IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I ■- IIIIIM Jim ^ tiS, 1.25 1.4 2J. M 1.6 V]

droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. ' errata d to It e pelure, :on d n 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 PUBLIC ARCHIVES NOVA SCOTIA & JOURNAL OF THE THIED VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVEIIY OF A NOETH-WEST PASSAGE. ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. !> CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY. JOURINTAL OF THE THIED VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A North -West Passage. BY CAPT. W. E. PAEEY, E.N., F.R.S., A>fD COMMANDER OF THE FXPEDITION. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited: LOJVDOA^, PARIS d- MELBOUBNIH. 1892. W] wa! of 1 on afte pro: lieu twe dur: for for was serv rem in ^ Nig: Eng sage than INTEODUCTION. •*^*- William Edward Parry, the son of a physician, was born at Bath in December, 1790. At the age of thirteen he was entered as a first-class volunteer on board the flag-ship of the Channel fleet, and after seven years' service and careful study of his profession he obtained a commission in 1810 as lieutenant in the navy. He was then at once, aged J twenty, sent to the Arctic seas, where he was during two or three years in command of a ship for protection of the British whale fisheries and for revision of the admiralty charts. In 1813 he was recalled from that service and sent on blockade service to the North American station, where he remained about four years, and occupied his leisure in writing a book on " Nautical Astronomy by Night," which he published upon his return to England in 1817. At that time the search for a North- West Pas- sage to Eastern Asia had been suspended for more than half a century. No expedition had been sent l 6 INTRODUCTION. out sinco 174G. But after Lieutenant Parry's re- turn ivom the North American station, an expedi- tion was prepared under Sir Jolin Ross in the IsdheJldy which sailed in April, 1818, accompanied by the Alexander, to the command of which Parry was appointed, Sir John Ross being chief of the expedition. They went by Davis's Straits to Lan- caster Sound, where Sir John Ross gave up hope of success and turned back ; though Lieutenant Parry would have gone on. Next year Parry was entrusted with an expedition of his own, which set out in May, 1819, and reached Lancaster Sound in July, discovered Prince Regent's Inlet, and Barrow Straits, named after Sir John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, who was active promoter of these expeditions. Parry wintered among the ice and returned next year, having pushed Arctic discovery by thirty degrees of longi- tude farther than any who had gone before. That w as Parry's first voyage, from which he returned to be received with triumph by his countrymen. He was advanced to the rank of Commander in No- vember, 1820, and made a Fellow of the Royal Society. He had shown in what direction to pro- ceed with further search, and at the age of thirty hr i] ti( 11 oi INTRODUCTION. .rry s re- L oxpecli- 3 ill the unpanied :h Parry if of the J to Lan- up hope eutenant arry was n, which jancaster "•'s Inlet, Barrow, 3 active wintered , having of longi- j. That urned to 3n. He • in No- e Royal to pro- thirty had estiiMishotl for himself a }>lace of lasting liojiour in the history of English navigation. Commander Parry was sent on a second expedi- tion in 1821, from which he returned in 1S23. He was to explore the Fox Channel, for the pui-pose of ascertaining whether it was connected with the Arctic Sea of his Hrst voyage. This voyage had no important residts ; and in 1824 Parry started aijain on the third vovaijfe, of which this ^'Olume contains his Journal. In 1827 he sailed again in the Iferlay but found himself sledging over ice that floated southward as fast as he travelled forward on it northward. He returned then to the work ashore, as a hydrographer, for win* oh his thorough knowledge of navigation marked him out. Desire for a more active life caused him to spend four or five years in Australia (from 1-^29 to 1834) as Commissioner to the Agricultural Com- pany of Australia. He was knighted, and became in 1852 a Rear-Admiral. Sir Edward Parrv was Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospi-tal at the time of his death, in Julv, 1855. H. M. T 11 1 11 D VOYAGE FOR THE DISCO VtUV OF A KORTII-WEST PASSAGE. INTRODUCTION. Notwithstanding the want of success of ihe lato iDxpedition to the Polar Seas, it was resolved to mako another attempt to effect a passage by sea, betw* our the Admiralty J who were pleased to approve o! genera) equipment and arrangements. During our passage across the Atlantic in June, and afterwards on our way up Davis's Strait, we threw over- board daily a strong copper cylinder, containing the usual papers, giving an account of oui situation. We also took every opportunity afforded by light winds, to try the temperature of the sea at different depths, as compared with that at the surface. I now determined, as the quickest and most secure mode of clearing the transport, to anchor at the Whale- ''.sh Islands, rather than incur the risk of hampering and I !RY Stores from the ties of Penetrat- ly — Remarks on 1 the Severity of I the loading Dmpleted, we d on the 8th stance of the ihfleet, where nance stores, er the super - } Foster, the or correcting he attraction ;rong easterly- till the 16th. 3re visited by missioners of •rove of our in June, and B threw over- ing the usual We also took i, to try the as compared most secure ,t the Whale- .mpering and OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 11 damaging her among the ice. Fresh galea and thick weather, however, prevented onr doing so till the 26th, when we anchored at eight A.M., in seventeen fathoms, mooring the ships by hawsers to the rocks and then immediately commenced our work. In the meantime the observatory and instruments were landed on a small I island, called by the Danes Boat Island, where Lieutenant Foster and myself carried on the magnetic and other observations during the stay of the Expedition at this anchorage, of which a survey was also made. Early on the morning of the 3rd of July, the whole of oxi'' stores being removed, and Lieutenant Pritchard having received his orders, together with our despatches and letters for England, the William Harrig weighed with a light wind from the northward, and was towed out to sea by our boats. The day proving calm, we employed it in swinging the Hecla, in order to obtain the amount of the deviation of the magnetic needle, and to fix afresh the iron plate for correcting it. On the following jaoming, the wind being southerly, the pilots came on board, and the Hecla weighed to run through the north passage ; in doing which she grounded on a rock lying directly in the channel, and having only thirteen feet upon it at low Water, which our sounding boats had missed, and of which the pilot was ignorant. The tide icing that of ebb we were unable to heave the ship off immediately, and at low water she had sewed three feet forward. It was not till half -past one p.m., that she floated, when it became necessary to drop her down between the rock and the shore with hawsers ; after which we made sail, and being soon after joined by the Fury, which came out by the other channel, we stood round the islands to the northwards. This rock was not 12 THIRD VOYAGE FOE THE DISCOVERT 'f i the only one found by our boats which may pro re dan- gerous to ships going in and out of this harbour, and with which our pilots were unacquainted. Another was dis- covered by Mr. Head, about one-third of the distance across from Kron Prins Island to the opposite shore of the S.E. entrance, and has not more than eighteen feet water on it at low tide ; it lies very much in the way of ships coming in at that channel, which is the most commonly used. The latitude of the island, on which the observations were made, called by the Danes Boat Island, is 74** 28' 15" ; its longitude by our chronometers, 53" 12' 56" ; the dip of the magnetic needle, 82** 53' 66" ; and the variation, 70** 23' 57" westerly. The time of high water, at new moon, on the 26th of June, was a quarter- past eight, uhe highest tides being the third and fourth after tlie conjunction, and the perpendicular rise seven feet and a half. The ships standing in towards Lievely on the afternoon of the 5th, Lieutenant Graah very kindly came off to the Fury^ which happened to be the nearest in shore, for the purpose of taking lejvve of us. On his quitting the ship a salute of ten guns was fired at Lievely, which we returned with an equal number ; and I sent to Lieutenant Graa'i, by a canoe that came on board the Hecla^ an account of the situation of the rocks we had discovered. Light northerly winds, together with the dull sailing of our now deeply laden ships, prevented our makin on the Ist of August, we encountered a hard gale from the south-east, which pressing the ice together in every direc- tion, by mass overlaying mass for hours together, the liecla received several very awkward "nips," and was once fairly laid on her broadside by a strain which must inevitably have crushed a vessel of ordinary strength. In such cases, the ice is forced under a ship's bottom on one cide, and on the other up her side, both powers thus acting in such a manner as to bring her on her " beam- ends." This is, in fact, the most favourable manner in which a ship can receive the pressure, and would perhaps only occur with ice comparatively not very heavy, though sufficiently 80| it is said, to have run completely over a 14 THIED VOYAGE FOB THE DISCOVERT Jl!in saving most of our tools that were lying on the ice when the squeezing suddenly began. Towards evening we made fast to a stationary floe, at the distance of one mile from the beach, in eighteen fathoms, where we remained tolerably quiet for the night, the ice outside of us, and as far as we could see, setting constantly at a great rate to the eastward. Some of our gentlemen, who had landed in the course of the day, and who had to scramble their way on board over the ice in motion, described the bay as deei)er than it appeared from the offing. Dr. Neill "found, on such parts of the beach as were not covered with ice or snow, fragments of bituminous shale, flinty slate, and iron-stone, interspersed amongst a blue-coloured limestone gravel. As far as he was able to travel inland, the surface was OF A NORTH- W^EST PASSAGE. firmlj' mation, epeated i yards, r canal e parts ) whole inaptly 38, and ierable ' about iverage reed in her to nly ex- ierable ) quiet g with r tools idenly ionary ch, in et for could iward. rse of board lan it such snow, stone, ravel. e was composed of secondary limestone, partially covered with a thin layer of calc-sinter. From the scantiness of the vegetation here, the limestone seemed likely to contain a large proportion of magnesia. Dr. Neill was aaout to examine for coal, which the formation led him to expect, when the ice was observed to be in motion, obliging him hastily to return on board." Lieutenant Ross " found, about two-thirds up a small peaked insulated hill of limestone, between three and four hundred feet r.bove the level of the sea, several pieces of coal, whir^ ho found to burn with a clear bright flame, crackling much, and throwing off slaty splinters." Hares' burrows were numerous on this hill ; Lieu- tenant Ross sav/ two of these animals, one of which he killed. A fox was also observed in its summer dress ; and these, with a pair of ravens, some wingless ducks, and several snow-buntings, were all the animals noticed at this place. A sudden motion of the ice on the morning of the 22nd, occasioned by a change of wind to the S.E., threatened to carry us directly off the land. It was now more than ever desirable to hold on, as this breeze was likely to clear the shore, and at the same time to give us a run to the westward. Hawsers were therefore run out to the land-ice, composed of some heavy masses, almost on the beach. With the Hecla this succeeded, but the Furyy being much farther from the shore, soon began to move out with the whole body of ice, which, carrying her close to the large berg off the point, swept her round the latter, where, after great exertion. Captain Hoppner succeeded in getting clear, and then made sail to beat back to us. In the meantime the strain put upon the Hecld's hawsers being too great for them, they snapped one after another, THIRD VOYAOE POR THE DISCOVERY V' V I find a bower-anchor was lot go as a last rcBOurce. It was one of Hawkins's, with the double fluke, and immediately brought up, not merely the ship, but a largo floe of young ice, which had just broken our stream-cable. All hands were sent upon the floe to cut it up ahead, and the whole operation was a novel and, at times, a fearful oi.e ; for the ice, being weakened by the cutting, would suddenly gather fresh way astern, carrying men and tools with it, while the chain-cable continued to plough through it in a manner which gave one the idea of something alive, and continually renewing its attacks. The anchor held surprisingly, and after this tremendous strain had been put upon it for above an hour, we had fairly cut the floe in two, and the ship was riding in clear water about half a mile from the shore. I was now in hopes we should have made some progress, for a large channel of clear water was left open in -shore ; a breeze blew .ff the land, and the temperature of the atmosphere had again risen considerably. We had not sailed five miles, however, when a westerly wind took us aback, and a most dangerous swell set directly upon the shore, obliging me immediately to stand off the land ; and the Fury being still to the eastward of the point, I ran round it, in order to rejoin her before sunset. The current was here setting very fast to the eastward, not less, I think, in some places, than two miles an hour, so that, even in a clear sea, we had little chance of stemming it, much less beset as we were in young ice during an un- usually dark night of nine or ten hours* duration, with a heavy fall of snow. The consequence was, that when we made the land on the morning of the 23rd, we had been drifted the incredible distance of eight or nine leagues during the night, finding ourselves off the Wollaston OF A NOETH-WEST PASSAGE. 23 It was lefiiately jf young 11 hands ho whole oi.e ; for suddenly 1 with it, ugh it in ng alive, hor held had been 3 the floe 30ut half progress, in -shore ; re of the had not i took us upon the and ; and int, I ran e current ot less, I ', so that, aming it, g an un- n, with a when we had been leagues Vollaston Islands at the entrance of Navy Board Inlet. Wo stood in under the islands to look for anchorage during the night, but the water being everywhere too deep close to the shore, we made fast at sunset to some very heavy ice upon a point, which we took to be the main land, but which Captain Koppner afterwards found to be upon one of the islands, which are at least four in number. After midnight on the 27th the wind began to mode- rate, and by degrees also drew more to the southward than before. At daylight, therefore, we found ourselves peven or eight miles from the land ; but no ice was in sight, except the " sludge," of honey-like consiatence^ with which almost the whole sea was covered. A strong blink, extending along the eastern horizon, pointed out the position of the main body of ice, which was farther distant from the eastern shore of the inlet than I ever saw it. Being assisted by a fine working breeze, which at the same time prevented the formation of any more ice to obstruct us, we made considerable progress along the land, and at noon were nearly abreast of Jackson Inlet, which we now saw to be considerably larger than our distant view of it on the former voyage had led as to suppose. We fouud also that what at a distance appeared an island in the entrance was in reality a dark -looking rocky hill, on the south side. A few more tacks brought us to the entrance of Port Bowen, which for two or three days past I had determined to make our wintering-place, if, as there was but little reason to expect, we should be so fortunate as to push the ships thus far. My reasons for coming to this determination, in which Captain Hoppner's opinion also served to confirm me, will be sufficiently gathered from the operations of the preceding fortnight, which convinced me that the precarions chance 24 THIBD VOYAGE FOE THE DISCOVERY of making a few miles' more progress could no longer be suffered to weigh against the evident risk now attending further attempts at navigation : a risk not confined to the mere exposure of the ships to imminent danger, or the hazard of being shut out of a winter harbour, but to one which, I may be permitted to say, we all dreaded as much as these — the too obvious probability of our once more being driven back to the eastward, should we again be- come hampered in the young ice. Joining to this the additional consideration that no known place of security existed to the southward on this coast, I had not the smallest hesitation in availing myself of the present opportunity to get the ships into harbour. Beating up, therefore, to Port Bowen, we found it filled with " old " and "hummocky" ice, attached to the shores on both sides, as low down as about three-quarters of a mile below Stoney Island. Here we made fast in sixty-two fathoms of water, running our hawsers far in upon the ice, in case of its breaking off at the margin. On entering Port Bowen, I was forcibly struck with the circumstance of the cliffs on the south side of the harbour being, in many places, covered with a layer of blue transparent-looking ice, occasioned undoubtedly by the snow partially thawing there, and then being arrested by the frost, and presenting a feature very indicative of the late cold summer. The same thing was observed on all the land to which we made a near approach on the south side of Barrow's Strait this season, especially about Cape York and Eardley Bay ; but as we had never been close to these parts of the shore in 18i9j it did not occur to me as anything new or worthy of notice. At Port Bowen, however, which in that year was closely ex- amined, I am quite certain that no such thing was to be I OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 25^ longer be attending ned to the yer, or the but to one jd as much once more » again be- ,0 this the of security id not the he prestnt Seating up, nth "old" 38 on both mile below ivo fathoms ice, in case truck with side of the a layer of jubtedly by ng arrested idicative of observed on >aoh on the cially about never been d not occur e. At Port closely ex- g was to bo seen, even in the month of August, the cliffs being then quite clear of snow, except here and there a patch of drift. Late as we had this year been (about the middle of October) in reaching Sir James Lancaster's Sound, there would still have been time for a ship engaged in a whale- fishery to have reaped a tolerable harvest, as we met with a number of whales in every part of it, and even as far as^ the entrance of Port Bowen. The number registered altogether in our journals is between twenty and thirty, but I have no doubt that many more than these were seen, and that a ship expressly on the look-out for them would have found full ocr apation for her boats. Several which came near us were of large and " payable " dimen- sions. I confess, however, that had I been within the Sound, in a whaler, towards the close of so unfavourable a season as this, with the young ice forming so rapidly on the whole extent of the sea, I should not have been dis- posed to persevere* in the fishery under circumstances so precarious, and to a ship unprepared for a winter involv- ing such evident risk. It is probable, however, that on the outside the formation of young ice would have been much retarded by the swell ; and I am inclined to believe that a season so unfavourable as this will be found of rare occurrence. We observed a great many narwhals in different parts of Barrow's Strait, and a few walruses, and should per- hiips have seen many more of both, but for the continual presence of the young ice. 26 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY It " CHAPTER III. Winter Arrangements— Improvements in Warming and Ventilating the Ships— Masquerades adoptetl as an Amusement to the Men— Establish ment of Schools— Astronomical Observations— Meteoro- logical Phenomena. October. — Our present winter arrangements so closely resembled, in general, those before adopted, that a fresh description of them here would prove little more than a repetition of that already contained in the narratives of our former voyages. On each succeeding occasion, how- ever, some improvements were made which, for the benefit of those hereafter engaged in similar enterprises, it may be proper to record. For all those whose lot it may be to fiucc ^ed us, sooner or later, in these inhospitable regions, may be assured that it is only by rigid and unremitted attention to these and numberless other " little things " that they can hope to enjoy the good state of healfch which, under the Divine blessing, it has always been our happiness, in so extraordinary a degree, to experience. In the description I shall offer of the appearances of nature, and of the various occurrences, during this winter^ I know not how I can do better than pursue a method similar to that heretofore practised, by confining myself rather to the pointing out of any difference observed in them now and formerly, than by entering on a fresh de- scription of the actual phenomena. To those who read, as well as to those who describe, the account of a winter passed in these regions can no longer be expected to afford the interest of novelty it once possesjod ; more especially in a station already delineated with tolerable geographical precision on our maps, and thus, as it were, OF A NOETH-WEST PASSAGE. Ventilating I tlie Men — s— Metooro- o closely •it a fresh re than a •atives of ion, how- he benefit (s, it may may be to 3 regions, iremitted > things" af health , been our :ience. .rances of lis winterj a method ig myself served in fresh de- who read, : a winter pected to id ; more tolerable ,8 it were, brought near to our firesides at home. Independently, indeed, of this circumstance, it is hard to conceive any one thing more like another than two winters passed in the higher latitudes of the Polar regions, except when variety happens to be afforded by intercourse with some other branch of " the whole family of man." Winter after winter, nature here assumes an aspect so much alike, that cursory observation can scarcely detect a single feature of variety. The winter of more temperate climates, and even in some of no slight severity, is occa- sionally diversified by a thaw, which at once gives variety and comparative cheerfulness to the prospect. But here, when once the earth is covered, all is dreary, monotonous whiteness — not merely for days or weeks, but for more than half a year together. Whichever way the eye is turned, it meets a picture calculated to impress upon the mind an idea of inanimate stillness, of that motionless torpor with which our feelings have nothing congenial ; of anything, in short, but life. In the very silence there is a deadness with which a human spectator appears out of keeping. The presence of man seems an intrusion on the dreary solitude of this wintry desert, which even its native animals have for awhile forsaken. As this general description of the aspect of nature would suit alike each winter we have passed in the ice, so also, with very little variation, might our limited tjatalogue of occurrences and adventures serve equally for any one of those seasons. Creatures of circumstance, we act and feel as we did before on every like occasion, and as others will probably do after us in the same situa- tion. Whatever difference time or events may have wrought in individual feelings, and however different the occupations which those feelings may have suggested, 28 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERT rli •I < i I they are not such as, without impertinence, can be in- truded upon others ; with these " the stranger inter- meddleth not." I am persuaded, therefore, that I shall be excused in sparing the dulness of another winter's diary, and confining myself exclusively to those facts which appear to possess any scientific interest, to the few incidents which did diversify our confinement, and to such remarks as may contribute to the health and com- fort of any future sojourners in these dreary regions. It may well be supposed that, in this climate, the principal desideratum which art is called upon to furnish for the promotion of health, is warmth, as well in the external air as in the inhabited apartments. Exposure to a cold atmosphere, when the body is well clothed, produces no bad effect whatever beyond a frost-bitten cheek, nose, or finger. As for any injury to healthy lungs from the breathing of cold air, or from sudden changes from this into a warm atmosphere, or vice versd, it may with much confidence be asserted that, with due attention to external clothing, there is nothing in this respect to be apprehended. This inference, at least, would appear legitimate, from the fact that our crews, consisting of one hundred and twenty persons, have for four winters been constantly undergoing, for months together, a change of from eighty to a hundred degrees of temperature, in the space of time required for opening two doors (perhaps less than half a minute), without incurring any pulmonaiy complaints at ail. Nor is a covering for the mouth at all necessary under these cir- cumstances, though to most persons very conducive to comfort ; for some individuals, from extreme dislike to the condensation and freezing of the breath about the ** comforter " generally used for this purpose, have never OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 29 a be in- jr inter- b I shall winter's )se facts t, to the lent, and and com- ions. nate, the o furnish ill in the Exposure L clothed, ost-bitten ■) healthy m sudden viee versd, with due g in this at least, lur crews, I, have for months d degrees r opening: without For is a these cir- ducive to dislike to about the lave never worn any such defence for the mouth ; and this without the slightest injurious effect or uncomfortable feeling beyond that of a cold face, which becomes comparatively trifling by habit. In speaking of the external clothing sufficient for health in this climate, it must be confessed that, in severe exposure, quite a load of woollen clothes, even of the best quality, is insufficient to retain a comfortable degree of warmth; a strong breeze carri^ing it off so rapidly that the sensation is that of the cold piercing through the body. A jacket made very long, like those called by seamen "pea-jackets,' and lined with fur throughout, would be more effectual than twice the weight of wooilen clothes, and is indeed almost weather-proof. For the prevention of lumbago, to which our seamen are especi- ally liable, from their well-known habit of leaving their loins imperfectly clothed, every man should be strictly obliged to wear, under his outer clothes, a canvas belt a foot broad, lined with flannel, and having straps to go over the shoulder. It is certain, however, that no precautions in clothing are sufficient to maintain health during a Polar winter, without a due degree of warmth in the apartments we inhabit. Most persons are apt to associate with the idea of warmth, something like the comfort derived from a good fire on a winter's evening at home ; but in these regions the case is inconceivably different : here it is not simple comfort, but health, and therefore ultimately life, that depends upon it. The want of a constant supply of warmth is here immediately followed by a condensation of all the moisture, whether from the breath, victuals, or other sources, into abundant drops of water, very rapidly forming on all the coldest parts of the deck. A still 30 THIRD