captain Ushinky told him that he had bceii long expected, at Okotsk, but that when he had heard that he was gone from Yakutsk to the Koly- ma, he gave him up for lost." Uncle Richard. No wonder, I think ; and yet 1 am inclined to think, that where a man has strength of body, foresight and a quick invention, he may travel with greater safety in any country than is generally imap^ined. Tom. At Okotsk, Captain Cochrane formed the resolution of returning to Europe, after he had first visited Kaipsc'iatka ; but you must not imagine, uncle, tbar it was a fear of the difficulties or dari- gers of th« enterprize that brought him to thiisde- termkiatijii. These were his reasons. '' Iii the (irst place there was no ship going froH ( O^.oisJi to America during the course of that yeai 5 iii th< second, the Russian Government had fitted out two expeditions, in neither of which he was allowed to go, for the purpose of making similar discoveries to what he had proposed to himself. He was ignorant of these expeditions when he set out, but they rendered his owa use- less. ■' ■ ■' -*'- - -■« i^ "Having thus arranged. his future plans, \i6 got himself respectabiy dressed in blue trowsers ^and great coat, and with his beard and hair somc- 'what lessened, he once more looked like a human being. *' Okotsk is a small town, ami having lately been removed from the sea shore, is scarcely finished ; it will be a neat place when completed, and is a ddpot for the American trading company. There is a great deal of shipping going on, and saltworks -at which the convicts labour. There is little sccie* ty In flic p?qc(je, but it is Tapidly improviqg Und^ Av- f: NORTHERN REGIONS. 2o3 Cuptalii Ushinsky, who studies to improve the conditions of the natives, and to do away the old ^nd barbarous customs of the place." .if, i- -fii..? OlIAPTEIl V. ■j^. V .■ V-' J "And now, uncle, what have you to say to a year in Kamschatka, among the refuse of Russia ; pick-pockets, thieves, and criminals of all kinds, who are banished from Russia to this second Botany Bay f" " Captain Cochrane was too restless and ad- venturous to stay long in so dull a place as Okotsk, and after a safe voyage of fourteen days, reached the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul's on the south-east coast of the long peninsula of Kams- chatka. "Here he had the delight of meeting some of his own country people, and passed two months most hcppily. Here, too, he had leisure to fall in love !" Uncle Richard. And was the lady aKams- chadale f TOxV. Yes, indeed, uncle, and it ended in marriage, but not till he made the tour of }^amschatka, through which you must follow him, pr at least you must listen to the observations he made, for as at this time he travelled with a com- iprtable set-out of dogs and attendants through a country, wild indeed, but sprinkled with Russians, #ie had not many adventures to relate. "Throughout the whole of the peninsula of i ^' 254 NORTHERN REGIONS. Kamscbatka runs a mngnificent chain of mouti- tains. It is intercepted too by rivers and lakes, which are impassable except in winter, and pre- vent the natives from holding any communication with one another. Winter occupies one half the year, though these are mild compared with those in Siberia. In summer heavy rains and fogs make it very unpleasant, and, though plenty of wood, there is but little cultivation. ** Their furs are the greatest riches the Kams- chadales can boast of, and next to these their dogs, who do all the work that our useful horses do for us. They are rough-looking, but most sagacious animals, resembling a common house dog. They have abundance of game ; and fish and whales, which have been killed by the sword-fish, for the sake as is supposed of their tongue, are found dead upon their shores. ** The natives live in neat Russian villages, and have mostly been baptized. They are still drunk- en and servile, though good-natured, and striking- ly hospitable. In winter they keep to their old fur clothing, but in summer they dress in nankeens, and most of them wear a shirt. The women wear a Russian head-dress: and in fact, being supplied v#ith every thing they can want by the Russian pedlars, they now live just like Russian peasants. But still they are improvident to a degree, and will part with their most valuable furs for a glass of spi/its, and place the same reliance now upon their priests, which they formerly did upon their sor- cerers. " The present chief, Captain Rickord, is doing much for the comfort and welfare of the colony, and some future goveriior will, perhaps, rescue these poor fellows from their servile state. NORTHERN REGIONS. 255 ^' After a tedious and unsatisfactory journey, Captain Cochrane returned to St. Peter's and St. PauPs, where his marriage was soon after solem- nized, with much greater parade than if it had taken place in England ; and added to his many singular adventures, it was not the least, that he should be the first Englishman who had married a Kamschadale, and his wife should be the first Kam- schadale female who had ever visited England. " At Okotsk they made preparations for a six* weeks' journey to Yakutsk, and joined a caravan of a hundred horses. His wife had never seen a horse before in her life, and was dreadfully fright- ened at first mounting one. The dangers she had to encounter were in fact very great. She was thrown from her horse on the banks of the Urak River, and lay without speaking for twelve hours. There were six ladies in the caravan, which moved but slowly along; and the fatigue of the journey was such that many horses died. This grieved the Yaknti guides more than their own sufferings. Out of thirteen for his own use, Captain Cochrane only saved one horse, and was obliged to supply their places with oxen. " After this terrible journey, they reached Ya- kutsk on the 1st of October. " The Yakuti people are of Tartar origin, and of a light copper complexion. They are terrible gluttons, and live mostly upon horse-fiesh, breeding vast quantities of those animals in their pastures. The poorer kind dress in horse skins, the richer in those of rein-deer. Their yourtes are formed of wooden planks filled up with grass, errth, and dung, and blocks of transparent ice serve as win- dows. The fire-place is in the centre, and is formed by sticks pr<|ipcd up. Each family has a 256 NORTHERS REGrONS. -^ I separate hut, which, however, is strongly scented from the cow-house, which always joins the yourte. They have a much greater variety of kitchen utensils than the other Asiatic savages ; and the richer ones use a tea-urn ; but none of them ever use plates, but eat in the Esquimaux fashion, fill- ing their mouths quite full, and then cutting off the piece of meat close to their mouths. They drink warm melted butter to jfinish their meal, and smoke a pipe of tobaccD by way of dessert. **They bade adieu to Lena River, on whose course, which is three thousand miles, there arc but two towns situated, and came to Irkutsk, where they made a long stay, enjoying their first taste of good society. From this place Captain Cochrane made a tour to the precincts of the Chinese em- pire, but I do not think, uncle, that he saw any thing of interest besides what 1 related to you whei; he was there before. He returned to Irkutsk, and from thence pursued his former route to lomsk, Tobolsk, Kougour, Perme, and Kazan. From thence he entered RussiiT', not as he had left it, on foot and alone, but travelling comfortably, in a cart suitable to the country he was in, and with his wife. He reached Moscow, put up at the London Hotel, and had leisure to look about him and enjoy himself. Uncle Richard. Indeed, Tom, your pedes- trian traveller ends his pilgrimage most glorious- ly, and at all events has brought back more wealtfe. tJfeian he took with him. • HIE END. 'ma \ 1 W»kt ccntctl ^ourte. itchen id the 1 over n, fili- ng off They meal, ert. whose re arc ivhere LSte of hrane 3 em- V any when t, and From it, on in a with t the t him edes- •ioiis- ealtfc