VOYAGE FOB THE DISCOVEEY lower temperature modifies, and perhaps improves the annoyance by converting it into ice, which again an o«- casional increase of warmth dissolves into water. Nor is this the amount of the evil, though it is the only visible part of it ; for not only is a moist atmosphere thus incessantly kept up, but it is rendered stagnant also by the want of that ventilation which warmth lilone can furnish. With an apartment in this state, the men's clothes and bedding are continually in a moist and un- wholesome condition, generating a deleterious air, which there is no circulation to carry off ; and whenever these circumstances combine for any length of time together, so surely may the scurvy, to say nothing of other diseases, be confidently expected to exhibit itself. With a strong conviction of these facts, arising from the extreme anxiety with which I have been accustomed to watch every minute circumstance connected with the health of our people, it may be conceived how highly I must appreciate any means that can be devised to counteract effects so pernicious. Such means have been completely furnished by Mr. Sylvester's warming ap- paratus — a contrivance of which I scarcely know how t& express my admiration in adequate terms. The altera- tion adopted on this voyage, of placing this stove in the very bottom of the hold, produced not only the effect naturally to be expected from it, of increasing the ra- pidity of the current of warm air, and thus carrying it to all the officers' cabins with less loss of heat in its passage ; but was also accompanied by an advantage acaroely less important, which had not been anticipated. This was the perfect and uniform warmth maintained during the winter in both cable-tiers, which, when cleared of all the stores, gave us another habitable deck, on which more I OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. m roves the Eiin an oe- kter. Nor the only bmosphere ^nant also iklone can the men'B 3t and un- air, which lever these le together, ler diseases^ rising from accustomed pd with the Low highly devised to B have been arming ap- now how t9 The altera- 3tove in the y the effect ,sing the ra- arrying it to its passage ; scarcely less I. This was I during the •ed of ail the which more than one-thir'^ of the men's hammocks were berthed, thus affording to the ships' companies, during seven or eight months of the year, the indescribable comfort of nearly twice the space for their beds, and twice the volume of air to breathe in. It need scarcely be added, how conducive to wholesome ventilation, and to the prevention of moisture below, such an arrangement proved ; suffice it to say, that we have never before been so free from moisture, and that I cannot but chiefly attribute to this apparatus the unprecedented good state of health we enjoyed during this winter. Every attention was, as usual, paid to the occupation and diversion of the men's minds, as well as to the re- gularity of their bodily exercise. Our former amuse- ments being almost worn threadbare, it required some ingenuity to devise any plan that should possess the charm of novelty to recommend it. This purpose was completely answered, however, by a proposal of Captain Hoppner, to attempt a masq erade, in which officers and men should alike take part, but which, without imposing any restraint whatever, would leave every one to their own choice, whether to join in this diversion or not. It is impossible that any idea could have proved more happy or more exactly suited to our situation. Admirably dressed characters of various descriptions readily took their parts, and many of these were supported with a degree of spirit and genuine humour which would not have disgraced a more refined assembly ; while the latter might not have disdained, and would not have been dis- graced by copying the good order, decorum, and in- offensive cheerfulness which our humble masquerades presented. It does especial credit to the dispositions and good sense of our men that, though all the officers entered 32 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY m fully into the spirit of these amusements, which took place once a month alternately on board each ship, no instance occurred of anything that could interfere with the regular discipline, or at all weaken the respect of the men towards their superiors. Ours were masquerades without licentiousness — carnivals without excess. But an occupation not less assiduously pursued, and of infinitely more eventual benefit, was furnished by the re-establishment of our schools, under the voluntary superintendence of my friend Mr. Hooper in the Ilecla, and of Mr. Mogg in the Fury. By the judicious zeal of Mr. Hooper, the Hecla's school was made subservient, not merely to the improvement of the men in reading and writing (in which, however, their progress was sur- prisingly great), but also to the cultivation of that re- ligious feeling which so essentially improves the character of a seaman, by furnishing the highest motives for increased attention to every other duty. Nor was the benefit confined to the eighteen or twenty individuals whose want of scholarship brought them to the school- table, but extended itself to the rest of the ship's com- pany, making the whole lower-deck such a scene of quiet, rational occupation as I never before witnessed on board a ship. And I do not speak lightly, when I express my thorough persuasion that to the moral elects thus pro- duced upon the minds of the men were owing, in a very high degree, the constant yet sober cheerfulness, the un- interrupted good order, and even, in some measure, the extraordinary state of health which prevailed among us during this winter. Immediately after the ships were finally secured, we erected the observatory on shore, and commenced our arrangements for the various observations to which oui I i OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 33 vhioh took ill ship, no [jrfere with respect of lasquerades BS8. ued, and of lied by the I voluntary the Ilecla, ious zeal of subservient, in reading ess was sur- . of that re- he character motives for or was the individuals the school- ship's com- ene of quiet, ed on board express my iS thus pro- ig, in a very ness, the un- measure, the (d among us secured, we imenced our ^ which oui attention was to be directed during the winter. The interest of these, especially of such as related to mag- netism, increased so much as we proceeded, that the neighbourhood of the observatory assumed ere long al- most the appearance of a scattered village, the number of detached houses, having various needles set up in them, soon amounting to seven or eight. The extreme facility with which sounds are heard at a considerable distance in severely cold weather has often been a subject of remark ; but a circumstance occurred at Port Bowen which deserves to be noticed, as affording a sort of measure of this facility, or at least conveying to others some definite idea of the fact. Lieutenant Foster, having occasion to send a man from the observatory to the opposite shore of the harbour, a measured distance of iWM] feet, or about one statute mile and two-tenths, in order to fix a meridian mark, had placed a second person half-way between to repeat his directions ; but he found, on trial, that this precaution was unnecessary, as he could without difficulty keep up a conversation with the man at the distant station. The thermometer was at this time — 18**, the barometer 30*14 inches, and the weather nearly calm, and quite clear and serene. The meteorological phenomena observed during this winter, like most of its other occurrences, differed so little in character from those noticed on the former voyages, as to render a separate description of each wholly unnecessary. This winter certainly afforded but few brilliant dis- plays of the Aurora. The following notice includes all that appear to me to require a separate description. Late on the night of the 21st of December the phe- nomenon appeared partially, and with a variable light, B— 183 34 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY in difTerent parts of the Houthern sky for several hours. At seven on the following' morning it became more bril- liant and stationary, describing a well-defined arch, ex- tending from the E.S.E. horizon to that at W.N.W., and passing through the zenith. A very faint arch was also visible on each side of this, appearinjjf to diverge from the same points in the horizon, and separating to twenty degrees distance in the zenith. It remained thus for twenty minutes, when the coruscations from each arch met, and after a short but brilliant display of light, gradually died away. Early on the morning of the 15th of January, 1825, the Aurora broke out to the southward, and continued variable for three hours, between a N.W. and S.E. bearing. From three to four o'clock the whole horizon, from south to west, was biilliantly illuminated, the light being continuous almost throughout the whole extent, and reaching several degrees in height. Very bright vertical rays were constantly shooting upwards f ro'-i the general mass. At half-past five it again became so brilliant as to attract particular notice, describmg two arohes passing in an east and west direction, very near the zenith, with bright coruscations issuing from it ; but the whole gradually disappeared with the re- turning dawn. At dusk the same evening, the Aurora a^^ain appeared in the southern quarter, and continued visible nearly the whole night, but without any remark- able feature. About midnight on the 27th of January, this phe- nomenon broke out in a single compact mass of brilliant yellow light, situated about a S.E. bearing, and appearing only a short distance above the land. This mass of light, notwithstanding its general continuity, sometimes ap- peared to be evidently composed of numerous pencils of OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 35 LOurs. bril- h, cx- ., and 9 also from vvcnty 13 for arch light, 15 th iward, N.W. whole inated, s whole Very pwards became jcribmg m, very [g from the re- Aurora mtinued remark- his phe- brilliant cr ppearin of light, imes ap- encils of rays, compressed, as it were, laterally into one, its limits both to the right and left being well defined and nearly vertical. The light, though very bright at all times, varied almost constantly in intensity, and this had the appearance (not an uncommon one in the Aurora) of being produced by one volume of light overlaying another, just as we see the darkness and density' of smoke increased by cloud rolling over cloud. While Lieutenants Sherer and Ross, and myself, were admiring the extreme beauty of this phenomenon from the obser- vatory, we all simultaneously uttered an exclamation of surprise at seeing a bright ray of the Aurora shoot suddenly downward from the general mass of light, and between us and the land, which was there distant only three thousand yards. Had I witnessed this phenomenon by myself, I should have been disposed to receive with caution the evidence even of my own senses, as to this last fact ; but the appearance conveying precisely the same idea to three individuals at once, all intently engaged in looking towards the spot, I have no doubt that the ray of light actually passed witnin that distance of us. About one o'clock on the morning ot the 23rd of February, the Aurora again appeared over the hills in a south direction, presenting a brilliant mass of light, very similar to that just described. The rolling motion of the light laterally was here also very striking, as well as the increase of its intensity thus occasioned. The light occupied horizontally about a point of the compass, and extended in height scarcely a degree above the land, which seemed, however, to conceal from us a part of the phenomenon. It was always evident enough that the most attenuated light of the Aurora sensibly dimmed the THIRD VOYAGE FOB THE DISCOVERY Stars, like a thin veil drawn over them. Wo frequently listened for any sound proceeding from this phenomenon, but never heard any. Our variation-needles, which were extremely light, suspended in the most delicate manner, and from the weak directive energy susceptible of being acted upon by a very slight disturbing force, were naver in a single instance sensibly affected by the Aurora, which could scarcely fail to have been observed at some time or other, had any such disturbancf taken place, the needles being visited every hour for several months, and oftener, when anything occurred to make it de- sirable. The meteors called Falling - stars v/ere much more frequent during this winter than we ever before saw them, and particularly during the month of December. On the 8th, at a quarter past seven in the evening, a particularly large and brilliant meteor of this kind fell in the S.S.W., the weather being very fine and clear over- head, but hazy near the horizon. On the following day, between four and five p.m., another very brilliant one was observed in the north, falling from an altitude of about thirty-five degrees till lost behind the land ; the vtreather was at this time clea^ and serene, and no re- markable change took place. Oa the 12th, no less than five meteors of this kind were observed in a quarter of an hour, and as these were attended with some remark- able circumstances, I shall here give the account furnished me by Mr. Ross, who with Mr. Bell observed these phenomena. *' From seven to nine p.m. the wind suddenly increased from a moderate breeze to a strong gale from the southward. At ten it began to moderate a little ; the haze, which had for several hours obscured every star, giadually sinking towards the horizon, and by OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 37 [uently menon, ;h were iianner, f beinj^ e naver Aurora, it some ace, the months, ! it de- h more ore 8aw jcember. ening, a cind fell 3ar over- ing day, iant one itude of md ; the d no re- ess than uarter of remark- account observed the wind a strong oderate a obscured n, and by 3 - eleven o'clock the whole atmosphere wa8 extnmely clear above the altitude of five or six degrees. The thermo- meter also fell from — '»'' to — 1>^ as the haze cleared away. At a quarter i)ast eleven my attention was directed by Mr. Bell to some meteors which he observed, and in loss than a quarter of an hour five were seen. The two first, noticed only by Mr. Bell, fell in (juick succession, prob- ably not more than two minutes apart. The third appeared about eight minutes after these, and exceeded in brilliancy any of the surrounding stars. It took a direction from near )8 Tauri, and passing slowly towards the Pleiades, left behind it sparks like the tail of a rocket, these being visible for a few seconds after the meteor appeared to break, which it did close to the Pleiades. The fourth meteor made its appearance very near the same place as the last, and about five minutes after it. Taking the course of those seen by Mr. Bell, it passed to the eastward, and disappeared half way between )3 Tauri and fiemiui. The fifth of these meteors was seen to the eastward, passing through a space of about five degrees from north to south parallel to the horizon, and moving along the upper part of the cloud of haze which still extended to the altitude of five or six degrees. It was more dim than the rest, and of a red colour like Aldebaran. The third of these meteors was the only one that left a tail behind it, as above described. There was a faint appearance of the Aurora to the westward near the horizon. On the 14th of December several very bright meteors were observed to fall between the hours of five and six in the evening, at which time the wind freshened from the N.W. by N. in a very remarkable manner. On tliia occasion, as well as on the 12th of December, there 88 THIED VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY appeared to be an evident coincidence between the occurrence of the meteors and the changes of the weather at the time. Particular attention was paid to the changes in the barometer during this winter, to which much encourage- ment was given by the excellence of the instruments with which we were now furnished. The times of register at sea had been three and nine, a.m. and p.m. ; those hours having been recommended as the most proper for detecting any horary oscillations of the mer- curial column. When we were fixed for the .'inter, and our attention could be more exclusively devoted, to scientific objects, the register was extended to four and ten, and subsequently to five and eleven o'clock. The most rigid attention to the observation and correction of the column, during several months, discovered an oscilla- tion amounting only to ten thousandth-parts of an inch. The times of the maximum and minimum altitude appear, however, decidedly to lean to four and ten o'clock, and to follow a law directly the reverse, as to time, of that found to obtain in temperate climates, the column being highest at four, and lowest at ten o'clock, botli A.M. and p.m. The barometer did not appear to indicate beforehand the changes of the weather with any degree of certainty. Indeed the remark that we had always before made, that alterations in the mercurial column more frequently ac- company than precede the visible changes of weather in these regions, was equally true of our present experience ; but on one or two occasions hard gales of considerable duration occurred without the baromettr falling at all below the mean altitude of the column in these regions^ or even rose steadily during the continuance of the gale. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 39 tween the ^es of the ges in the encourage- astruments } times of . and P.M. ; the moat )f the mer- :inter, and ievoted to ,0 four and lock. The )rrection of . an oscilla- )f an inch, tn altitude r and ten '■erse, as to imatey, the ■/in o'clock, 3eforehand certainty, made, that uently ac- vveather in xperience ; )nsiderable ling at all se regions, : the gale. During one week of almost constant blowing weather, and two days of very violent gales from the eastward, in the month of April, the barometer remained considerably above thirty inches the whole time. It is necessary for me here to remark that the unusual proportion of easterly winds registered in our journals during this winter must, in m}" opinion, be attributed to the local situation of our winter-quarters, which alone appears to me sufficient to account for the anomaly. The lands on each side of Port Bowen, running nearly east and west, and rising to a height of six to nine hundred feet above the sea, with deep and broad ravines intersecting the country in almost every direction, may be supposed to have had considerable influence on the direction of the wind. In confirmation of this supposition, indeed, it was ustially noticed that the easterly winds were with us attended with clear wreathe r, while the contrary obtained with almost every breeze from the west and north-west, thus reversing in this respect also the usual order of things. It was moreover observed that the clouds were frequently coming from the north-west, when the wind in Port Bowen was easterly. I must, however, except the gales we experienced from the eastward, which were probably strong enough to over- come any local deflection to which a light breeze would be subject ; and indeed these were always accompanied with overcast weather and a high thermometer. After the middle of October the gales of wind were very few till towards the middle of April, when we experienced more blowing weather than during the whole winter. 40 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY CHAPTER IV. Meteorological Phenomena continued — llt'-eqnipment of the Ships — Several Journoys undertakon— Open Water in the Otthig— Com- mence sawing a Canal to liberate the Ships— Disrup'tion of tha Ice — Departure from Port Bowen. The height of the land about Port Bowen deprived us longer than usual of the sun's presence above our horizon. Some of our gentlemen, indeed, who ascended a high hill for the purpose, caught a glimpse of him on the 2nd of February ; on the 15th it became visible at the observatory, but at the ships not till the 22nd, after jui absence of one hundred and twenty-one days. It is very long after the sun's reappearance in these regions, however, that the effect of his rays, as to warmth, becomes perceptible ; week passes after week with scarcely anj- rise in the thermometer except for an hour or two daring the day ; and it is at this period more than any other, perhaps, that the lengthened duration of a polar winter's cold is most wearisome, and creates the most impatience. Towards the third week in March, thin flakes of snow lying upon black painted wood or metal, and exposed to the sun's direct rays in a sheltered situation, readily melted. In the second week of April any very light covering of sand or ashes upon the snow close to the ships might be observed to make its way downward into holes ; but a coat of sand laid upon the unsheltered ice, to the distance of about two-thirds of a mile, for dissolving a canal to hasten our liberation, produced no such sensible effect till the beginning of May. Even then the dissolution was very trifling till about the first week in June, when pools of water began to make their appearance, and not long OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 41 tlie STiips — Otling— Coin- on of the Ice eprived us ar horizon. X high hill the 2nd of bs9rvatory, absence of ' long after .vever, that erceptible ; rise in the g the day ; rhaps, that old is most Towards |lying upon the sun's elted. In |ng of sand might be les ; but a Ihe distance a canal to e effect till llution was hen pools Id not long after this a small boat would have floated down it. On shore the effect is in general still more tardy, though some deception is there occasioned by the dissolution of the snow next the ground, while its upper surface is to all appearance undergoing little or no change. Thus a greater alteration is sometimes produced in the aspect of the land by a single warm day in an advanced part of the season than in many weeks preceding, in consequence of the last crust of snow being dissolved, leaving the ground at length entirely bare. We could now perceive the snow beginning to leave the stones from day to day as early as the last week in April. Towards the end of May a great deal of snow was dissolved daily, but owing to the porous nature of the ground, which absorbed it as fast as it was formed, it was not easy to procure water for drinking on shore, even as late as the 10th of June. In the ravines, however, it could be heard trickling under stones before that time, and about \he 18th, many con- siderable streams were formed, and constantly running both night and day. After this, the thawing proceeded at an inconceivably rapid rate, the whole surface of the floes being covered with large pools of water rapidly increasing in size and depth. We observed nothing extraordinary with respect to the sun's light about the shortest day ; but as early as the 20th of November Arcturus could very plainly be dis- tinguished by the naked eye, when near the south meridian at noon. Aboub the first week in April the reflection of light from the snow became so strong as to create inflamma- tion in the eyes, and notwithstanding the usual precau- tion of wearing black crape veils during exposure, several cases of snow- blindness occurred shortly afterwards. There are perhaps few things more difficult to obtain 42 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY If i'l ;:i than a comparative measure of the quantity of snow that falls at different places, owing- to the facility with which the wind blows it off a smooth surface, such as a floe of level ice, and the collection occasioned by drift in conse- quence of the smallest obstruction. Thus, its mean depth at Port Bowen, measured in twenty different places on the smooth ice of the harbour, was three inches on the 5th of April, and on the 1st of May it had only increased to four and a half inches, while an immense bank, four- teen feet deep, had formed on one side of the Hrnla, occasioned by the heavy drifts. The crystals were, as usual, extremely minute during the continuance of the cold weather, and more or less of these were always falling, even on the clearest days. The animals seen at Port Bowen may now be briefly noticed. The principal of those seen during the winter were bears, of which we killed twelve, from October to June, being more than during all the other voyages taken together ; and several others were seen. One of these animals was near proving fatal to a seamen of the Fury, who, having straggled from his companions, when at the top of a high hill saw a large bear coming towards him. Being unarmed, he prudently made off, taking off his boots to enable him to run the faster, but not so prudently precipitated himself over an almost perpendicular cliff, down which he was said to have rolled or fallen several hundred feet ; here he was met by some of the people in so lacerated a condition as to be in a very dangerous state for some time after. A she-bear, killed in the open water on our flrst arrival at Port Bowen, afforded a striking instance of mater- nal affection in her anxiety to save her two cubs. She might herself easily have escaped the boat, but would not OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. ' 43 forsake her young, which she was actually " towing " oif by allowing them to rest on her back, when the boat camo near them. A second similar instance occurred in the spring, when two cubs having got down into a larj^e crack in the ice their mother placed herself before them, so as to secure them from the attacks of our people, which she might easily have avoided herself. This unusual supply of bear's flesh was particularly serviceable as food for the Esquimaux dogs we had brought oul, and which were always at work in a sledge ; especially as, during the winter, our number was in- creased by the birth of six others of chese useful animals. One or two foxes {Cuni^^t Lagiqms) were killed, and four caught in traps (Juring the winter, weighing from four pounds and three-quarters to three pounds and three- quarters. The colour of one of these animals, which lived for some time on board the Fitnj and became tolerably tame, was nearly pure white till the month of May, when he shed his winter-coat and became of a dirty chocolate colour, with two or three light brown spots. Only three hares {Lepus Varlahilis) were killed from October to June, weighing from six to eight pounds and three- quarters. Their fur was extremely thick, soft, and of the most beautiful whiteness imaginable. We saw no deer near Port Bo wen at any season, neither were we visited by their enemies the wolves. A single ermine and a few mice {Mus Hudson'ms) complete, I believe, our scanty list of quadrupeds at this desolate and unproductive place. Of birds, we had a flock or two of ducks occasionally flying about the small lanes of open water in the offing, as late as the 3rd of October ; but none from that time to the beginning of June, and then only a single pair was 44 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERr I !(. occasionally seen. A very few grouse were met with also after our arrival at Port Bowen ; a single specimen wax obtained on the 23rd of December, and another on the 18th of February. They again made their appearance towards the end of March, and in less than a m.onth about two hundred were killed ; after which we scarcely saw another, for what reason we could not conjecture, except that they might possibly be on their way to the northward, and that the utter barrenness of the land about Port Bowen afforded no inducement for their remaining in our neighbourhood. Lieutenant Ross, who paid great attention to ornith- ology, remarked that the grouse met with here are of ft three kinds, namely, the ptarmigan [Tetrao Laf/ojJtis), the rock-grouse, {Tetrao Riijyi'-'^tris), and the willow-partridge {Tfitrao Allm.^). Of these only the two former were seen in the spring, and by far the greater number killed were of the first-mentioned species. They usually had in their maws the leaves of the Dryas IntegrifoUa^ buds of the Saxifraga Oj)po,ntifolia, Salix Arctica^z,ndi Draha Alpina, the quantities being according to the order in which the plants have here been named. A few leaves also of the Poly g (mum Viviparvm were found in one or two specimens. The snow-bunting, with its sprightly note, was, as usual, one of our earliest visitants in the spring ; but these were few in number and remained only a short time. A very few sand- pipers w ere also seen, and now and then one or two glaucous, ivory, and kittiwake gulls. A pair of ravens appeared occasionally during the whole winter here, as at most of our former winter stations. With a view to extend oUr geographical knowledge as much as our means permilced, three land journeys were undertaken as soon as the weather was sufficiently warm i OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE 45 with cimen ler on irance month larcely jcture, to the land their )rnith- are of is), the rtridge re seen id were n their ( of the Alpina, Ich the of the csimens. usual, t these me. A id then A pair winter edge as ys were y warm i I for procuring any water. The first party, consisting of six men, under Captain Hoppner, were instructed to travel to the eastward, to endeavour to reach the sea in that direction and to discover the communication which probably exists there with Admiralty Inlet, so as to determine the extent of that portion of insular J and on which Port Bowen is situated. They returned on the 14th, after a very fatiguing journey, and having with difficulty travelled a degree and three-quarters to the eastward of the ships, in latitude 73° 19', from which position no appearance of the sea could be perceived. Captain Hoppner described the ravines as extremely difficult to pass, many of them beinpf four or five hundred feet deep and very precipitous. These being numerous and running chiefly in a north and south direction, appearing to empty themselves into Jackson's Inlet, pre- clude the possibility of performing a quick journey to the eastward. During the whole fortnight's excursion scarcely a patch of vegetation could be seen. Indeed, the hills were so covered in most parts with soft and deep snow that a spot could seldom be found on which to pitch their tent. A few snow-buntings and some ivory gulls were all the animals they met with to enliven this most barren and desolate country ; and nothing was observed in the geological character differing from that about Port Bowen. In the bed of one of the ravines Captain Hoppner noticed some immense masses of rock, thirty or forty tons in weight, which had recently fallen from above, and he also passed over several avalanches of snow piled to a vast height across it. The two other parties, consisting of four men each, under the respective commands of Lieutenants Sherer 46 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY ri. and Ross, were directed to travel, the former to the southward, and the latter to the northward, along the coast of Prince Regent's Inlet, for the purpose of survey- ing it accurately, and of obtaining obseivations for the longtitude and variation at the stations formerly visited by us on the 7th and 15th of August, 1819. I was also very anxious to ascertain the state of the ice to the north- ward to enable me to form some judgment as to the probable time of our liberation. These parties found the travelling along shore so good as to enable them not only to reach those spots, but to extend their journeys far beyond them. Lieutenant Ross returning on the 15th, brought the welcome int;elligence of the sea being perfectly open and free from ice at the distance of twenty-two miles to the northward of Port Bowen, by which I concluded — what, indeed, had long before been a matter of probable conjecture, — that Bar- row's Strait was not permanently frozen during the winter. From the tops of the hills about Cape York^ beyond which promontory Lieutenant Ross travelled, no appearance of ice could be distinguished. Innumerable ducks, chiefly of the king, eider, and long-tailed species, were flying about near the margin of the ice, besides dove- kies, looms, and glaucous, kittiwake, and ivory gulls. Lieutenant Sherer returned to the ships on the evening of the 15th, having performed a rapid journey as far as 72^*', and making an accurate survey of the whole coast to that distance. In the course of this journey a great many remains of Esquimaux habitations were seen, and these were much more numerous on the southern part of the coast. In a grave which Lieutenant Sherer opened, in order to form some idea whether the Esquimaux had lately been here, he found the body apparently quite OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 47 fresh ; but as this might in a northern climate naiii the case for a number of years, and as our board erected in 1819 was still standing untouched and in good order, it is certain these people had not bt-^.i here since our former visit. Less numerous traces of the Esquimaux, and of older date, occur near Port Bowen and in Lieutenant Ross's route along shore to the northward, and a few of the remains of habitations were those used as winter residences. I have since regretted that Lieutenant Sherer was not furnished with more provisions and a larger party to have enabled him to travel round Cape Kater. which is probably not far distant from some of the northern Esquimaux stations mentioned in my Journal of the preceding voyage. Towards the end of June, the dovekies [Colymhvs Grylle) were extremely numerous in the cracks of the ice at the entrance of Port Bowen, and as these were the oaly fresh supply of any consequence that we were able to procure at this unproductive place, we were glad to permit the men to go out occasiorrally with guns, after the ships were ready for sea, to obtain for their messes this wholesome change of diet ; while such excursions also contributed essentially to their general health and cheerfulness. Many hundreds of these birds were thus obtained in the course of a few days. On the evening of the 6th of July, however, I was greatly shocked at being informed by Captain Hoppner that John Cotterell, a seaman of the Fury, had been found drowned in one of the cracks of the ice, by two other men belonging to the same party who had been with him but a few minutes before. We could never ascertain precisely in what man- ner this accident happened, but it was supposed that he most have overreached himself in stooping for a bird 4S THIKD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY i that he had killed. Hia remains were committed to the earth on Sunday the 10th, with every solemnity which the occasion demanded, and our situation would allow ; and a tomb of stones with a suitable inscription was afterwards erected over the grave. In order to obtain oil for another winter's consumption before the ships could be released from the ice, and our travelling parties having seen a number of black whales in the open water to the northward, two boats from each ship were, with considerable labour, transported four miles along shore in that direction, to be in readiness for killing a whale and boiling the oil on the beach, whenever the open water should approach sufficiently near. They took their station near a remarkable peninsular piece of land on the south side of the entrance to Jackson's Inlet, which had on the former voyage been taken for an island. Notwithstanding these preparations, however, it was vexa- tious to find that on the 9th of July the water was still three miles distant from the boats, and at least seven from Port Bowen. On the 12th, the ice in our neighbourhood began to detach itself, and the boats under the command of Lieutenants Sherer and Ross being launched on the following day, succeeded almost immediately in killing a small whale of "five feet bone" exactly answering our purpose. Almost at the same time, and as it turned out very opportunely, the ice at the mouth ,of our harbour detached itself at an old crack, and drifted off, leaving only about one mile and a quarter between us and the sea. Half of this distance being occupied by the gravelled canal, which was dissolved quite through the ice in many parts and had become very thin in all, every officer and man in both ships were set to work without delay to commence a fresh canal from the open water, to OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 49 communicate with the other. This work proved heavier thtan we expected, the ice beinj^ generally from five to eight feet, and in many places from ten to eleven, in thickness. It was continued, however, with the greatest cheerfulness and alacrity from seven in the morning till seven in the evening daily, the dinner being prepared on the ice and eaten under the lee of a studding sail erected as a tent. On the afternoon of the IDth a very welcome stop was put to our operations by the separation of the floe entirely across tho harbour, and about one-third from the ships to where we were at work. All hands being instantly re- called by signal, were on their return set to work to get the ships into the gravelled canal, and to saw away what still remained in it to prevent our warping to sea. This work, with only half an hour's intermission for the men's supper, was continued till half-past six the following morning, when we succeeded in getting clear. The weather being calm, two hours were occupied in towing the ships to sea, and thus the officers and men were em- ployed at very laborious work for twenty-six hours, during which time there were, on one occasion, fifteen of them overboard at once ; and, indeed, several individuals met with the same accident three times. It was impossible, however, to regret the necessity of these comparatively trifling exertions, especially as it was now evident that to have sawed our way out, without any canal, would have required at least a fortnight of heavy and fatiguing labour. 50 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY ii CHAPTER V. Rnil ovor towards the Western Coast of rriiice Rpffont'« Inlot— Stnpiwl by tlie Ice— Reach the Shore about Cape .Sepi)i!i>:s l-'avourable Progress along the L.md— Fresli ami repeated Obslructious from Ice— BoMj Ships driven on Shore— f'jfri/ seriously damaged— Un- successful Search for a Harbour for heaving her down to repair. July 20. — On standing out to sea, we sailed with a light southerly wind towards the western shore of Prince Regent's Inlet, which it was my first wish to gain, on account of the evident advantage to be derived from coast- ing the southern part of that portion of land called in the chart *' North Somerset," as far as it might lead to the westward ; which, from our former knowledge, we had reason to suppose it would do as far at least as the longi- tude of 05°, in the parallel of about 72^°. After sailing about eight miles, we were stopped by a body of close ice lying between us and a space of open water beyond. By way of occupying the time in further examination of the state of the ice, we then bore up with a light northerly wind, and ran to the south-eastward to see if there was any clear water between the ice and the land in that direction ; but found that there was no opening between them to the southward of the flat-topped hill laid down in the chart, and now called Mount Sherer. Indeed, I believe that at this time the iGf> had not yet detached itself from the land to the southward of that station. On standing back, we were shortly after enveloped in one of the thick fogs which had, for several weeks past, been observed almost daily hanging over some part of the sea in the offing, though we had scarcely experienced any in Port Bowen until the water became open at the mouth of the harbour. s i J I Si •■i OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 51 On tho clearing up of the fog on the 2Lst, we ooultl perceive no opening of the ice leading towards the western land, nor any appearance of the smallest cliannel to tho southward alon^^ the eastern shore. I was determiucd, therefore, to try at once a little farther to the northward, the present state of the ice appearing completely to aecortl with that observed in 181!), its breadth increasing its we advanced from Prince Leopold's Islands to the southwaiil. As, tl^erefore, I felt confident of being able to push along the shore if we should once gain it, I was anxious to ellVct the latter object in any part rather than incur the risk of hampering the ships by a vain, or, at least, a doubtful attempt to force them through a body of close ice several miles wide, for the sake of a few leagues of southing, which would soon be regained by coasting. Light winds deta aed us very much, but being at length favoured by a breeze, we carried all sail to the north-west, the ice very gradually leading us towards the Leopold Isles. Having arrived off the northernmost on the morn- ing of the 22nd, it was vexatious, however curious, to observe the exact coincidence of the present position of the ice with that which it occupied a little later in the year 1819. The whole body of it seemed to cling to the western shore, as if held there by some strong attraction, forbidding, for the present, any access to it. We now stood off and on, in the hope that a southerly breeze, which had just sprung up, might serve to open us a channel. In the evening the wind gradually freshened, and before midnight had increased to a strong gale, which blew with considerable violence for ten hours, obliging us to haul off from the ice and to keep in smooth water under the eastern land until it abated ; after which not a moment was lost in again standing over to the westward. 52 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERT After running all night, with light and variable winds, through loose and scattered ice, we suddenly found ourselves, on the clearing up of a thick fog, through which we had been sailing on the morning of the 24tb, within one-third of a mile of Cape Seppings, the land just appearing above the fog in time to save us from danger, the soundings being thirty-eight fathoms, on a rocky bottom. The Fury being apprised by guns of our situation, both ships were hauled off the land, and the fog soon after dispersing, we had the satisfaction to per- ceive that the late gale had blown the ice off the land, leaving us a line navigable channel from one to two miles wide, as far as we could see from the mast-head along the shore. We were able to avail ourselves of this but sic //ly, however, in consequence of a light southerly breeze still blowing against us. We had now an opportunity of discovering that a long neck of very low land runs out from the southernmost of the Leopold Islands, and another from the shore to the southward of Cape Clarence. These two had every appear- ance of joining, so as to make a peninsula, instead of an island, of that portion of land which, on account of our distance preventing our seeing the low beach, had in 1819 been considered under .the latter character. It is, how- ever, still somewhat doubtful, and the Leopold Isles, there- fore, still retain their original designation on the chart. The land here, when closely viewed, assumes a very strik- ing and magnificent character, the strata of limestone, which are numerous and quite horizontally disposed, being much more regular tliP.n on the eastern shore of Prince Regent's Inlet, and retaining nearly their whole perpen- dicular height of six or seven hundred feet, close to the sea. The south-eastern promontory of the southernmost OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. S3 island is particularly picturesque and beautiful, the heaps of loose dehris lying here and there up and down the sides of the cliff giving it the appearance of some huge and impregnable fortress, with immense buttresses of masonry supporting the walls. Near Cape Seppings, and some dis- tance beyond it to the southward, we noticed a narrow stratum of some very white substance, the nature of which we could not at this time conjecture. I may here remark that the whole of B ^rrow's Strait, as far as we could see to the N.N.E. of th. islands, was entirely free from ice ; and from whatever circumstance it may proceed, I do not think that this part of the Polar Sea is at any season very much encumbered with it. It was the general feeling, at this period, among us, that the voyage had but now commenced. The labours of a bad summer, arxd the tedium of a long winter, were for- gotten in a moment when we found ourselves upon ground not hitherto explored, and with every apparent prospect before us of making as rapid a progress as the nature of this navigation will permit towards the final accomplish- ment of our object. Early on the morning of the 25th, we passed the open- ing in the land delineated in the former chart of this coast, in latitude TS** 34', which we now found to be a bay about three miles deep, but apparently open to the sea. I named it after my friend, Hastings Elwin, Esq., of Bristol, as a token of grateful esteem for that gentleman. The wind failing very light, so that the ships made no progress, I took the opportunity of landing in the fore- noon, accompanied by a party of the officers, and was soon after joined by Captain Hoppner. We found the forma- tion to consist wholly of lime, and now discovered the- nature of the narrow white stratum observed the day J I 54 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY before from the offing, and which proved to be gypsum, mostly of the earthy kind, and some of it of a very pure white. A part of the rock near our landing-place con- tained a quantity of it in the state of selenite in beautiful transparent lamina) of a large size. The abundance of gypsum hereabouts explained also the extreme whiteness of the water near the whole of this part of the coast, which had always been observed in approaching it, and which had at fi'^^t excited unnecessary apprehensions as to the soundings aiong the shore. This colour is more particularly seen near the mouths of the streams, many of which are quite of a dirty milk colour, and tinge the sea to the distance of more than a mile, without any alteration in the depth, except a gradual diminution in going in. The vegetation in this place was. as usual, extremely scanty, though much more luxuriant than on any of the land near our winter quarters, and no animals were seen. The latitude of our landing-place was 73° 27' 23", the longitude by chronometers 90° 50' 34*6", and the variation of the magnetic needle 125" 34' 42'' westerly. From half -past nine a.m. till a quarter past noon the tide fell two feet three inches ; and as it was nearly stationary at the latter time, it was probably near low water. A breeze enabling us again to make some progress, and an open channel still favouring us of nearly the same breadth as before, we passed during the night a second bay, about the same size as the other, and also appearing open to the sea ; it lies in latitude (by account from the preceding and following noon) 73° 19' 30", and its width is one mile and a half. It was called Batty Bay, after my friend Captain Robert Batty, of the Grenadier G-uards. We now perceived that the ice closed completely in with ice op( ha mn ma OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. re 1 gypsum, very pure )lace con- beautiful adauce of whiteness the coast, ng it, and ensions as ir is more ims, many tinge the Lthout any inution in . as usual, it than on 110 animals -place was r 50' 34-6", 25° 34' 42" uarter past i as it was )bably near rogress, and y the same fht a second appearing it from the id its width y Bay, after dier G-uards. tely in with the land a short distance beyond us, and having made all the way we could, were obliged to stand off and on during the day in a channel not three-quarters of a mile wide. This channel being still more contracted towards the evening, we were obliged to make fast to some grounded land ice upon the beach in four fathoms water, there to await some change in our favour. We here observed traces of our old friends the Esquimaux, there being several of their circles of stones, though not of recent date, close to the sea. We also found a more abundant vegetation than before, and several plants familiar to us on the former voyages, but not yet procured on this, were now added to our collections. The geological character of the land was nearly the same as before, but we found here some gypsum of the fibrous kind, occurring in a single stratum about an inch and a half wide. About a mile to the north of us was a curipus cascade or spout of water, issuing from a chasm in the rock, and falling more than two hundred feet perpendicular. Our gentlemen, who visited the spot, described it as rendered the more picturesque by innumerable kittiwakes having their nests among the rocks, and constantly flying about the stream. The' latitude was 73" 06' 17", the longitude by chronometers 91" 19' 52*3", the dip of the magnetic needle 88° 021', and the variation 128° 23' 17" westerly. The ice opening in the afternoon of the 27th, we cast off and run four or five miles with a northerly breeze. This wind, however, always had the effect of making the ice close the shore, while a southerly breeze as uniformly opened it, so that on this coast, as on several others that I have known, a contrary wind — however great the paradox may seem — proved, on the whole, the most favourable for making progress. This circumstance is simply to be 56 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY \t I w attributed to the greater abundance of open water in the parts we nave left behind (in the present instance the open sea of Barrow's Strait) than those towards which we Are going. We were once more obliged to make fast, therefore, to some grounded ice close to the beach, rather than run any risk of hampering the ships, and rendering them unable to take advantage of a change in our favour. A light southerly breeze on the morning of the 28th gradually cleared the shore, and a fresh wind from the N.W. then immediately bucceeded. We instantly took Advantagt of this circumstance, and casting off at six a.m. ran eight or nine miles without obstruction, when we were stopped by the ice, which, in a closely packed and impenetrable body, stretched close into the shore as far as the eyf; could reach from the crow's nest. Being anxious to gain every foot of distance that we could, and perceiving some grounded ice which appeared favourable ior making fast to, just at a point where the clear water terminated, the ships were run to the utmost extent of it, and a boat prepared from each to examine the depth of water at the intended anchoring place. Just as I was ^bout to leave the Ilccla for that purpose, the ice was ol)served to be in rapid motion towards the shore. The Fury was immediately hauled in by some grounded mssses, and placed to the best advantage ; but the Ili'cla being more advanced was immediately beset in spite of every exertion, and after breaking two of the largest ice- Anchors in endeavouring to heave in to the shore, was obliged to drift with the ice, several masses of which had fortunately interposed themselves between us and the land. The ice slackening around us a little in the even- ing, we were enabled, with considerable labour, to get to some grounded masses, where we lay much exposed, as the I OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 57 Fury also did. In this situation, our latitude being" 72° 51' .51", we saw a comparatively low point of land three or four lea^rues to the southward, which proved to be near that which terminated our view of this coast in 1819, On the 29th, the ice being slack for a short distance, we shifted the Ilecla half a mile to the northward, into a less insecure berth. I then walked to a broad valley facing- the sea near us, where a considerable stream discharged itself, and where, in passing in the ships, a large fish had been observed to jump out of the water. In hopes of finding salmon here, we tried for some time with several hand-nets, but nothing was caught or seen. In this place- were a number of the Esquimaux stone circles, apparently of very old date, being quite overgrown with grass, moss> and other plants. In the neighbourhood of these habita- tions the vegetation was much more luxuriant than any- thing of the kind we had seen before during this voyage. The state of this year's plants was now very strikingv compared with those of the last, and afforded strong evi- dence, if any had been wanting, of the difference between the two seasons. I was particularly struck with the appearance of some moss collected by Mr. Hooper, who pointed out to me upon the same specimen the last yearV miserable seeds just peeping above the leaves, while those of the present summer had already shot three-quarters of an inch beyond them. Another circumstance which we noticed about this time, and still more so as the season advanced, was the rapid progress which the warmth had already made in dissolving the last year's snow, this being always easily known by its dingy colour, and i\» ad- mixture with the soil. Of the past winter's snow not a particle could be seen at the close of July on any part of 68 TH17<-J^ VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY this coast. These facts, together with the beautiful weather we had enjoyed for many weeks past, all tended to show that we were now favoured with an unusually fine summer. We found in this place, in the dry bed of an old stream, innumerable fossils in the limestone, princi- pally shells and madrepore. On a hill abreast of the Jlcala, and at an elevation of not less than three or four hundred feet above the sea, one narticular spot was dis- covered in which the same kind of shells first found in Barrow's Strait in 1811) occurred in very great abundance and perfection, wholly detached from the lime in which for the most part they were found embedded in other places on this coast. Indeed, it wa,s quite astonishing, in looking at the numberless fossil animal remains occur- ring in many of the stones, to consider the countless myriads of shell fish and marine insects which must once have existed on this shore. The cliffs next the sea, which here rise to a perpendicular height of between four and five hundred feet, were continually breaking down at this tseason, and adding, by falls of large masses of stone, to the slope of (Uhris lying at their foot. The ships lay so close to the shore as to be almost within the range of some of these tumbling masses, there being at high water scarcely beach enough for a person to walk along the shore. The time of high water, near the opposition of the moon this night, was between half -past eleven and midnight, being nearly the same as at Port Eowen at full and change. The ice opening for a mile and a half along shore on the 30th, we shifted the Hecla's berth about that distance to the southward, chiefly to be enabled to see more dis- tinctly round a point which before obstructed our view, though our situation, as regarded the security of the ship, was much altered for the worse. The Fury remained tho^ serii the blo^ OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 59 Aitiful tended Lsually bed of princi- of tile or fov\r ras dis- 3uiid in indance I whicli in other ihm«r, in B occur- ;ountles3 ust once ja, which four and rn at this ine, to the y BO close : some of r scarcely ore. The noon this rht, being lange. shore on ,t distance more dis- onr view, f the ship, .emained where she was, there being no second berth even so good as the bad one where she was now lying. In the after- noon it blew a hard gale, with constant rain, from the northward, the clouds indicating an easterly wind in other parts. This wind, which was always the trouble- some one to us, soon brought the ice closer and closer, till it pressed with very considerable violence on both ships, though the most upon the Fury, which lay in a very exposed situation. The Jlecla received no damage but the breaking of two or three hawsers, and a part of her bulwark torn away by the strain upon them. In the course of the night we had reason to suppose, by the Fury's heeling, that she was either on shore, or still heavily pressed by the ice from without. Early on the morning of the 31st, as soon as a communication could be effected, Captain Hoppner sent to inform me that the Fury had been forced on the ground, where she still lay ; but that she would probably be hove off without much difficulty at high water, provided the external ice did not prevent it. I also learned from Captain Hoppner that a part of one of the propelling wheels had been destroyed, the chock through which its axis passed being forced in considerably, and the palm broken off one of the bower anchors. Most of this damage, however, was either of no very material importance, or could easily be repaired. A large party of hands from the Hecla being sent round to the Fury towards high water, she came off the groTind with very little strain, so that, upon the whole, con- sidering the situation in which the ships were lying, we thought ourselves fortunate in having incurred no very serious injury. The Fury was shifted a few yards into the best place that could be found, and the wind again blowing strong from the northward, the ice remained •60 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY closo about us. A shift of wind to the southward in the afternoon at length began gradually to slacken it, but it was not till six a.m. on the 1st of August that there ap- peared a prospect of making any progress. There was, at this time, a great deal of water to the southward, but between us and the channel there lay one narrow and not very close stream of ice touching the shore. A shift of wind to the northward determined me at once to take advantage of it, as nothing but a free wind seemed requisite to enable us to reach this promising channel. The signal to that effect was immediately made, but while the sails were setting, the ice, which had at first been about three-quarters of a mile distant from us, was observed to be closing the shore. The ships were cast with all expedition, in hopes of gaining the broader channel before the ice had time to shut us up. So rapid, however, was the latter in this its sudden movement, that we had but just got the ships' heads the right way, when the ice came bodily in upon us, being doubtless set in motion by a very sudden freshening of the wind almost to a gale in the course of a few minutes. The ships were now almost instantly beset, and in such a manner as to be literally helpless and unmanageable. In such cases, it must be confessed that the exertions made by heaving at hawsers or otherwise are of little more service than in the occupation they furnish to the men's minds under oircumstances of difficulty ; for when the ice is fairly acting against the ship, ten times the strength and in- genuity could in reality avail nothing. The sails were, however, kept set, and as the body of ice was setting to the southward withal, we went with it some little distance in that direction. The Ilacla after thus driving, and now and then forcing her way through OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 61 . in the , but it lere ap- re was, Lid, but and not shift of to take seemed jhannel. tde, but . at first L us, was ere cast broader So rapid, ovement, ght way, btless set id almost lips were aer as to ich cases, J heaving !e than in ds under is fairly )h and in- 3 body of it with it da after y through the ice, in all about three-quarters of a mile, quite close to the shore, at length struck the ground forcibly several times in the space of a hundred yards, and being then brought up by it remained immovable, the depth of water under her keel abaft being sixteen feet, or about a foot less than she drew. The Fur\j continuing to drive was now irresistibly carried past us, and we escaped, oi:ly by a few feet, the damage invariably occasioned by ships coming in contact under such circumstances. She had, however, scarcely passed us a hundred yards when it was evident, by the ice pressing her in, as well as along the shore, that she must soon be stopped like the IIcclu ; and having gone about two hundred yards farther she was observed to receive a severe pressure from a large fioe- piece forcing her directly against a grounded mass of ice upon the beach. After setting to the southward for an hour or two longer the ice became stationary, no open water being anywhere visible from the mast-head, and the pressure on the ships remaining undiminished during the day. Just as I had ascertained the utter impossibility of moving the Hecla a single foot, and that she must lie quite aground fore and aft as soon as the tide fell, I received a note from Captain Hoppner informing me that the Fury had been so severely " nipped " and strained as to leak a good deal, apparently about four inches an hour ; that she was still heavily pressed both upon the ground and against the large mass of ice within her ; that the rudder was at present very awkwardly situated ; and that one boat had been much damaged. As the tide fell the Fun/s stern, Which was aground, was lifted several feet, and the Iltcla at low water having sewed five feet forward and two abaft, we presented altogether no very pleasing or comfortable spectacle. However, about high te THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERS ;r U I water, the ice very opportunely slacking, the Ilccla was hove off with great ease, and warped to a floe in the f)ffiiig to which we made fast at midnight. The Fury was not long after us in coming off the ground, when I was in hopes of finding that any twist or strain, hy which her leaks might have been occasioned, would, in some measure, have closed when she was relieved from pressure and once more fairly afloat. My disappointment and mortification, therefore, may in some measure be imagined, at beinjr informed by telegraph, about two a.m. on the 2n(l, that the water was gaining on two pumps, and that a part of the doubling had floated up. The Ilccla having in the mean time been carried two or three miles to the southward, by the ice which was once more driving in that direction, I directed Captain Hoppner by si.i^nal to endeavour to reach the best security in-shore which the present slackness of the ice might permit, until it was possible for the Htrla to rejoin him. Presently after, perceiving from the mast-head something like a small harbour nearly abreast of us, every effort was made to get once more towards the shore. In this the ice happily favoured us, and after making sail and one or two tacks we got in with the land, w). en I left the ship in a boat to sound the place and search for shelter. I soon had the mortification to find that the harbour which had appeared to present itself so opportunely, had not more than six or seven feet water in any part of it, the whole of its defences being composed of the stones and soil washed down by a stream which here emptied itself into the sea. From this place, indeed, where the land gradually became much lower in advancing to the southward, the whole nature of the soundings entirely altered, the water grad- ually shoaling in approaching the beach, so that the shipa 8'^ sF OF A NOKTH-WiJST PASSAGE. 63 'a was in the Fury ^hen I which , some •essure it and tgined, on the id that having to the 'ing in Tnal to Lch the it was ■ after, , small lade to tiappily o tacks boat to lad the ppeared a six or } of its washed the sea. became e whole jr grad- he shipa could scarcely come nearer, in most parts, than a quarter of a mile. At this distance the whole shore was more or less lined with grounded masses of ice ; but after exam- ining the soundings within more than twenty of them, in the space of about a mile, I could only find two that would allow the ships to float at low water, and that by some care in placing and keeping them there. Having fixed a flag on each berg, the usual signal for the ships taking their stations, I rowed on board the Furtj, and found four pumps constantly going to keep the ship free, and Captain Iloppner, his officers and men, almost ex- hausted with the incessant labour of t^e last eight-and- forty hours. The instant the ships were made fast, Captain Hoppner and myself set out in a boat to survey the shore still farther south, there being a narrow lane of water about a mile in that direction ; for it had now become too evident, however unwilling we might have been at first to admit the conclusion, that the Fury could proceed no farther without repairs, and that the nature of those repairs would in all probability involve the disagreeable, I may say the ruinous, necessity of heaving the ship down. After rowing about three-quarters of a mile we considered ourselves fortunate in arriving at a bolder part of the beach, where three grounded masses of ice, having from three to four fathoms water at low tide within them, were so disposed as to afJord, with the assistance of art, something like shelter. Wild and in- secure as, under other circumstances, such a place would have been thought for the purpose of heaving a ship down, we had no alternative, and therefore as little occa- sion as we had time for deliberation. Returning to the ships, we were setting the sails in order to run to the appointed place, when the ice closed in and prevented our e4 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY moving, and in a short time there was once more no open water to be seen. We were, therefore, under the necessity of remaining in our present berths, where tho smallest external pressure must inevitably force us ashore, neither ship having more than two feet of water to spare. One watch of the Heclali crew were sent round to assist at the Fury\re plainly few hands or three m a sail for ry anxious ily required r free. In )f ice came ich is here lonsiderable rgs, which, in time to prevent mischief. IJy a long and hard day's labour, the I>eoplo not going to rest till two o'clock ou the mornin'jr of the 2lst, we got about tifty tons' weight of coals and provisions on board the Fury, which, in case of necessity, we considered sutlicient to give her stability. While we were thus employed, the ice, though evidently inclined to come in, did not approach us much ; and it luay bo conceived with what anxiety we longod to bo allowed one more day's labour, on which the ultimate saving of the ship might almost be considered as depending. Having hauled the ships out a little from the shore and prepared the Jlecla for casting by c "pring at a moment's notice, all the people except those at the pumps were sent to rest, which, however, they had not enjoyed for two hours, when at four A.M. on the 21st, another heavy mass coming vio- lently in contact with the bergs and cables, threatened to sweep away every remaining security. Our situation, with this additional strain, the mass which had disturbed us fixing itself upon the weather-cable, and an increasing wind and swell settin;^'^ considerably on the shore, became more and more precarious ; and indeed, under circum- stances as critical as can well be imagined, nothing but the urgency and imi)ortance of the object we had in view — that of saving the Fury if she was to be saved — could have prevented my making sail, and keeping the Ilecla mider way till matters mended. More hawsers were run out, however, and enabled us still to hold on ; and after six hours of disturbed rest, all hands were again set to work to get the Fury's anchors, cables, rudder, and spars- on boaru. these things being absolutely necessary for her equipment, should we be able to get her out. At two P.M. the crews were called on board to dinner, which they had not finished when several not very large mas8e» (SO THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY '; I of ice drove along the shore near us at a quick rt^te, and two or three successively cominj>- in violent contact either with the Hecla or the bergs to which she was attached, convinced me that very little additional pressure would tear everything away, and drive both ships on shore. I saw that the moment had arrived when the Jlecla could no longer be kept in her present situation with the smallest chance of safety, and therefore immedi- ately got under sail, dispatching Captain Hoppner with every individual, except a few for working the ship, to xjontinue getting the things on board the Furi/, while the Jlccla stood off and on. It was a quarter-past three p.m. when we cast off, the wind then blowing fresh from the north-east, or about two points upon the land, which caused some surf on the beach. Captain Hoppner had scarcely been an hour on board the Fury, and was busily engaged in getting the anchors and cables on board, when we observed some large pieces of not very heavy ice tjlosing in with the land near her ; and at twenty minutes past four P.M., being an hour and five minutes after the Jlecla had cast off, J was informed by signal that the Fury was on shore. Making a tack in-shore but not being able, 'even imder a press of canvas, to get very near her, owing to a strong southerly current which prevailed within a mile or two of the land, I perceived that she had been .apparently driven up the beach by two or three of the grounded masses forcing her onwards before them, and these, as well as the ship, seemed now so firmly aground as entirely to block her in on the seaward side. As the navigating of the Mecla with only ten men on board required constant attention and care, I could not at this time with propriety leave the ship to go on board the Fury. This, however, I the less regretted as Captain OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 81 and itact was isure 8 on the ation nedi- with Lp, to Le the 3 P.M. n the svhich r had busily .when ry ice inutes er the Fury g able, owing hin a been of the CQ, and jround ks the board t this rd the aptain Hoppner was thoroughly acquainted with all my views and intention.!, and I felt confident that, under his direction, nothing would be left undone to endeavour to save the ship. I, therefore, directed him by telegraph, "if he thought nothing could be done at present, to return on board with all hands until the wind changed ; " for this alone, as far as I could see the state of [the Furt/, seemed to oifer the smallest chance of clearing the shore, so as to enable us to proceed with our work, or to attempt hauling the ship off the ground. About seven P.M. Captain Hoppner returned to the Hecla, accompanied by all hands, except an oflficer with a party at the pumps, reporting to me that the Fury had been forced aground by the ice pressing on the masses lying near her, and bringing home, if not breaking, the seaward anchor, so that the ship was soon found to have sewed from two to three feet fore and aft. With the ship thus situated, and masses of heavy ice constantly coming in, it was Captain Hoppner's decided opinion, as well as that of Lieutenants Austin and Roas, that to have laid out another anchor to seaward would have only been to expose it to the same damage as there was reason to suppose had been incurred with the other, without the most distant hope of doing any service ; especially as th? ship had been driven on shore, by a most unfortunate coincidence, just as the tide was beginning to fall. Indeed, in the present state of the Furt/, nothing short of chopping and sawing up a part of the ice under her stern could by any possibility have effected her re- lease, even if she had been already afloat. Under such circumstances, hopeless as for the time every seaman will admit them to have been, Captain Hoppner judiciously determined to return for the present, as directed by my 82 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERT lit telegraphic communication ; but being anxious to keep the ship free from water as long as possible, he left an officer and a small party of men to continue working afc the pumps so long as a communication could be kept up between the Kccla and the shore. Every moment, how- ever, decreased the practicability of doing this ; and find- ing, soon after Captain Hoppner's return, that the current swept the Urcla a long way to the southward while hoist- ing up the boats, and that more ice was drifting in to- wards the shore, I was under the painful necessity of recalling the party at the pumps, rather than incur the risk, now an inevitable one, of parting company with them altogether. Accordingly Mr. Bird, with the last of the people, came on board at eight o'clock in the evening, having left eighteen inches of water in the well, and four pumps being requisite to keep her free. In three hours after Mr. Bird's return, more than half a mile of closely- packed ice intervened between the Fury and the open water in which we were beating, and before the morning this barrier had increased to four or five miles in breadth. We carried a press of canvas all night, with a fresh breeze from the north, to enable us to keep abreast of the Fury, which, on account of the strong southerly current, we could only do by beating at some distance from the land. The breadth of the ice in-shore continued increas- ing during the day, but we could see no end to the water in which we were beating, either to the southward or eastward. Advantage was taken of the little ^eisure now allowed us,, to let the people mend and wash their clothes, which they had scarcely had a moment to do for the la^t three weeks. We also completed tho thrumming of jt eecond sail for putting under the Fury^s keel whenever we should be enabled to haul her off the shore. It fell OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. S3 qnitc calm in the evening", when the breadth of the ice in-8hore had increased to six or seven miles. We did not during the day perceive any current setting to the south- ward, but in the course of the night we were drifted four or five leagues to the south-westward, in which situation we had a distinct view of a large extent of land, which had before been seen for the first time by some of our gentlemen who walked from where the Fa / // lay. This land trends very much to the westward, a little beyond the Fury Point, the name by which I have distinguished that headland near which we had attempted to heave the F-iiry down, and which is very near the southern part of this coast, seen in the year 1819. It then sweeps round into a large bay, formed by a long, low Ijeach several miles in extent, afterwards joining higher land, and run- ning in a south-easterly direction to a point which ter- minated our view of it in that quarter, and which bore from us S. 58 '^ W. distant six or seven leagues. This headland I named Cape Garry, after my worthy friend Nicholas Garry, Esq., one of the most active members of the Hudson's Bay Company, and a gentleman most warmly interested in everything connected with northern dis- covery. The whole of the bay (which I named after n^.y much esteemed friend, Francis Cresswell, Esq.), as well as the land to the southward, was free from ice for several miles, and to the southward and eastward scarcely any was to be seen, while a dark water-sky indicated a per- fectly navigable sea in that direction ; but between U3 and the Fury ther*^ was a compact body of ice eight or nine miles in breadth. Had we now been at liberty to take advantage of the favourable prospect before us, I have little doubt we should without much difficulty have made considerable progress. 84 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY A southerly breeze enabling us to regain our northing', we ran along the margin of the ice. but were led so much to the eastward by it, that we could approach the ship no nearer than before during the whole day. She appeared to us at this distance to have a much greater heel than when the people left her, which made us still more anxious to get near her. A south-west wind gave us hopes of the ice setting off from the land, but it pro- duced no good effect during the whole of the 24th. We, therefore, beat again to the southward to see if we could manage to get in with the land anywhere about the shores of the bay : but thir. was now impracticable, the ice being once more closely packed there. We could only ^vait^ therefore, in patience, for some alteration in our favour. The latitude at noon was 72*^ 34' .57", -naking our distance from the Fftrt/ twelve miles, which b;- the morning of the 25th had increased to at least five leagues, the ice con- tinuing to " pack " between us and the shore. The wind, however, now gradually drew round to the westward, giving us hopes of a change, and we continued to ply about the margin of the ice, in constant readiness for taking advantage of any opening that might occur. It favoured us so much by streamirji'* off in the course of the day, that by seven p.m. we h.vA nv:T,rly reached a channel of clear water, which kept op'^n lor seven or eight miles from the land. Being impatient to obtain a sight of the jp//r?/, and the wind becoming light, Captain Hoppner and myself left the Hecla in two boats, and reached the ship at half -past nine, or about three-quarters of an hour before high water, being the most favourable time of tide for arriving to examine her condition. We found her heeling so much outward, that her main channels were within a foot of the water ; and the large •jS^J S8 for OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 85 main large floe -piece, which was still alongside of her, seemed alone to support lier below water, and to prevent her falling over still more considerably. The ship had been forced much further up the beach than before, and she had now in her bilge above nine feet of water, which reached higher than the lower-deck beams. On looking down the stern-post, which, seen against the light-coloured ground, and in shoal water, was now very distinctly visible, wc found that she had pushed the stones at the bottom up before her, and that the liroken keel, stern-post, and dead- wood had, by the recent pressure, been more damaged and turned up than before. She appeared principally to hang upon the ground abreast of the gangway, where, at liigh water, the depth was eleven feet alongside iier keel ; for- ward and aft from thirteen to sixteen feet ; so that at low tide, allowing the usual fall of five or six feet, she would be lying in a depth of from five to ten feet only. The first hour's inspection of the Fio-f/'s condition too plainly assured me that exposed as she was, and forcibly pressed up upon an open and stony beach, her holds full of water, and the damage of her hull to all appearance and in all probability more considerable than before, without any adequate means of hauling her off to sea- ward, or securing her from the further incursions of the ice, every endeavour of ours to get her off, or if s-ot of!', to- float her to any known place of safety, wouhl ,e at once utterly hopeless in itself, and productive of e ^reme lisk. to our remaining ship. Being anxious, however, in a case of so much import- ance, to avail myself of the judgment and 'xperience of others, I directed Captain Hoppner, in conjunction with Lieutenants Austin and Sherer, and Mr. Pulfer, carpenter,, being the officers who accompanied me to the Fnyt/, to 86 THIRD VOYAGE rOT», '" THE DISCOVERY li , I hold a survey upon her. and to report their opinions to me. And to prevent the possibility of the officers receiv- ing any bias from my own opinion, the order was given to them the moment we arrived on board the Futy. Captain Hoppner and the other officers, after spending several hours in attentively examining every part of the ship, both within and without, and maturely weighinj,*" all the circumstances of her situation, gave it as their opinion that it would be quite impracticable to make her 8ea\v<' rthy, even if she could be hauled off, which would first require the water to be got out of the ship, and the holds to be once more entirely cleared. Mr. Pulfer^ the carpenter of the Fury, considered that it would occupy five days to clear the ship of water ; that if she were got off, all the pumps would not be sufficient to keep her free, in consequence of the additional damage she seemed to have sustained ; « nd that, if even hove down, twenty days' work, with the means we possessed, would be re- quired for making her seaworthy. Captain Hoppner and the other officers were, therefore, of opinion that an absolute necessity existed for abandoning the Fury. My own opinion being thus confirmed as to the utter hope- lessness of saviug her, and feeling more strongly than ever the responsibility which attached to me of preserving the Ilecla unhurt, it was with extreme pain and regret that I made the signal for the Fury's officers and men to be sent for their clothes, most of which had been put on shore with the .stores. The IL clo^i b.nver-anchor, which had been placed on the bead., wrs .sent ^^n board as soon as the people came on shore ; hx\t her ic. naming cable was too much en- tangled with ti;' t.'ionided ice to be disengaged without great loss of tim Having allowed the officers and men OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 87 an hour for packing up their clothes, and what else be- longing to them the water in the ship had not covered, the Iu/n/.t boats were hauled up on the beach, and at two A.M. I left her, and was followed by Captain Hoppner, Lieutenant Austin, and the last of the people in half an hour after. The whole of the Furjfs stores were of necessity left either on board her or on shore, every spare corner that we could find in the Ilacla being now absolutely required for the accommodation of our double complement of officers and men, whose cleanliness and health could only be maintained by keeping the decks as clear and well ventilated as our limitotl space would permit. The spot where the Fury was left is in latitude 72" 42' 30", the longitude by chronometers is DT .')0' 0.')", the dip of the magnetic needle 88" ll^' 22", and the variation Vl'f 25' westerly. When the accident first happened to the Fury, I confi- dently expected to have been able to repair her damages in good time to take advantage of a largo remaining part of the navigable season in the prosecution of the voyage ; and while the clearing of the ship was going on with so much alacrity, and the repairs seemed to be within the reach of our means and resources, I still flattered myself with the same hope. But as soon as the gales began to de- stroy, with a rapidity of which wo had before no conception, our sole defence from the incursions of the ice, as well as the only trustworthy means we before possessed of hold- ing the Hccla out for heaving the Fury down, I confess- that the prospect of the necessity then likely to arise for removing her to some other station, was sufficient to shake every reasonable expecta,tion I had hitherto cherished of the ultimate accomplishment of our object. Those^ 88 TKIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY expocta-tions were now at an end. With a twelvemonth's proviaionB for both ships' ccmpanies, extending our Tesoiirces only to the autumn of the following year, it would have been folly to hope for final success, consider- ing the small progress we had already made, the un- certain nature of this navigation, and the advanced period of the present season. I was, therefore, reduced to the only remaining conclusion that it was my duty, under all the cirGumstances of the case, to return to England, in compliance with the plain tenor of my instructions. As soon as the boats were hoisted up, therefore, and the anchor stowed, the ship's head was put to the north- eastward, with a light air off the land, in order to gain an offing befoni the ice should again set in-shore. CHAPTER VII. Some Uemarks upon the loss of tho i'itry— And on the Natuial History, Ac, of the Coast of Nortli Somerset— Arrive al Neill's Harbnur— DeatVi of Johu Page— Leave Neill's Harbour— Recross the Ice in Batfiu's Bay— Heavy Gales — Aurora Borealis— Temperature of the Sea— Arrival in England. The a»:;(;ident which had now befallen the Fui'i/, and which, when its fatal result was finally ascertained, at once put an end to every prospect of success in the main object of this voyage, is not an event which will excite surprise in the minds of those who are either personally acquainted with the true nature of this precarious naviga- tion, or have had patience to follow me through the tedious and monotonous detail of our operations during seven successive summers. To any persons thus qualified to judge it v/ill be plain that an occurrence of this nature was at all times rather to be expected than otherwise, 4 11 OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. SO' and Iv loa- the liring llified iture [wise, and that the only roal cause for wonder has been our long^ exemption from nuoh a catastrophe. I can confidently affirm, and I trust that on such an occasion I may be per- mitted to make the remark, that the mere safety of the ships has never been more than a secondary object in the conduct of the expeditions under my command. To push forward while there was any open water to enable us to do so has uniformly been our first endeavour ; it has nob been until the channel has actually terminated that we. have ever been accustomed to look for a place of shelter, to which the ships were then conducted with all possible despatch : and I may safely venture to predict that no- ship acting otherwise will ever accompli h the North-West. Passage. On numerous occasions, which will easily recur to the memory of those I have had the honour to com- mand, the ships might easily have been placed among the ice and left to drift with it in comparative, if not absolute, security, when the holding them on has been preferred, though attended with hourly and imminent peril. This was precisely the case on the present occasion ; the ships might certainly have been pushed into the ice a^ day or two, or even a week beforehand, r>nd thus pre- served from all risk of being forced on shore ; but where they would have been drifted, and when they would have been again disengaged from the ice, or at liberty to take advantage of the occasional openings in-shore (by which alone the navigation of these seas is to be performed with any degree of certainty), I believe it impossible for any one to form the most distant idea. Such, then, being the necessity for constant and unavoidable risk, it cannot reasonably excite surprise that on a single occasion out of so many in which the same accident seemed, as it were, impending, it should actually have taken place. i)0 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY The ice we met with aft(?r lojiviii'^ Port IJowen, pre- viouHly to the Funfs diHastor, and for some days aftor, I consider to have been much the lightest as well as the most broken wo have ever had to contend with. Durin*^ the time we were shut up at our last station near the F///*//, one or two floes of very large dimensions drifted past us ; and these were of that heavy *' humniocky " kind which we saw off Cape Kator in the l)ey:inning of August, 1819. On the whole, however, ?Ir. Allison and myself had constant occasion to remark the total absence of floes, and the unusual lightness of the other ice. We thought, ind(3ed, that this latter circumstance might ac- ^?ount for its })eing almost incessantly in motion on this coast ; for heavy ice, when once it is pressed home upon the shore, and has ceased to move, generally remains quiet, until a change of wind or tide makes it slacken. But with lighter ice, the frequent breaking and doubling of the parts which sustain the strain, whenever any increase of pressure takes place, will set the whole body once more in motion till the space is again filled up. This was so often the case while our ships lay in the most exposed situations on this unsheltered coast, that we were never relieved for a moment from the apprehen- sion of some new and incren du pressure. The summer of 1825 was, beyond all doubt, the warmest and most favourable we had experienced since that of 1818. Not more than two or three days occurred, during the months of July and August, in which that heavy fall of snow took place which so commonly converts the aspect of Nature in these regions, in a single hour, from *the cheerfulness of summer into the dreariness of winter. Indeed, we experienced very little either of snow, rain, or fog ; vegetation, wherever the soil allowed any to spring OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 91 uiins jken. any body up. the that hen- Imest it of iring fall the irom Inter. |n, or )ring up, was extremely hixuriant and forward ; a great deal of the old snow which had laid on the ground during the last season was rapidly dissolvini? even early in August ; and every appearance of Xatuiv exhibited a striking contrast with the last summer, while it seemed evidently to furnish an extf^ordinary compensation for its rigour and inclemency. We have scarcely ev'er visited a coast on which so little of animal life occurs. For days together, only one or two seals, a single sea-horse, and now and then a flock of ducks, were seen. I have already mentioned, how- ever, as an excej)tion to this scarcity of animals, the numberless kitti\\ukes which were flying about the re- markable spout of water ; and we were one day visited, at the place where the Fvi'n was left, by hundreds of white whales sporting about in the shoal water olose to the beach. No black whales were ever seen on this coast. Two reindeer were observed by the gentlemen who ex- tended their walks inland ; but this was the only summer in which we did not procure a single pound of venison. Indeed, the whole of our supplies obtained in this way during the voyage, including fish, flesh, and fowl, did not exceed twenty pounds per man. During the time that we were made fast upon thia coast, in which situation alone observations on current can be satisfactorily made, it is certain that the ice was setting to the southward, and sometimes at a rapid rate, full seven days out of every ten on an average. Had I now witnessed this for the first time in these seas, I should probably have concluded thai"- there was a constant southerly set at this season ; but tlie experience we had before obtained of that superficial current which every breeze of wind creates in a sea encumbered with ice» 0/„, -c'l J% ^^ ^' O 7 /A IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) iill 1.0 I.I !^iiia lllllM ill lU IIIII2.2 It 1^ :!• la IIIIIM 1.8 11.25 il.4 ll!|||.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation // ^ u ^ r\ (v Ua V 1> c> ^-v "<> rv '^•b^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^2 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERT i i. coupled with the fact that while this set was noticed we had an almost continual prevalence of northerly winds. inclines me to believe that it wns to be attributed — chiefly at least — to this circumstance, especially as, on one or two occasions, with rather a light breeze from the southward, the ice did set slowly in the opposite direction. It is not by a few unconnected observations that a question of this kind is to be settled, as the facts noticed during our detention near the west end of Mel- ville Island in 1820 will abundantly testify ; every light air of wind producing, in half an hour's time, an extra- ordinary change of current setting at an incredible rate along the land. The existence of these variable and irregular currents adds, of course, very much to the difficulty of deter- mining the true direction of the" flood-tide, the latter being generally much the weaker of the two, and there- fore either wholly counteracted by the current, or simply tending to accelerate it. On this account, though I attended very carefully to the subject of the tides, I cannot pretend to say for certain from what direction the flood-tide comes on this coast ; the impression on my mind, however, has been, upon the whole, in favour of its flowing from the southward. The time of high water on the full and change days of the moon is from half- past eleven to twelve o'clock, being nearly the same as at Port Bowen ; but the tides are so irregular at times, that in the space of three days the retardation will occa- sionally not amount to an hour. I observed, however, that, as the days of full and change, or of the moon's quarter approached, the irregularity was corrected, and the time rectified, by some tide of extraordinary duration. The mean rise and fall was about six feet. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 93 I we nds, ed— as, reeze osite tions facts Mel- light ;xtra- ; rate rrents deter- latter there- imply gh I es, I ection on my our of water half- as at 3, that occa- wever, noon's d, and ation. The weather continuing nearly calm during the 2()th, and the ice keeping at the distance of several miles from the land, gave us an opportunity of clearing our decks, and stowing the things belonging to the Fun/ft crew more comfortably for their accommodjition and conve- nience. I now felt more sensibly than ever the necessity I have elsewhere pointed out, of both ships employed on this kind of service being of the same size, equipped in the same manner, and alike efficient in every respect. The way in which we had been able to apply every article for assisting to heave the Funj down, without the smallest doubt or selection as to size or strengch, proved an excellent practical example of the value of being thus able, at a moment's warning, to double the means and resources of either ship in case of necessity. In fact, by this arrangement, nothing but a harbour to secure the ships was wanted, to have completed the whole operation in as effectual a manner as in a dockyard ; for not a shore, or outrigger, or any other precaution was omitted, that is usually attended to on such occasions, and all as good and effective as could anywhere have been desired. The advantages were now scarcely less conspicuous in the accommodation of the officers and men, who in a short time became little less comfortable than in their own ship ; whereas, in a smaller vessel, comfort, to say nothing of health, would have been quite out of tlie question. Having thus experienced the incalculable benefit of the establishment composing this expedition, I am anxious to repeat my conviction of the advantages that will always be found to attend it in the equipment of any two ships intended for discovery. A little snow, which had fallen in the course of the last two or three days, now remained upon the land, 94 TKIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVKRY I i .! lightly powdering the hij^her parts, especially those having a northern aspect, and creating a much more wintry sensation than the large broad patches or drifts, wliich, on all tolerably high land in these regions, reniai» undissolved during the whole of each successive summer. With the exception of a few such patches here and there, the whole of this coast was now free from snow before the middle of August. A breeze from the northward freshening up strong on the 27th, we stretched over to the eastern shore of Prince Regent's Inlet, and this with scarcely any obstruction from ice. We could, indeed, scarcely believe this the same sea which, but a few weeks before, had been loaded with one impenetrable body of closely packed ice from shore to shore, and as far as the eye could discern to the southward. We found this land rather more covered with the newly fallen snow than that to the westward ; but there was no ice, except the grounded masses, any- where along the shore. Having a great deal of heavy work to do in the re-stowage of the holds which could not well be accomplished at sea, and also a quantity of water to fill for our increased complement, I determined to take advantage of our fetching the entrance of NeillV Harbour to put in here, in order to prepare the ship com- pletely for crossing the Atlantic. I was desirous also of ascertaining the depth of water in this place, which was v,\inting to complete Lieutenant Sherer's survey of it. At oneP.M:., therefore, after communicating to the officers and ships' companies my intention to return to England. 1 left the ship, accompanied by Lieutenant Sherer in a Fecond boat, to obtain the necessary soundings for con- ducting the ship to the anchorage, and to lay down a buoy in the proper berth. Finding the harbour an OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 91 hose more rifts, main imer. ;here, >efore n^ on *rince iction is the loaded from to the overed ward : s, any- heavy could tity of mined Neill's IP com- Iso of ch was of it. fficers gland. >r in a r con- down lOur an extremely convenient one for our purnose. we worked tlio ship in, and at tour p.m. anchored in thirteen fathoms, but afterwards shifted out to eighteen on a bottom of soft mud. Almost at the moment of our dropping the anchor, John Page, seaman of the Fury, departed this life ; he had for several months been affected with a scrofulous disorder, and had been gradually sinking for some time. The funeral of the deceased took place after Divine service had been performed on the 28th ; the body being followed to the grave by a procession of all the officers, seamen, and marines of both ships, and every solemnity observed which the occasion demanded. The grave is situated near the beach close to the anchorage, and a board was placed at the head as a substitute for a tomb- stone, having on it a copper-plate with the usual inscrip- tion.. This duty being performed, we immediately commenced landing the casks and filling water ; but notwithstanding the large streams which, a short time before, had been running into the harbour, we could hardly obtain enough for our purpose by sinking a cask with holes in it. I have no doubt that this rapid dissolution of all the snow on land so high as this, was the result of an unusually warm summer. This work, together with the entire re- stowage of all the holds, occupied the whole of the 21) th and 80th ; during which time Lieutenant Sherer was em- ployed in completing the survey of the harbour, more especially the soundings, which the presence of ice had before prevented. These arrangements had just been completed when the north-easterly wind died away, and was succeeded on the morning of the 31st by a light air from the north-west. As soon as we had sent to ascertain A. 96 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY that the Bea was clear of ice on the outside, and that the breeze which blew in the harbour was the true one^ we weighed and stood out, and before noon had cleared the shoals at the entrance. Neill's Harbour, the only one on this eastern coast of Prince Regent's Inlet, except Port Bo wen, to which it ia far superior, corresponds with one of the apparent open- ings seen at a distance in 1819, and marked on the chart of that voyage as a " valley or bay." We found it not merely a convenient place of shelter but a most excellent harbour, with sufficient space for a great number of ships,^ and holding-ground of the best quality, consisting of a tenacious mud of a greenish colour, in which the flukes of an anchor are entirely embedded. A great deal of tlje anchoring ground is entire!; land-locked, and some shoal points which narrow the entrance would serve to break otf any heavy sea from the eastward. The depth of water in most parts is greater than could be wished, but several good berths are pointed out in the accompanying survey made by Lieutenant Sherer. The beach on the west side is a fine bold one, with four fathoms within, twenty yards of low water mark, and consists of small pebbles of limestone. The formation of the rocks about the harbour is so similar to that of Port Bowen that na description of them is necessary. The harbour may best he known by its latitude ; by the very remarkable flat- topped hill eight miles south of it, which I have named after Lieutenant Sherer who observed its latitude ; by the high cliffs on the south side of the entrance, and the comparative low land on the north. The high land m the more peculiar, as consisting of that very regular horizontal stratification appearing to be supported by buttresses, which characterises a large portion of the ^1 OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 97 I that e one, leared )a9t of !h it is ; open- 5 chart it not cellent I BhipSy fj of a flukes of tlje le shoal break 3pth of led, but anying on the within small about ;hat na [ay best lie flat- named e; by ,nd the and is egular id by lof the western shore of Prince Regent's Inlet, but is not seen on any part of this coast so wull marked as here. It is a remarkable circumstance, and such as, I believe, very rarely occurs, that from the point of this land forming the entrance of the harbour to the southward, and where the cliffs ris(^ at once to a perpendicular height of not less than five or six hundred feet, a shoal stretches off to the distance of one-third of a mile, having from three to eight fathoms upon it. I have reason to think indeed that there is not more than from ten to fourteen fathoms anywhere across between this and the low point on the other side, thus forming a sort of bar, though the depth of water is much more than sufficient for any ship to pass over. The latitude of Neill's Harbour is 7:r 09' 08" ; the longitude by chronometers 89° 01' 20"-8 ; the dip of the magnetic needle 88° 08'-25, and the variation 118" 48' westerly. I have been thus particular in describing Neill's Har- bour, because I am of opinion that at no very distant period the whalers may find it of service. The western coast of Baffin's Bay, now an abundant fishery, will pro- bably, like most others, fail in a few years ; for the whales will always in the course of time leave a place where they continue year after year to be molested. In that case, Prince Regent's Inlet will undoubtedly become a rendezvous for our ships, as well on account of the numerous fish there, as the facility with which any ship, having once crossed the ice in Baffin's Bay, is sure to reach it during the months of July and August, We saw nine or ten black whales the evening of our arrival in Neill's Harbour ; these, like most observed hereabouts, and I believe on the western coast of Baffin's Bay generally, were somewhat below the middle size. D— 183 98 THIRD VOYAGE FOB THE DISCOVERY Findinpf the wind at north-west in Prince Regent's Inlet, we were barely able to lie alonjir the eastern coast. As the breeze freshened in the course of the day, a gfreat deal of loose ice in extensive streams and patches came drifting down from the Leopold Islands, occasioning us some trouble in picking our way to tlie northward. By carrying a press of sail, however, we were enabled, to- wards night, to j?et into clearer water, and by four a.m. on the 1st of September, having beat to windward of a compact body of ice which had fixed itself on the lee shore about Cape York, we soon came into a perfectly open sea in Barrow's Strait, and were enabled to bear away to the eastward. We now considered ourselves fortunate in having got out of harbour when we did. as the ice would probably have filled up every inlet on that shore in a few hours after we left it. The wind heading us from the eastward on the 2nd, with fog and wet weather, obliged us to stretch across the Sound, in doing which we had occasion to remark the more than usual number of icebergs that occurred in this place, which was abreast of Navy Board Inlet. IMany of these were large and of the long flat kind, which appear to me to be peculiar to the western coast of Baffin's Bay. I have no doubt that this more than usual quantity of icebergs in Sir James Lancaster's Sound was to be attri- buted to the extraordinary prevalence and strength of the easterly winds durinj? this summer, which would drive them from the eastern parts of Baffin's Bay. They now occurred in the proportion of at least four for one that we had ever before observed here. Being again favoured with a fair wind, we now stretched to the eastward, still in an open sea ; and our curiosity was particularly excited to see the present ' OP A NORTH-WEST PA8SA0B. 99 jgent'a L coast, i grreat 3 came ling us d. By led, to- ur A.M. rd of a the lee jrfectly bo bear irselves 5 did. as on that the 2nd, 1 across lark the I in this ilany of appear n's Bay. tttity of 36 attri- Qgth of would They for one ve now and our present situation of the ioe in the middle of Baffin's Bay, and to compare it with that in 1824. This comparison we were enabled to make the more fairly, because the sia- son at which we might expect to come to it coincided, within three or four days, with that in which we left it the preceding year. The temperature of the sea-water HOW increased to 38^, soon after leaving the Sound, where it iiad generally been from 33'' to 35*^, whereas at the same season last year it rose no higher than 32° any- where in the neighbourhood, and remained even so high as that only for a very short time. This circumstance seemed to indicate the total absence of ice from those parts of the sea which had last autumn been wholly covered by it. Accordingly, on the 5th, being thirty miles beyond the spot in which we had before contended with numerous difficulties from ice, not a piece was to be seen, except one or two solitary bergs ; and it was not till the following day, in latitude 72° 45', and longitude 64° 44', or about one hundred and twenty-seven miles to the eastward of where we made our escape on the 9th of September, 1824, that we fell in with a body of ice so loose and open as scarcely to oblige us to alter our course for it. At three p.m. on the 7th, being in latitude 72° 30', and longitude 60° 05', and having, in the course of eighty miles that we had run through it, only made a single tack, we came to the margin of the ice, and got into an open sea on its eastern side. la the whole course of this distance the ice was so much spread, that it would not, if at all olosely " packed," have occupied one-third of the same space. There were at this time thirty-nine bergs in sight, and some of them certainly not less than two hundred feet in height. The narrowness and openness of the ice at this season, 100 THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY i I ■i between the parallelH of 7'.\^ and 74°, wh»m compared with its extent and cloaenesH about the Hamo time ihe preceding year, wan a decided confirmation, if any were wanting, that the summer of 1824 waR extremely un- favourable for penetrating to the westward about the UHual latitudes. How it had proved elsewhere we could not of course conjecture, till, on the 8th, being in lati- tude 71** 55', longitude (JO** 30', and close to the margin of the ice, wo fell in with the Alfred, Ellison, and Hlixa- heth, whalers of Hull, all running to the northward, even at this season, to look for whales. From them we learned that the EUiso/i was one of the two ships we saw, when beset in the "pack " on the 18th July, 1824 ; and that they were then, as we had conjectured, on their return from the northward, in consequence of having failed in effecting a passage to the westward. The master of the FMison informed us that, after continuing their course along the margin of the ice to the south- ward, they at jlength passed through it to the western land without any difficulty, in the latitude of tJ8** to 69**. Many other ships had also crossed about the same parallels, even in three or four days ; but none, it seemed, had succeeded in doing so, as usual, to the northward. Thus it plainly appeared (and I need not hesitate to con- fess that to me the information was satisfactory) that our bad success in pushing across the ice in Baffin's Bay in 1824, had been caused by circumstances neither to be foreseen nor controlled ; namely, by a particular position of the ice, which, according to the best infor- mation I have been able to collect, has never before occurred during the only six years that it has been cus- tomary for the whalers to cross this ice at all, and which, therefore, in all probability, will seldom occur again. OF A NORTH-WKST TASSAOE. 101 mpared ime the ly were ely un- out the 70 could in lati- mar^Mn a Elka- •thward, hem we jhips we ly, 1824 ; on their having i. The Qtinning le south- western t (;8«» to le same seemed, rthward. e to con- iry) that Baffin's neither irticular infor- before een ens- i which, -ain. If wo seek for a cause for the ice thus hanging with more than ordinary tenacity to tlio northward, the ccnii- parativo coldness of the season indicated by our metn tinned to er. It wart clear oyer- ich is very favoure 108 THIRD VOYAGE. Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, all the logs, journals, drawings, and charts, which had been made during the voyage. After rounding the north end of the Orkneys on the 10th of October, we were on the 12th met by a strong southerly wind when off Peterhead. I, there- fore, immediately landed (for the second time) at that place ; and, setting off without delay for London, arrived at the Admiralty on the 16th. Notwithstanding the ill success which had attended our late efforts, it may in some degree be imagined what gratification I experienced at this time in seeing the whole of the Ilecla's crew, and also those of the Fury (with the two exceptions already mentioned), return to their nn tive country in as good health as when they left it eighteen months before. The Hecla arrived at Sheer- ness on the 20th of October, where she was detained for a few days for the purpose of Captain Hopp) ar, his oflBcers, and ship's company, being put upon their trial (accord- ing to the customary and indispensable rule in such cases) for the loss of the Fury ; when, it is scarcely necessary t« add, they received an honourable acquittal. The Ilecla then proceeded to Woolwich, and was paid off on the 21 fit of November. ji i5 logs, made of the bb. met , there- it that Eirrived btended id what ing the le Fury stum to hey left b Sheer- led for a officers, (accord- h caaes) ecessary .1. The d ofE oa ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUCMAUX MELVILLE PENINSULA AND THE ADJOINING ISLANDS, More paHicularly of Whitrr Idand and Igloolik. The number of individuals composing the tribe of Esqui- maux assembled at Winter Island and Igloolik was two hundred and nineteen, of whom sixty-nine were men, seventy-seven women, and seventy-three children. Two or three of the men, from their appearance and infirmities, as well as from the age of their children, must have been near seventy ; the rest were from twenty to about fifty. The majority of the women were comparatively young, or from twenty to five-and-thirty, and three or four ^nly seemed to have reached sixty. Of the children, about one- third were under four years old, and the rest from that age upwards to sixteen or seventeen. Out of one hundred and fifty -five individuals who passed the winter at Igloolik, we knew of eighteen deaths and of only nine births. The stature of these people is much below that of Earopeans in general. One man, who was unusually tall, measured five feet ten inches, and the shortest was only four feet eleven inches and a half. Of twenty individuals of each sex measured at Igloolik, the range was : — Men. — From 5 ft. lOin. to 4 ft. 11 in. The average height, 5 ft. 5 J in. V 110 ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX. Women. — From 5 ft. 3Jin. to 4 ft. 8jin. The average height, 5 ft. J in. The women, however, generally appear shorter than they really are, both from the unwieldy nature of their clothes and from a habit, which they early acquire, of stooping considerably forward in order to balance the weight of the child they carry in their hood. In their figure they are rather well-formed than other- wise. Their knees are indeed rather large in proportion, but their legs £^re straight, and the hands and feet, in both sexes, remarkably small. The younger individuals were all plump, but none of them corpulent ; the womem inclined the most to this last extreme, and their flesh was, even in the youngest individuals, quite loose and without firmness. Their faces are generally round and full, eyes small and black, nose also small and sunk far in between the cheek bones, but not much flattened. It is remarkable that one man, Te-&, his brother, his wife, and two daughters had good Koman noses, and one of the latter was an extremely pretty young woman. Their teeth are short, thick, and close, generally regular, and in the young persons almost always white. The elderly women were still well fur- nished in this way, though their teeth were usually a good deal worn down, probably by the habit of chewing the seal-skins for making boots. In the young of both sexes the complexion is clear and transparent, and the skin smooth. The colour of the latter, when divested of oil and dirt, is scarcely a shade darker than that of a deep brunette, so that the blood is plainly perceptible when it mounts into the cheeks. In the old folks, whose faces were much wrinkled, the skin appears of a much more dingy hue, the dirt being less ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. Ill r than £ their lire, of Lce the 1 other- portion, feet, in ividuals I women esh was, without mall and he cheek hat one bers had xtremely lick, and s almost veil fur- isually a chewing slear and of the a shade blood is ^eks. In I the skin 3ing less easily, and therefore less frequently, dislodj^ed from them. Besides the smallness of their eyes, there are two pecu- liarities in this feature common to almost all of them. The first consists in the eye not being horizontal as with us, but oomingr much lower at the erd next the nose than at the other. Of the second an account by Mr. Edwards will be given in another place. By whatever peculiarities, however, they may in {]reneral be distinguished, they are by no means ill-looking people ; and there were among them three or four grown-up per- pons of each sex who, when divested of their skin-dresses, their tattooing, and, above all, of their dirt, might have been considered pleasing-looking, if not handsome, people in any town in Europe. This remark applies more generally to the children also ; several of whom had complexions nearly as fair as that of Europeans, and whose little bright black eyes gave a fine expression to their countenances. The hair both of males and females is black, glossy, and straight. The men usually wear it rather long, and allow it to hang ^ bout their heads in a loose and slovenly manner. A few of the younger men, and especially those who had been about the shores of the Welcome^ had it cut straight upon the forehead, and two or three had a circular patch upon the crown of the head, where the hair was quite short and thin, somewhat after the manner of Capuchin friars. The women pride themselves ex- tremely on the length and thickness of their hair ; and it Yiras not without reluctance on their part, and the same on that of their husbands, that they were induced to dispose of any of it. When inclined to be neat they separate their locks into two equal parts, one of which hangs on each Bide of their heads and in front of their shoulders. To I > 112 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. stiffen and bind these they use a narrow strap of deer- skin, attached at one end to a round piece of bone, four- teen inches long, tapered to a point, and covered over with leather. This looks like a little whip, the handle of which is placed up and down the hair, and the strap wound round it in a number of spiral turns, making the tail thus equipped very oauch resemble one of those formerly worn by our seamen. The strap of this article of dress, which is altojjether called a tugleega, is so made from the deer- skin as to show, when bound round the hair, alternate turns of white and dark fur, which give it a very neat and ornamental appearance. On ordinary occasions it is considered slovenly not to have the hair thus dressed, and the neatest of the women never visited the ships without it. Those who are less nice dispose their hair into a loose plait on each side, or have one togleega and one plait ; and others aj^^ain, wholly disregarding the business of the toilet, merely tucked their hair in under the breast of their jackets. Some of the women's hair was tolerably fine, but would not in this respect bear a comparison with that of an Englishwoman. In both sexes it is full of vermin, which they are in the constant habit of picking out and eating ; a man and his wife will sit for an hour together performing for each other that friendly office. The women have a comb, which, however, seems more intended for ornament than use, as we seldom or never observed them comb their hair. When a woman's husband is ill she wears her hair loose, and cuts it off as a sign of mourning if he dies — a custom agreeing with that of the Greenlanders. It is probable also, from what has been before said, that some opprobrium is attached to the loss of a woman's hair when no such occasion demands this sacrifice. The men wear the hair on the upper lip and c t t: ACCOUNT OF THE ES(^UIMAUX. 113 chin, from an inch to an inch and a half in lenp^l^ n-'id eome were distinguished by a little tuft between the chin and lower lip. The dresses both of male and female are composed almost entirely of deer-skin, in which respect they differ from those of most Esquimaux before mot with. In the form of the dress they vary very little from those so re- peatedly described. The jacket, which is close, but not tight, all round, comes as low as the hips, and has sleeves reaching to the wrist. In that of the women, the tail or flap behind is very broad, and so long as almost to touch the ground ; while a shorter and narrower one before reaches half-way down the thigh. The men have also a tail in the hind part of their jacket, but of smaller dimen- sions • but before it is generally straight or ornamented by a single scollop. The hood of the jacket, which forms the only covering for their head, is much the largest in that of the women, for the purpose of holding a child. The back of the jacket also bulges out in the middle to give the child a footing, and a strap or girdle below this, and secured round the waist by two large wooden buttons in front, prevents the infant from falling through, when, the hood being in use, it is necessary thus to deposit it. The sleeves of the women's jackets are made more square *nd loose about the shoulders than those of the men, for the convenience, as we understood, of more readily de- positing a child in tne hood ; and they have a habit of slipping their arms out of them, and keeping them in contact with their bodies for the sake of warmth, j ust as we do with our fingers in our gloves in very cold weather. In winter every individual, when in the open air, wears two jackets, of which the outer one (Cdp2)8-te(jgd) has the hair outside, and the inner one (^Atteejd) next the 114 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMA.UX. body. Immediately on entering the hut the men take off their outer jacket, beat the 8no\7 from it, and lay it by. The upper garment of the females, besides being cut according to a regular and uniform pattern, and sewed with exceeding neatness, which is the case with all the dresses of these people, has also the flaps ornamented in a very becoming manner by a neat border of deer-skin, so arranged as to display alternate breadths of white and dark fur. This is, moreover, usually beautified by & handsome fringe, consisting of innumerable long narrow threads of leather hanging down from it. This ornament is not uncommon also in the outer jackets of the men. When seal-hunting they fasten up the tails of their jackets with a button behind. Their breeches, of which in winter they also wear two pairs, and similarly disposed as to the fur, reach below the knee, and fasten with a string drawn tight round the waist. Though these have little or no waist-band, and do not come very high, the depth of the jackets, which con- siderably overlap them, serves very effectually to complete the covering of the body. Their legs and feet are so well clothed, that no degree of cold can well affect them. When a man goes on a sealing excursion he first puts on a pair of deer-skin boots (^AlWitBegS.') with the hair inside and reaching to the knee, where they tie. Over these come a pair of shoes of the same material ; next a pair of dressed seal-skin boots perfectly water-tight ; and over all a corresponding pair of shoes, tying round the instep. These last are made just like the mocassin of a North American Indian, being neatly crimped at the toes, and having several serpentine pieces of hide sewn across the sole to prevent wearing. The water-tight boots and shoes are made ot ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 115 take ofiT y it by. ing cut I sewed all the bed in a ukin, BO lite and d by a narrow nament he men. ►f their ear two I below and the and do 3h con- >mplete degree »s on a er-skin ing to shoes bl-skin >nding let are ndian, leveral •event le of the skin of the small seal (^i/^/Y/VA), except the soles, which consist of the skin of the lar^'e se^l (^offukc) ; this last is also used for their fishing-lines. When the men are not prepared to encounte wet they wear an outer boot of deer-skin with the hair outside. The inner boot of the women, unlike that of the men, is loose round the leg, coming as high as the knee-joint behind, and in front carried up, by a long pointed flap, nearly to the waist, and there fastened to the breeches. The upper boot, with the hai^ as usual outside, corresponds with the other in shape, except that it is much more full, especially on the outer side, where it bulges out so pre- posterously as to give the women the most awkward, bow-legged appearance imaginable. Thi.<^ superfluity of boot has probably originated in the custom, still common among the native women of Labrador, of carrying their children in them. We were told that these women some- times put their children there to sleep ; but the custom must be rare among them, as we never saw it practised. These boots, however, form their principal pockets, and pretty capacious ones they are. Here, also, as in the jackets, considerable taste is displayed in the selection of different parts of the deer-skin, alternate strips of dark and white being placed up and down the sides and front by way of ornament. The women also wear a mocassin (^Itteeg^ga) over all in the winter time. One or two persons used to wear a sort of ruff round the neck, composed of the longest white hair of the deer- skin, hanging down over the bosom in a manner very becoming to young people. It seemed to afford so little additional warmth to persons already well clothed, that I am inclined rather to attribute their wearing it to some superstitious notion. The children between two and 116 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. hi eight or nine years of npe had a pair of breeches and boots united in one, with braces over their shoulders to keej) them up. These, with a jacket like the others and a pair of deer-skin mittens, with which each individual is furniHlied, constitute the whole of their dress. Children's clotlu'H are often made of the skins of very young fawns and of the marmot, as being- softer than those of the deer. The Esquimaux, when thus equipped, may at all times bid defiance to the rigour of this inhospitable climate ; and nothing can exceed the comfortable appearance which they exhibit even in the most inclement weather. When seen at a little distance the white rim of their hoods, whitened stiil more by the breath collecting and freezing upon it, and contrasted with the dark faces which they encircle, render them very grotesque objects ; but while the skin of their dresses continues in good condition they always look clean and wholesome. To judge by the eagerness with which the women received our beads, especially small white ones, as well as any other article of that kind, we might suppose them very fond of personal ornament. Yet of all that they obtained from us in this way at Winter Island, scarcely anything ever made its appearance again during our stay there, except a ring or two on the finger, and some bracelets of beads round the wrist : the latter of these was probably considered as a charm of some kind or other. We found among them, at the time of our first inter- course, a number of small black and white glass beads, disposed alternately on a string of sinew, and worn in this manner. They would also sometimes hang a small bunch of these, or a button or two, in front of their jackets and hair ; and many of them, in the course of the ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 117 ie« and Idera to Brs and idual is ildren's ' fawns of the 1 times limate ; earanoe reather. ►f their ng and k faces )bject8 ; a good women well as 3 theip it they sarcely ir stay some these other, inter- beads, m in small their f the second winter, covered the whole front of thoir jaokots with the beads they ruceive- cutting a hole close to the ground in that part where th(^ door is intended to be, which is near the south side, and through, this the snow is now passed. Thus they cod tinue till they have brought the sides nearly to meet in a perfect and well-constructed dome, sometimes nine or ten feet high in the centre ; and this they take considerable 120 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMATTX. 14 ' care in finishing, by fitting the last block or keystone very nicely in the centre, dropping it into its place from the outside, though it is still done by the man within. The i)eople outside are in the meantime occupied in throwing up snow with the pooallcrdy, or snow-shovel, and in stuffing in little wedges of sqow where holes have been accidentally left. The builder next proceeds to let himself out by en- larging the proposed doorway into the form of a Gothic arch three feet high, and two feet and a half wide at the bottom, communicating with which they construct two passages, each from ten to twelve feet long and from four to five feet in height, the lowest being that next the hut. The roofs of these passages are sometimes arched, but more generally made flat bj slabs laid on hori- zontally. In first digging the snow for building the hut, they take it principally from the part where the passages are to be made, which purposely brings the floor of the latter considerably lower than that of the hut, but in no part do they dig till the bare ground appears. The work just described completes the walls of a hut, if a single apartment only be required ; but if, on aocount of relationship, or from any other cause, several families are to reside under one roof, the passages are made common to all, and the first apartment (in that case made smaller) forms a kind of ante-chamber, from which you go through an arched doorway, five feet high, into the inhabited apartments. When there are three of these, which is generally the case, the whole building, with its adjacent passages, forms a tolerably regular cross. For the admission of light into the huts a round hole is cut on one side of the roof of each apartment, and a circular plate of ice, three or four inches thick and two ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 121 one very ce from within, ipied in r-shovel, les have i by en- t Gothic le at the act two id from Qext the arched, >n hori- the hut, assages of the t in no |f a hut, count umilies made e made ch you to the these, th its Id hole and a Id two feet in diameter, let into it. The ligh^. is soft and pleasant, like that transmitted through ground glass, and is quite sufficient for every purpose. When after some time these edifices become surrounded by drift, it is only by the windows, as I have before remarked, that they could be recognised as human habitations. It may, per- haps, then be imagined how singular is their external appearance at night, when they discover themselves only by a circular disc of light transmitted through the windows from the lamps within. The next thing to be done is to raise, a bank of snow, two and a half feet high, all round the interior of eack apartment, except on the side next the door. This bank, which is neatly squared off, forms their bods and fi - place, the former occupying the sides, and the latter the end opposite the door. The passage left open up to the fireplace is between three and four feet wide. The beds are arranged by first covering the snow with a quantity of small stones, over which are laid their paddles, tent- poles, and some blades of whalebone ; above these they place a number of little pieces of network, made of thin slips of whalebone, and, lastly, a quantity of twigs of birch and of the andromcda tctragona. Their deer-skins, which are very numerous, can now be spread without risk of their touching the snow : and such a bed is capable of affording not merely comfort but luxurious repose, in spite of the rigour of the climate. The skins thus used as blankets are made of a large size, and bordered, like some of the jackets, with a fringe of long narrow slips of leather, in which state a blanket is called heipik. The fire belonging to each family consists of a single lamp, or shallow vessel of lapis ollarisy its form being the lesser segment of a circle. The wick, composed ot 100 ACCOUNT OF THE FSQUIMATJX. dry moss rubbed between the hands till it is quite in- flammable, is disposed alon^ the edge of the lamp on the wtraight side, and a greater or smaller quantity lighted, according to the heat required or the fuel that can be afforded. When the whole length of this, which is some- times above eighteen inches, is kindled, it affords a most brilliant and beautiful light, without any perceptible smoke or any offensive smell. The lamp is made to supply itself with oil, by suspending a long thin slice of w'lale, seal, or sea-horse blubber near the flame, the warmth of which causes the oil to drip into the vessel until the whole is extracted. Immediately over the lamp is fixed a rude and rickety framework of wood, from which their pots are suspended, and serving also to sustain a large hoop of bone, having a net stretched tight within it. This contrivance, called I?inetfU, is in- tended for the reception of any wet things, and is usually loaded with boots, shoes, and mittens. The fireplace, just described as situated at the upper end of the apartment, has always two lamps facing dif- ferent ways, one for each family occupying the corre- sponding bed-place. There is frequently also a smaller and less-pretending estohlishraent on the same model — lamp, pot, net, and all — in cue of the corners next the iloor ; for one apartment sometimes contains three families, which are always closely xclated, and no mar- ried woman, or even a widov.'" without children, is with- out her separate fireplace. With all the lamps lighted and the hut full of people and dogs, a thermometer placed on the net over the fire indicated a temperature of 38" ; when removed two or three feet from this situation it fell to 31**, and placed close to the wall stood at 23", the temperature of the open ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 123 3ople fire ro or laced )pen air at the time being 25° below zero. A greater degree of warmth than this products extreme inconvenience by the dropping from the roofs. This they endeavour to obviate bj applying a little piece of snow to the place from which a drop proceeds, and this adhering is for a short time an effectual remedy ; but for several weeks in the sirring, when the weather is too warm for these edifices, and still too cold for tents, they suffer much on this account. The most important perhaps of the domestic utensils, next to the lamp already described, are the Ddthdusaelis or stone pots for cooking. These are hollowed out of solid lapis ollaris, of an oblong form, wider at the top than at the bottom, all made in similar proportion, though of various sizes, corresponding with the dimensions of the lamp which burns under it. The pot is suspei^ied by a line of sinew at each end to the framework over the fire, and thus becomes so black on every side that the original colour of the stone is in no part discernible. Many of them were cracked quite across in several places, and mended by sewing with sinew or rivets of copper, iron, or lead, so as, with the assistance of a lashing and a due proportion of dirt, to render them quite water-tig' t. I may here remark that as these people distinguish the Wager River by the name of OotkdoseShdliJi, we were at first led to conjecture that they procured their pots, or the material for making them, in that neighbourhood ; this, however, they assured us was not the case, the whole of them coming from Akkoolee, where the stone is found in very high situations. One of the women at Winter Island, who came from that country, said that her parents wore much employed in making these pots, chiefly it seems as articles of barter. The asbestos, which they use in the shape of a roundish pointed stick called tatko for 124 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. i! hi 111 trimming the lamps, is met with about Repulse Bay, and generally, as they said, on low land. Besides the ootkooseeks, they have circular and oval vessels of whalebone of various sizes, which, as well as their ivory knives made out of a walrus's tusk, are pre- cisely similar to those described on the western coast of Baffin's Bay in 1820. They have rvlso a numb*^r of smaller vessels of skin sewed neatly together, and a large basket of the same material, resembling a common sieve in shape, but with the bottom close and tight, is to be seen in every apartment. Under every lamp stands a sort of " save-al 1 ," consisting of a small skin basket for catching the oil that falls o^er. Almost every family was in possession of a wooden tray very much resembling those used to carry butcher's meat in England, and of nearly the same dimensions, which we understood them to have procured by way of Noowook. They had a number of the bowls or cups already once or twice alluded to as being made out of the thick root of the horn of the musk-ox. Of the smaller part of the same horn they also form a con- venient drinking-cup, sometimes turning it up artificially about one-third from the point, so as to be almost parallel to the other part, and cutting it full of small notches as a convenience in grasping it. These, or any other vessels for drinking, they call Imniouchiuk. Besides the ivory knives, the men were well supplied with a much more serviceable kind, made of iron, rnd called panna. The form of this knife is very peculiar, being seven inches long, two and a quarter broad, quite straight and flat, pointed at the end, and ground equally sharp at both edges ; this is firmly secured into a handle of bone or wood, about a foot long, by two or three iron rivets, and has all the appearance of a most destructive ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 125 *y, and d oval well as re pre- oast of smaller basket I shape, n every ve-all," oil that >ii of a carry 3 same rocured (owls or ade out Of the a con- ificially arallel iches as vessels ipplied m, and jculiar, I, quite jqually [handle ie iron ructive spear-head, but is nevertheless put to no other purpose than that of a very useful knife, which the men are scarcely ever without, especially on their sealing excur- sions. For these, and several knives of European form, they are probably indebted to an indirect communication with our factories in Hudson's Bay. The same may he observed of the best of their women's knives (jdoIoo^^ on one of which, of a larg-er size than usual, were the names of " Wild and Sorby." When of their own manufacture, the only iron part was a little narrow slip let into the bone and secured by rivets. It is curious to observe in this, and in numerous other instances, how exactly, amidst all the diversity of time and place, these people have preserved unaltered their manners and habits as mentioned by Crantz. That which an absurd dread of innovation does in China, the want of intercourse with other nations has effected among the Esquimaux. Of the horn of the musk-ox they make also very good spoons m h like ours in shape ; and I must not omit to mention their marrow spoons {pattekniuk, from inituky marrow), made out of long, narrow, hollowed pieces of bone, of which every housewife has a bunch of half a dojsen or more tied together, and generally attached to her needle-case. For the purpose of obtaining fire the Esquimaux umetimes L fifty of 3" is one Imagined, clusively lair and ame over ing, it i» ness and end, the ades are .e ends to de of fir, olded to- all stones iter, on &» them to ow-drift ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. ItO from covering, and the dogs from eating them. The difficulty of procuring a canoe may bo concluded from the circumstance of there being at Winter Island twenty men able to mana^re one, and only seven canoes among them. Of these indeed only three or four were in gooen water, they attach & whole seal-skin [hdn'-rvut-tn), inflated like a bladder, for the purpose of tiring it out in its progress through the water. They have a spear called ippoo for killing deer in the water. They described it as having a light staff and a small head of iron, but they had none of these so fitted in the winter. The nwivee, or dart for birds, has, besides its two ivory prongs at the end of the staff, three diver- gent ones in the middle of it, with several small double barbs upon them turning inwards ; they differ from the nnguit of Greenland, and that of the Savage Islands, in having these prongs aLways of unequal lengths. To give additional velocity to the bird-dart, they use a throwing- stick (nohe-shali) which is probably the same as the " hand-board " figured by Crantz. It consists of a flat board about eighteen inches in length, having a groove to receive the staff, two others and a hole for the fingers and thumb, and a small spike fitted for a hole in the end of the staff. This instrument is used for the bird-dart only. The spear for salmon or other fish, called MMe- wBly consists of a wooden staff "svith a spike of bone or ivory, three inches long, secured at one end. On each 132 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAHX. ii !•. f side of the spike is a curved prong, much like that of a pitchfork, but made of flexible horn, which gives them & spring, and having a barb on the inner part of the point turning downwards. Their fish-hooks (Jialdidkui) consist only of a nail crooked and pointed at one end, Uie other being let into a piece of ivory to which the line is attached. A piece of deer's horn or curved bone, only A foot long, is used as a rod, and completes this very rude part of their fishing-gear. Of their mode of killing seals in the winter I have already spoken in the course of the foregoing narrative, as far as we were enabled to make ourselves acquainted with it. In their summer exploits on the water, the killing of the whale is the most arduous undertaking which they have to perform ; and one cannot sufficiently Admire the courage and activity which, with gear ap- parently so inadequate, it must require to accomplish this business. Okotook, who was at the killing of two whales in the course of a single summer, and who de- scribed the whole of it quite con avwre^ mentioned the names of thirteen men who, each in his canoe, had as- sisted on one of these occasions. When a fish is seen lying on the water, they cautiously paddle up astern of him, till a single canoe, preceding the rest, comes close to him on one quarter, so as to enable the man to drive the katteellk into the animal with all the force of both arms. This having the siatlw, a long allek, and the in- flated seal-skin attached to it, the whale immediately dives, taking the whole apparatus with him except the katteclik which, being disengaged in the manner before described, floats to the surface and is picked up by its owner. The animal re-appearing after some time, all the <5anoe8 again paddle towards him, some warning being ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 1:53 hat of a es them t of the zJdiokui) Dne end, . the line 5ne, only rery rude )r I have larrative, cquainted t'ater, the (lertaking ufficiently gear ap- ccomplish ig of two who de- Itioned the le, had aa- ih is seen astern of lomes close to drive ce of both d the in- .mediately [except the er before up by its e, all the ing being given by the seal-skin buoy floating on the surface. Each man being furnished like the first, they repeat the blows as often as they find opportunity, till perhaps every line has been thus employed. After pursuing him in this manner, sometimes for half a day, he is at length so wearied by the resistance of the buoys, and exhausted by loss of blood, as to be obliged to rise more and more often to the surface, when, by frequent wounds with their spears, they succeed in killing him, and tow their prize in triumph to the shore. It is probable that with the whale, as with the smaller sea-animals, some privi- lege or perquisite is given to the first striker ; and, like our own fishermen, they take a pride in having it known that their spear has been the first to inflict a wound. They meet with the most whales on the coast of Dltvlllik. In attacking the walrus in the water they use the same gear, but with much more caution than with the whale, always throv.-ing the Imffcelili from some distance, lest the animal should attack the canoo and demolish it with his tusks. The walrus is in fact the only animal with which they use any caution of this kind. They like the flesh better than that of the seal ; but venison is preferred by them to either of these, and indeed to any other kind of meat. At Winter Island they carefully preserved the heads «f all the animals killed during the winter, except two or three of the walrus, which we obtained with great diffi- culty. There is probably some superstition attached to this, but they told us that they were to be thrown into the sea in the summer, which a Greenlander studiously avoids doing ; and, indeed, at Igloolik, they had no objec- tion to part with them before the summer arrived. As the blood of the animals which they kill is all used as 134 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 11 i'f H food of the most luxurious kind, they are careful to avoid lowing any portion of it ; for this purpose they carry with them on their excursions a little instrument of ivory called tdojwDtd, in form and size exactly resembling a " twenty-penny " nail, with which they stop up the orifice made by the spear, by thrusting it through the skin by the sides of the wound, and securing it with a twist. I must here also mention a simple little instru- ment called IwijyIivttuJi, being a slender rod of bone nicely rounded, and having a point at one end and a knob or else a laniard at the other. The use of this is to thrust through the ice whore they have reason to believe a seal is at work underneath. This little instrument is sometimes made as delicate as a fine wire, that the seal may not see it ; and a part still remaining above the surface informs the fisher- men by its motion whether the animal is employed in making his hole : if not, it remains undisturbed, and the attempt is given up in that place. One of the best of their bows was made of a single piece of fir, four feet eight inches in length, flat on the inner side and rounded on the outer, being five inches in ^ rth about the middle, where, however, it is strengthened on the concave side, when strung, by a piece of bone ten inches long, firmly secured by tree -nails of the same material. At each end of the bow is a knob of bore, or sometimes of wood covered with leather, with a deep notch for the reception of the string. The only wood which they can procure not possessing sufficient elas- ticity combined with strength, they ingeniously remedy the defect by securing to the back of the bow, and to the knobs at each end, a quantity of small lines, each com- posed of a plait or " einnet " of three sinews. The number of lines thus reaching from end to end is generally about ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX. i;3.j to avoid Ley carry iment of isembling p up the •ough the it with a lie instru- one nicely lob or else it through is at work es made as see it ; and \ the fisher- nployed in ed, and the jingle piece a the inner les in i, rth srthened on f bone ten the same of bore, or ith a deep only wood .cient elas- sly remedy and to the each com- le number irally about thirty ; but besides these, several others are fastened with hitches round the bow, in pairs, commencing eight inches from one end, and ayrain united at the sai le distance from the other, making the whole number of strings in the middle of the bow sometimes amount to sixty. These being put on with the bow somewhat beat the contrary way, produce a spring so strong as to require considerable force as well as knack in stringing it and giving the recjuisite velocity to the arrow. The bow is completed by a, woolding round the middle and a wedge or two, here and there, driven in to tighten it. A bow in one piece is, however, very rare ; they generally consist of from two to five pieces of bone of unequal lengths, secured together by rivets and tree-nails. The arrows vary in length from twenty to thirty inches, according to the materials that can be commanded. About two-thirds of the whole length is of fir rounded, and tiie rest of bone let by a socket into the wood, and having a head of thin iron, or more commonly of slate, secured into a slit by two tree-nails. Towards the opposite end of the arrow are two feathers, generally of the spotted oval, not very neatly lashed on. The bow-string consists of from twelve to eighteen small lines of three-sinew sinnet, having a loose twist, and with a separate becket of the same size for going over the knobs at the end of the bow. We tried their skill in archery by getting them to shoot at a mark for a prize, though with bows in extremely bad order, on account of the frost, and their hands very cold. The mark was two of their spears stuck upright in the snow, their breadth being three inches aud a half. At twenty yards tbey struck this every time ; at thirty, sent the arrows always within an inch or two of it ; and at forty or fifty yards, I should think, would generally hit 136 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. a fawn if the animal stood still. These weapons are per- haps sufficient to inflict a mortal wound at something more than that distance, for which, however, a strong arm would be required. The animals which they kill with the bow and arrow for their subsistence are principally the musk-ox and deer, and less frequently the bear, wolf, fox, hare, and some of the smaller animals. It is a curious fact that the musk-ox is very rarely found to extend his migrations to the eastward of a line passing through Repulse Bay, or about the meridian of Hfi^ west, while in a northern direction we know that he travels as far as the seventy-sixth degree of latitude. In Greenland this animal is known only by vague and ex- aggerated report ; on the western coast of Baffin's Bay it has certainly been seen, though very rarely, by the pre- sent inhabitants ; and the eldest person belonging to the Winter Island tribe had never seen one to the eastward of Eiwillik. where, as well as at AkkOolefi, they are said to be numerous on the banks of fresh-water lakes and streams. The few men who had been present at the killing of one of these creatures seemed to pride them- selves very much upon it. Toolooak, who was about seventeen years of age, had never seen either the musk- ox or the hdhlee-tlrioo, a proof that the latter also is not common in this corner of America. The reindeer are killed by the Esquimaux in great abundance in the summer season, partly by driving them from islands or narrow necks of land into the sea, and then spearing them from their canoes ; and partly by shooting them from behind heaps of stones raised for the purpose of watching them and imitating their peculiar bellow or grunt. Among the various artifices which they employ for this purpose, one of the most ingenious ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. l37 IS are per- something jtrong arm 11 with the cipally the r, wolf, fox, very rarely rd of a line meiidiaii of now that he atitude. In gue and ex- affin'p Bay it , by the pre- mging to the } eastward of are said to lakes and [esent at the pride them- o was about ler the musk- ier also is not uix in great [driving them the sea, and [nd partly by (raised for the Iheir peculiar [tifices which lost ingenious consists in two men walking directly //•(>;/<- the deer thoy wish to kill, when the animal almost always^ follows them. As soon as they arrive at a large stone, one of the ■men hides behind it with his bow, while the other, con- tinuing to walk on, soon leads the deer within range of his companion's arrows. They are also very careful to keep to leeward of the deer, and will scarcely go out af tt^r them at all when the weather is calm. For several weeks in the course of the summer some of these people almost ntirely give up their fishery on the coast, retiring to the banks of lakes several miles in the interior, which they represent as large and deep and abounding with salmon, while the pasture near them affords good feeding to numerous herds of deer. The distance to which these people extend their inland migrations, and the extent of coast of which they possess a personal knowledge, are really very considerable. Of these we could at the time of our first intercourse form no correct judgment, from our uncertainty as to the length of what they call a Heenik (sleep), or one day's journey, by which alone they could describe to us, with the help of their imperfect arithmetic, the distance from one place to another. But our subsequent knowledge of the coast has cleared up much of this difficulty, affording,' the means of applying to their hydrographical sketches a tolerably accurate scale for those parts which wo have not hitherto visited. A great number of these people, v/ho were bom at Amitioke and Igloolik, had been to Noowooh, or nearly as iar south as Chesterfield Inlet, which is about the nc plus ultra oi their united know- ledge in a southerly direction. Not one of them had been by water round to Akkoolee, but several by land ; in which mode of travelling they only consider that country 138 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. \l. ^ from three to fivo days' journey from Repulse Bay. Okotook and a few others of the Winter Island tribe had' extended their peregrinations a considerable distance to the northward, over the large insular piece of land to- whi(,h we have applied the name of Cockburn Island ; which they described as high land and the resort of numerous reindeer. Here Okotook informed us he had seen icebergs, which these people call by a name {plccdlDuyilk') having in its pronunciation some affinity to that used in Greenland. By the information afterwards obtained when nearer the spot, we had reason to suppose this land must reach beyond the seventy-second degree of latitude- in a northerly direction ; so that these people possess a personal knowledge of the continent of America and its adjacent islands, from that parallel to Chesterfield Inlet in ()3f°, being a distance of more than five hundred miles reckoned ii a direct line, besides the numerous turnings and windings of the coast along which they are ac- customed to travel. Ewerat and some others had been a considerable distance up the Wager River ; but no record had been preserved among them of Captain Middleton's visit to that inlet about the middle of the last century. Of the continental shore to the westward of Akkoolee, the Esquimaux invariably disclaimed the slightest per- sonal knowledge ; for no land can be seen in that direc- tion from the hills. They entertain, however, a confused idea that neither Esquimaux nor Indians could there- subsist, for want of food. Of the Indians they know enough by tradition to hold them in considerable dread, on account of their cruel and ferocious manners. When, on one occasion, we related the circumstances of the^ inhuman massacre described by Heame, they crowded ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 139 lepuTse Bay. ind tribe bad! le distance i^ ce of land to :burii Island; the resort of L us he had seen ■o that used in rards obtained ppose this land ,ree of latitude 'eople possess a ^^lerica and its besterfield Inlet e hundred milee nerous turninga ;h they are ac- others had been River; but no Lem of Captain e middle of the- ird of Akkoolee, le sliglitest per- sn in that direo- /ever, a confused [ans could there Lians they know .siderable dread, anners. When. Ustances of the- Le, they crowded round us in the hut, listening with mute and almost breathless attention ; and the mothers drew their children closer to them, as if to guard them from the dreadful catastrophe. It is worthy of notice that they call the Indians by a name {Eert-kBl-Ue'), which appears evidently the same as that applied by the Greejlanders to the man- eaters supposed to inhabit the eastern coast of their country, and to whom terror has assigned a face like that of a dog. The Esquimaux take some animals in traps, and by a very ingenious contrivance of this kind they caught two wolves at Winter Island. It consists of a small house built of ice, at one end of which a door, made of the same plentiful material, is fitted to slide up and down in A groove ; to the upper part of this a line is attached, and, passing over the roof, is let down into the trap at the inner end, and there held by slipping an eye in the end of it over a peg of ice left for the purpose. Over the l^eg, however, is previously placed a loose grummet, to which the bait is fastened, and a false roof placed over all to hide the line. The moment the animal drag-s at the bait the grummet slips off the peg, bringing with it the line that held up the door, and this falling down closes the trap and secures him. A trap for birds is formed by building a house of snow just large enough to contain one person, who closes him- self up in it. On the topis left a small aperture, through which the man thrusts one of his hands to secure the bird the moment he alights to take away a bait of meat laid beside it. It is principally gulls that are taken thus ; and the boys sometimes amuse themselves in this manner. A trap in which they catch foxes has been mentioned in iiuother place. i 140 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. The sledges belonging to these Esquimaux were in general large and heavily constructed, being more adapted to the carriage of considerable burdens than to very quick travelling. They varied in size, being from six and a half to nine feet 'n length, and from eighteen inches to two feet in breadth. Some of those at Igloolik were of larger dimensions, one being eleven feet in length, and weighing two hundred and sixty-eight })ounds, and two or three others above two hundred pounds. The runners are sometimes made of the right and left jaw-bones of a whale ; but more commonly of several pieces of wood or bone scarfed and lashed together, the interstices being filled, to make all smooth and firm, with moss stuffed in tight, and then cemenfe-^d by throw- ing water to freeze upon it. The lower part of the runner is shod with a plate of harder bone, coated with fresh-water ice to make it run smoothly and to avoid wear and tear, both which purposes are thus completely answered. This coating is performed with a mixture of snow and fresh water about half an inch thick, rubbed over it till it is quite smooth and hard upon the surface, and this is usually done a few minutes before setting out on a journey. When the ice is only in part worn off, it is renewed by taking some water into the mouth, and spirting it over the former coating. We noticed a sledge which was extremely curious, on account of one of the runners and a part of the other being constructed without the assistance of wood, iron, or bone of any kind. For this purpose a number of seal-skins being rolled up and disposed into the requisite shape, an outer coat of the same kind was sewed tightly round them ; this formed the upper half of the runner, the lower part of which consisted entirely of moss moulded while wet into the ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 141 were in e adapted I to very from six eighteen t Ijrloolik a feet in ixty-eight ) hundred the right nmonly of id together, L and firm, by throw- (art of the 3oated with d to avoid completely mixture of ick, rubbed he surface, ore setting ■t worn off, outh, and id a sledge one of the id without ind. For |led up and loat of the is formed of which it into the proper form, and being left to freeze, adhering firmly together and to the skins. The usual shoeing of smooth ice beneath compl'^t^pid thji runner, wliich for more than six months out of uwelve, in this climate, was nearly as hard as any wood ; and for winter ase no way inferior to those constructed of more durable mat^^rials. Tlie cross- pieces which form the bottom of the sledge are made of bone, wood, or anything they can muster. Over these i& generally laid a seal-skin as a flooring, and in the summer- time a pair of deer's horns are attached to the sledge as a back, which in the winter are removed to enable them when stopping to turn the sledge up, so as to prevent the dogs running away with it. The whole is secured by lashings of thong, giving it a degree of strength combined with flexibility which perhaps no other mode of fasten- ing could effect. The dogs of the Esquimaux, of which these people possessed above a hundred, have been so often described that there may seem little left to add respecting their external appearance, habits, and use. Our visitti to Igloolik having, however, made us acquainted with some not hitherto described, I shall here offer a further account of these invaluable animals. In the form of their bodies, their short pricked ears, thick furry coat, and bushy tail, they so nearly resemble the wolf of these regions that, when of a light or brindled colour, they may easily at a little distance be mistaken for that animal. To an eye accustomed to both, however, a difference is perceptible in the wolf's always keeping his head down and his tail, between his legs in running, whereas the dogs almost always carry their tails handsomely curled ever the back. A difference less distinguishable, when the r^nimals are apart, is the superior size and more muscular make of the 142 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. t(!f If wild animal, especially about the breast and legs. The wolf is also, in general, full two inches taller than any Esquimanx dog we have seen ; but those met with in 1818, in the latitude of 76°, appear to come nearest to it in that respect. The tallest dog" at Igloolik stood two feet one inch from the ground, measured at the withers ; the average height was about two inches less than this. The colour of the do}?8 varies from a white, through brindled, to black-and-white, or almost entirely black. Some are also of a reddish or ferruginous colour, and others have a brownish-red tinge on their legs, the rest of their bodies being of a darker colour, and these last were observed to be generally the best dogs. Their hair in the winter is from three to four inches long ; but besides this. Nature furnishes them during this rigorous season with a thick under-coating of close soft wool, which they begin to cast in the spring. While thus provided, they are able to withstand the most inclement weather without sufiFering from the cold ; and at whatever tem- perature the atmosphere may be, they require nothing but a shelter from the wind to make them comfortable and even this they do not always obtain. They are also wonderfully enabled to endure the cold even on those parts of the body which are not thus protected, for we have seen a young puppy sleeping, with its bare paw laid on an ice-anchor, with the thermometer at — 30", which with one of our dogs would have produced immediate and intense pain, if not subsequent moruification. They never bark, but have a long melancholy howl like that of the wolf, and this they will sometimes perform in concert for a minute or two together. They are besides always snarling and fighting among one another, by which several of them are generally lame. When much i ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 143 caressed and well fed, they become quite familiar and domestic ; but this mode of treatment does not improve their ((iialities as animals of draught. Being desirous of ascertaining whether these dogs are wolves in a state of domestication, a question which we understood to liavo been the subject of some speculation, Mr. Skeoch, at my re'- In the disposition of these people, there was of course among so many individuals considerable variety as to 150 ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX. thr ) ainute points ; but in the general features of their character, which with them are not subject to the changes produced by foreij^n intercourse, one description will nearly apply to all. The virtue which, as respected -ourselves, we could most have wished them to possess is honesty, and the impression derived from the early part of our intercourse was cert.ainly in this respect a favour- able one. A great many instances occurred, some of which have been related, where they appeared even scrupulous in returning articles that did not belong to them ; and this too when detection of a theft, or at least of the ofifender, would have been next to impossible. As they grew more familiar with us, and the temptations became stronger, they gradually relaxed in their honesty, and petty thefts were from time to time committed by ^5everal individuals both male and female among them. The bustle which any search for stolen goods occasioned at the huts was a sufficient proof of their understanding the estimation in which the crime was held by us. Until the affair was cleared up they would affect great readi- ness to show every article which they had got from the ships, repeating the name of the donor with great warmth, as if offended at our suspicions, yet with a half -smile on their countenances at our supposed credulity in believing them. There was, indeed, at all times some degree of trick and cunning in this show of openness and candour ; and they would at times bring back some very trifling article that had been given them, tendering it as a sort of expiation for the theft of another much more valuable. When a search was making they would invent all sorts of lies to screen themselves, not caring on whom besides the imputation fell ; and more than once they directed our people to the apartments of others who were innocent of ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 151 of their to the jcription espected jossess is irly part i favour- some of red even 3elong to r at least ible. As aptations honesty, nitted by r them, pcasioned •standing 8. Until at readi- from the warmth, smile on leiieving ree of andour ; trifling I, sort of aluable. sorts of Isides the Icted our ocent of the offence in question. If they really knew the offender, they were generally ready enough to inform against him, and this with an air of affected secrecy and mysterious importance ; and, as if the dishonesty of another consti- tuted a virtue in themselves, they would repeat this information frequently, perhaps for a month afterwards, setting up their neighbour's offence as a foil to their own pretended honesty. In appreciating the character of these people for honesty, however, we must not fail to make due allow- ance for the degree of temptation to which they wore daily exposed amidst the boundless stores of wealth which our ships appeared to them to furnish. To draw a parallel case, we must suppose a European of the lower class suffered to roam about amidst hoards of gold and silver ; for nothing less valuable can be justly compared with the wood and iron that everywhere presented them- selves to their view on board the ships. The European and the Esquimaux who, in cases so similar, both resist the temptation of stealing, must be considered pretty nearly on a par in the scale of honesty ; and judging in this manner, the balance might possibly be found in favour of the latter when compared with any similar number of Europeans taken at random from the lower class. In what has been hitherto said, regard has been had only to their dealings with iif}. In their transactions among themselves there is no doubt that, except in one or two privileged cases, such as that of destitute widows, the strictest honesty prevails, and that as regards the good of their own community they are generally honest people. We have in numberless instances sent present* by one to another, and invariably found that they had 152 ACCOU>^T OF THE ESQUIMAUX. n-i i been faithfully delivored. The manner in which their various implements are frequently left outside their huts is a proof, indeed, that robbery is scarcely known among them. It is true that there is not an article in the pos- session of one of them of which any of the rest will not readily name the owner, and the detection of a theft would therefore be certain and immediate. Certainty of detection, however, among a lawless and ferocious people, instead of preventing rcbbery, would more probably add violence and murder lo the first crime, and the strongest would ultimately gain the upper hand. We cannot, therefore, but admire the undisturbed security in which these people hold their property without having recourse to any restraint beyond that which is incurred by the tacitly received law of mutual forbearance. In the barter of their various commodities their deal- ings with us were fair and upright, though latterly they were by no means backward or inexpert in driving a bargain. The absurd and childish exchanges which they at first made with our people induced them subse- quently to complain that the Kabloonas had stolen their things, though the profit had been eventually a hundred- fold in their favour. Many such complaints were made when the only fault in the purchaser had been excessive liberality, and frequently also as a retort by way of ward- ing off the imputation of some dishonesty of their own. A trick not uncommon with the women was to endeavour to excite the commiso ration and to tax the bounty of one person by relating some cruel theft of this kind that had, as they said, been practised upon them by another. One •day, after I had bought a knife of Togoiat, she told Captain Lyon, in a most piteous tone, that Parrve had stolen her last ooloo^ that she did not know what to do ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX. 155 Without one, and, at length coming to the point, begged. him to give her one Presently after this, her husband coming in and asking for something to eat, she handed, him some meat accompanied by a very fine ooloo. Her son, being thus reminded of eating, made the same re- quest, upon which a second knife was produced, and, immediately after, a third of the same kind for herself. Captain Lyon, having amused himself in watching these- proceedings, which so well confirmed the truth of the proverb that certain people ought to have good memories,, now took the knives, one by one, out of their hands, and holding them up to Togolat, asked her if Parree had not stolen her last ooloo. A hearty laugh all round was the only notice taken by them of this direct detection of the- deceit. The confidence which they really placed in us was^ daily and hourly evinced by their leaving their fishing gear stuck in the snow all round the ships ; and not u> single instance occurred, to my knowledge, of any theft committed on their property. The licking of the articles^ received from us was not so common with them as with Esquimaux in general, and this practice was latterly almost entirely left off by them. Among the unfavourable traits in their character muste be reckoned an extreme disposition to envy, which dis- played itself on various occasions during our intercourse with them. If we had made any presents in one hut, the- inmates of the next would not fail to tell us of it, accom- panying their remarks with some satirical observation, too unequivocally expressed to be mistaken, and generally by some stroke of irony directed against the favoured person. If any individual with whom we had been intimate* happened to be implicated 'in a theft, the circumstance 1.54 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. became a subject of satisfaction too manifest to be re- pressed, and we were told of it with expressions of the moat triumphant exultation on every occasion. It was indeed curious, though ridiculous, to observe that, even among these simple people, and in this obscure corner of the globe, that little gossip and scandal so commonly practised in small societies among us were very frequently displayed. This was especially the case with the women, of whom it was not uncommon to see a group sitting in a hut for hours together, each relating her quota of in- formation, now and then mimicking the persons of v/hom they spoke, and interlarding their stories with jokes evidently at the expense of their absent neighbours, though to their own infinite amusement. In extenuation, however, of these faults, it must be allowed that we were ourselves the exciting cause which called them into action, and without which they would be comparatively of rare occurrence among them. Like every other child of Adam, they undoubtedly possess their share of the seeds of these human frailties ; but even in this respect they need not shrink from a comparison with ourselves, for who among us can venture to assure him- self that if exposed to similar temptations he would not be found wan tin g ? To another failing to which they are addicted the same excuse will not so forcibly apply, as in this respect our acquaintance with them naturally furnishes an oppor- tunity for the practice of a virtue, rather than for the development of its opposite vice. I have already, in the course of the foregoing narrative, hinted at the want of gratitude evinced by these people in their transactions with us. Among themselves, almost the only case in which this sentiment can have any field for exertion is i ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUT. 15.^ 3 be re- , of the It was it, even )rner of mraonly jquently women, itting iu ta of in- oi whom bh jokes ghbours, must be se which py would n. Like jess their even in son with ire him- ould not in the conduct of children towards their parents, r>nd in. this respect, as I shall presently have occasion to notice, their gratitude is by no means conspicuous. Anything like a free gift is very little, if at all, known among them. If A gives B a part of his seal to-day, the latter soon re- turns an equal quantity when he is the successful fisher- man. Uncertain as their mode of living is, and dependent as they are upon each other's exertions, this custom is the- evideni; and unquestionable interest of all. The regula- tion does credit to their wisdom, but has nothing to da with their generosity. ThiS being the case, it might be- supposed that our numerous presents, for which no return was asked, would have excited in them somethir like thankfulness, combined with admiration ; but this was so little the case that the coyenna (thanks) which did now and then escape them, expressed much less than even the most common-place " thank ye " of civilised society. Some exceptions, for they were only exceptions, and rare ones, to this rule have been mentioned as they occurred ; but, in general, however considerable the benefit conferred, it was forgotten in a day ; and this f orgetf ulness was not unfrequently aggravated by their giving out that their benefactor had been so shabby as to make them no pre- sent at all. Even those individuals who, either from good behaviour or superior intelligence, had been most noticed by us, and particularly such as had slept on board the ships, and whether in health or sickness had received the most friendly treatment from everybody, were in general just as indifferent as the rest ; and I do not believe that any one amongst them would have gone half a mile out of his road, or have sacrificed the most trivial self-gratifi- cation, to have served us. Though the riches lay on our side, they possessed abundant means of making some 15C ACCOUNT OF THK ESQUIMAUX. I; 111 m norainal return, which, for the sake of the principle that prompted it, would of course have been gratifying to us. Okotook and Iligliuk, whom T had most loaded with pre- sents, and who Lad never offered mo a single free gift in return, put into my hand, at the time of their first re- moval from Winter Island, a dirty crooked model of a spear, so shabbily constructed that it had probably been already refused as an article of barter by many of the ship's company. On ray accepting this, from an un- willingness to affront them, they were uneasy and dis- satisfied till I had given them something in return, though their hands were full of the presents which I had just made them. Selfishness is, in fact, almost without ex- -ception their universal characteristic, and ohe mrin-spring of all their actions, and that, too, of a kind the most direct and unamiable that can well be imagined. In the few opportunities we had of putting their hospi- tality to the test, we had every reason to be pleased with them. Both as to food and accommodation, the best they had were always at our service ; and their attention, both in kind and degree, was everything that hospitality and «ven good breeding could «lictate. The kindly offices of drying and mending our clothes, cooking our provision, and thawing «now i<.r our drink were performed by the v^romen with an obliging cheerfulness which we shall not easily forget, and which commanded its due share of our xidmiration and esteem. While thus their guest, I have passed an evening not only with comfort, but with ex- treme gratification ; for with the women working and singing, thoir husbands quietly mending their lines, the children playing before the door, and the pot boiling over the blaze of a cheerful lamp, one might well forget for ijhe time that an Esquimaux hut was the scene of this ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAU?:. 157 plc that Ig to U8. ^rith pre- le gift in first re- »del of a kbly been y of the an un- and dis- 1, though had just bhout ex- in-spring the moat eir hospi- ised with best they ion, both [ality and loffices of revision, |d by the (shall not ire of our I have Iwith ex- ing and ines, the ing over rget for of thifl domestic comfort and tranciuillity ; and I can safoly attain with Cartwright, that, while thus lodged beneath their roof, I know no people whom I would more contidt;iJtly trust, as respects either my person or my property, than the Esquimaux. It is painful, and may jwjrhaps be con- sidered invidious after this, to inquire how far their hos- pitality would in all probability be extended if interest were wholly separated from its practice, and a stranger were destitute and unlikely soon to repay them, lint truth obliges me to confess that, from the extreme st Itisb- ness of their general conduct, as well as from th» ir bi;- haviour in some instances to th' destitute of their own tribe. I should be sorry to lie under the necessity of thus drawing very largely on their bounty. The estimation in which women are held among those people is. I think, somewhat greater than is usual in savage life. In their general employments they are by no means the drudges that the wives of the Greenlanderr^ are said to be ; being occupied only in those cares which may properly be called domestic, and as such are con- sidered the peculiar business of the women among the lower classes in civilised society. The wife of one of thcsn people, for instance, makes and attends the Are, cooks the victuals, looks after the children, and is sempstress to h*>v whole family ; while her husband is labouring abroad lor their subsistence. In this respect it is not even necessary to except their task of cutting up the small seals, which is, in truth, one of the greatest luxuries and privileges they enjoy ; and even if it were esteemed a labouj-. it could scarcely be considered equivalent to that of the women in many of our own fishing-towns, where the men's business is at an end the moment the boat touches the beach. The most laborious of their tasks occurs ir>8 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. r p-rhapH in making their various journeys, when all their (ifowls nnd chattels are to Ix; removcni at once, and when each individual munt undoubtedly perform a full share" of the general labour. The women are, however, good walkers, and not easily fatigued ; for we have several times known a young woman of two-and-twenty, with a child in her hood, walk twelve miles to the ships and back again the same day for the sake of a little bread-dust and a tin canister. When stationary in the winter, they have re.ally almost a sinecure of it, sitting quietly in their hute, and having little or no employment for the greater part of the day. In short, there are few, if any, people in this state of society among whom the women are so well oflF. They always sit upon the beds with their legn doubled nnder them, and are uneasy in the posture usual with us. The men sometimes sit as we do, but more generally with their leg.«i crossed before them. The women do not appear to be in general very prolific. Illumea, indeed, had borne seven children, but no second instance of an equal number in one family afterwards came to our knowledge ; three or four is about the usual number. They are, according to their own account, in the habit of suckling their children to the age of three years ; but we have seen' a child of five occasionally at the breast, though they are dismissed from the mother's hood at about the former age. The time of weaning them must of course, in some instances, depend on the mother's again becoming pregnant, and if this succeeds quickly it must, as Crantz relates of the Greenlanders, go hard with OTiG of the infants. Nature, however, seems to be kind to them in this respect, for we did not witness one instance, nor hear of any, in which a woman was put to this in- convenience and distress. It is not uncommon to see one ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX. ir)9 all their md when nil share- ver, good e several by, with a and back l-dust and they have their hute, ?ater part pie in this well off. jy doubled il with us. Tally with iry prolific, no second .fterwards the usual .ccount, in of three donally at mother's ing them mother's [quickly ii» Ihard with le kind to instance, lo this in- to see onp ■woman suckling the child of anothor, while the latter happoHH to hv. employed in her other domestic oocupatiouH. They are in iho habit also of feeding their younger child- ren from their own mouths, nofteuing the food by mas- tication, and then turning thoir heads round, so that the infant in the liood may put its lips to theirs. Tiie cliill is taken from water for them in the same manner, and some fathers are very fond of taking their children on their knees and thus feeding them. The women are more uld sob for the indiffer- ey bear the ,'hen carried tlier young an Engliah of the same uperb baby- xture hut of lers lamp to ts make for nen, habited a variety of nee to their spears, and , mentioned not only by ome of their two strips sads, just as boys do in England to make the same peculiar humming sound. They will dispose one piece of wood on another, as an axis, in such a manner that the wind turns it round like the arms of a windmill ; and so of many other toys of the same simple kind. These are the distinct property of the children, who will sometimes sell them while their parents look on, without interfering or ex- pecting to be consulted. When not more than eight years old the boys are taken by their fathers on their sealing excursions, where they begin to learn their future business ; and even at that early age they are occasionally intrusted to bring home a sledge and dogs from a distance of several miles over the ice. At the age of eleven we see a boy with his water- tight boots and mocassins, a spear in his hand, and a small coil of line at his back, accompanying the men to the fishery, under every circumstance ; and from thin time his services daily increase in value to the whole tribe. On our first intercourse with them we supposed that they would not unwillingly have parted with their children in consideration of some valuable present, but in this we afterwards found that we were much mistaken. Happening one day to call myself Toolooak's attata (father), and pretend that he was to remain with me on board the ship, I received from the old man, his father, no other answer than what seemed to be very strongly and even satirically implied, by his taking one of our gentlemen by the arm and calling him his son ; thus intimating that the adoption which he proposed was as feasible and as natural as my own. ' The custom of adoption is carried to very great lengths among these people, and served to explain to us several apparent inconsistencies with respect to their relation- •» I fl 164 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. fihips. The adoption ci o, child in civilised countries has usually lor its motive either a tenderness for the object itself, or some affection or pity for its deceased, helpless, or unknovm parents. Among the Esquimaux, however, with whom the two first of these causes would prove but little excitement, and the last can have no place, the custom owes its origin entirely to the obvious advan- tage of thus providing for a man's own subsistence in advanced life ; and it is cont^quently confined almost without exception to the adoption of sons, who can alone contribute materially to the support of an aged and infirm parent. When a man adopts the son of another as his own, he is said to " tegoj'" or take him ; and at whatever age this is done (though it generally happens in infancy), the child then lives with his new parents, calls them father and mother, is sometimes even ignorant of any such transfer having been made, especially if his real parents should be dead ; and whether he knows it or not, is not always willing to acknowledge any but those with whom he lives. Without imputing much to the natural affection of these people for their offspring, which, like their other passions, is certainly not remark- able for its strength, there would seem, on the score of disinterestedness, a degree of consideration in a man's thus giving his son to another, which is scarcely com- patible with the general selfishness of the Esquimaux character ; but there is reason to suppose that the expediency of this measure is sometimes suggested by a deficiency of the mother's milk, and not unfrequently perhaps by the premature death of the real parent. The agreement seems to be always made between the fathers, and to differ in no respect from the transfer of other property, except that none can equal in value the property ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 165 itries has he object , helpless, however, prove but place, the IS advan- Lstence in ed almost can alone aged and )f another 1 ; and at y happens w parents, n ignorant ally if his nows it or but those ich to the offspring, )t remark- 18 score of n a man's rcely corn- Esquimaux that the ested by a frequently rent. The he fathers, 3r of other le property thus disposed of. The good sense, good fortune, or exten- sive claims of some individuals were particularly apparent in this way, from the number of sons they had adopted. Toolemak, deriving perhaps some advantage from his qualifications as Angetkook, had taken care to negotiate for the adoption of some of the finest male children of the tribe ; a provision which now appeared the more necessary from his having lost four children of his own, besides Noogloo, who was one of his tef/o''d sons. In one of the two instances that came to our knowledge of the adoption of a female child, both its own parents were still living, nor could we ascertain the motive for this deviation from the more general custom. In their behaviour to old people, whose age or infirm- ities render them useless and therefore burdensome to the community, the Esquimaux betray a degree of insen- sibility, bordering on inhumanity, and ill-repaying the kindness of an indulgent parent. The old man Hikkeiera, who was very ill during the winter, used to lie day after day little regarded by his wife, son, daughter, and other relatives, except that his wretched state copstituted, as they well knew, a forcible claim upon our charity ; and, with this view, is was sure to excite a whine of sympathy and commiseration whenever we visited or spoke of him. When, however, a journey of ten miles was to be per- formed over the ice, they left him to find his way with a stick in the best manner he could, while the young and robust ones were many of them drawn on sledges. There is, indeed, no doubt that, had their necessities or mode of life required a longer journey than he could thufc have accomplished, they would have pushed on like the Indians and left a fellow-creature to perish. It was certainly considered incumbent on his son to support him, IGf^ ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. hi and he was fortunate in that son's being a very pood man ; but a few more such journeys to a man of seventy would not impose this incumbrance upon him much longer. Illumea, the mother of several grown-up children, lived also in the same apartment with her youngest son, and in the same hut with her other relations. She did not, however, interfere, as in Greenland, with the manage- ment of her son's domestic concerns, though his wife was half an idiot. She was always badly clothed, and even in the midst of plenty not particularly wel] fed, receiving everything more as an act of charity than otherwise ; and she will probably be less and less attended to in pro- portion as she stands more in need of assistance. The different families appear always to live on good terms with each other, though each preserves its own habitation and property as distinct and independent ah any housekeeper in England. The persons living under one roof, who are generally closely related, maintain a degree of harmony among themselves which is scarcely ever disturbed. The more turbulent passions, which when unrestrained by religious principle or unchecked by the dread of human punishment, usually create so much havoc in the world, soem to be very seldom excited in the breasts of these people, which renders personal violence or immoderate anger extremely rare among them ; and one may sit in a hut for a whole day, and never witness an angry word or look, except in driving out the dogs. If they take an offence, it is more common for them to show it by the more quiet method of sulki- ness ; and this they now and then tried as a matter of experiment with us. Okotook, who was often in this humour, once displayed it to some of our gentlemen in his own hut, by turning his back and frequently i i ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 167 rery pfood ►f seventy im much 3 children, .ngest son, . She did .e manage- 8 wife was I, and even I, receiving otherwise ; to in pro- le. 76 on good 'es its own 'pendent as ving under maintain a is scarcely ons, which unchecked y create so om excited irs personal are among le day, and in driving 3re common )d of sulki- a matter of ten in this gentlemen frequently repeating the expression " Good-bye," as a broad liint to them to go away. Toolooak was also a little given to this mood, but never retained it long, and there was no malice mixed with his displeasure. One evening that he slept on board the Fury he either offended xMr. Skeoch, or thought that he had done so, by this kind of humour ; at all events, they parted for the night without any formal reconciliation. The next morning Mr. Skeoch was awakened at an unusually early hour by Toolooak's entering his cabin and taking hold of his hand to shake it by way of making up the supposed quarrel. On a disposition thus naturally charitable, what might not Christian education and Christian principles effect ! Where a joke is evidently intended, I never knew »)jople more ready to join in it than these are. If ridiculed for any particularity of manner, figure, or c< .intenance, they are sure not to be long behindhand m returning it, and that very often with interest. If we were the ag- gressors in this way, some ironical observation respecting the KaMoonas was frequently the consequence ; and no small portion of wit as well as irony was at times mixed with their raillery. In point of intellect, as well as disposition, great variety was of course perceptible among the different individuals of this tribe ; but few of them were want~ ing in that respect. Some, indeed, possessed a degree of natural quickness and intelligence which perhaps could hardly be surpassed in the natives of any country. Ilig- liuk, though one of the least amiable, was particularly thus gifted. When she really wished to develop our meaning, she would desire her husband and all the rest to hold their tongues, and would generally make it out while they were puzzling their heads to no purpose, lu 168 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. pr i' W' retaining her answers, the very expression of her coun- tenance, though one of the plainest among them, was almost of itself sufficient to convey her meaning ; and there was in .these cases a peculiar decisive energy in her manner of speaking, which was extremely inter- esting: This woman would indeed have easily learned ft?i,T; rag to which she chose to direct her attention ; and hm hiy; lot been cast in a civilised country instead of tk ,j drta v region, which serves alike to " freeze the genial current of the soul" and body, she would probably have ])een a very clever person. For want of a sufficient object, however, neither she nor any of her companions^ eve: learned a dozen words of English, except our names, with which it was their interest to be familiar, and which, long before we left them, any child could repeat, though in their own style of pronunciation. Besides the natural authority of parents and husbands, these people appear to admit no kind of superiority among one another, except a certain degree of super- stitious reverence for their angrtkooka, and their tacitly following the counsel or steps of the most active seal- catcher on their hunting excursions. The word nallegaky used in Greenland to express '• master," and " lord " in the Esquimaux translations of the Scriptures, they were not acquainted with. One of the young men at Winter Island appeared to be con idered somewhat in the light of a servant to Okotook, living with the latter, and quietly allowing him to take possession of all the most valuable presents which he received from us. Being a sociable people, they unite in considerable numbers to form a settlement for the winter ; but on the return of spring they again separate into several parties, each ap- pearing to choose his own route, without regard to that ■J \ \ ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 169 aer ooun- hem, was ling ; and energy in ely inter- ly learned tion ; and instead of freeze the [1 probably a, sufficient lompaniont* our names, niliar, and uld repeat, pi husbands, superiority e of super- heir tacitly active seal- rd nallegaky I « lord " in 3, they were 1 at Winter in the light latter, and ,11 the most lis. Being a numbers to he return of ies, each ap- rard to that of the rest, but all making their arrangements without the alightest disagreement or difference of opinion t' t we could ever discover. In- all their movements t>i«y seem to be actuated by one simultaneous feeling that is truly admirable. Superior as our arts, contrivances, and materials must unquestionably have appeared to them, and eager as they were to profit by this superiority, yet, contradictory as it may seem, they certainly looked upon us in many respects with profound contempt, -naintaining that idea of self-sufficiency which has indu ^et them, in common with the rest of their nation, to all emselves, by way of distinction, Inniicr, or manki' .' One day, for instance, in securing some of the gear of a >ledge, Okotook broke a part of it composed of a pie o' our white line, and I shall never forget the contemptuous sneer with which he muttered in soliloquy the word *' Kabloona ! " in token of the inferiority of our materials to his own. It is happy, perhaps, when people possessing so few of the good things of this life can be thus contented with the little allotted them. The men, though low in stature, are not wanting in muscular strength in proportion to their size, or in activity and hardiness. They are good and even quick walkers, and occasionally bear much bodily fatigue, wet, and cold, without appearing to suffer by it, much less to complain of it. Whatever labour they have gone through, and with whatever success in procuring game, no in- dividual ever seems to arrogate to himself the credit of having done more than his neighbour for the general good. Nor do I conceive there is reason to doubt their personal courage, though they are too good-natured often to excite others to put that quality to the test. It 170 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. k\ ii. ■ I is true, they will recoil with horror at the tale of an Indian massacre, and probably cannot conceivv what should induce one set of men deliberately and without provocation to murder another. War is not their trade ; ferocity forms no part of the disposition of the Es- quimaux. Whatever manly qualities they possess are exercised in a different way, and put to a far more worthy purpose. They are fishermen, and not warriors ; but I cannot call that man a coward who, at the age of one-and-twenty, will attack a Polar bear single-handed, or fearlessly commit himself to floating masses of ice which the next puff of wind may drift for ever from the shore. If, in short, they are deficient in some of the higher virtues, as they are called, of savage life, they are cer- tainly free also from some of its blackest vices ; and their want of brilliant qualities is fully compensated by those which, while they dazzle less, do more service to society and more honour to human nature. If, for instance, they have not the magnanimity which would enable them to endure without a murmur the most excruciating torture, neither have they the ferocious cruelty that incites a man to inflict that torture on a helpless fellow-creature. If their gratitude for favours be not lively nor lasting, neither is their resentment of injuries implacable, nor their hatred deadly. I do not say there are not excep- tions to this rule, though we have never witnessed any ; but it is assuredly not their general character. When viewed more nearly in their domestic rela- tions, the comparison will, I believe, be still more in their favour. It is here as a social being, as a husband and the father of a family, promoting within his own little sphere the benefit of that community in which ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 171 tale of an eivv what .d without kieir trade ; )f the Efl- lossess are far more t warriors ; the age of gle-handed, isses of ico er from the the higher aey are cer- i ; and their ted by those e to society istance, they ,ble them to ing torture, icites a man reature. If nor lasting, lacable, nor not excep- nessed any ; ■ • mestio rela- iill more in ,s a husband lin his own by in which Providence has cast his lot. that the moral character of a savage is truly to be sought ; and who can turn without horror from the Esquimaux, peaceably seated after a day of honest labour with his wife and children in thoir snow-built hut, to the self-willed and vindictive Indian, wantonly plunging his dagger into the bosom of the helpless woman whom nature bids him cherish and protect ! Of the few arts possessed by this simple people some account has already been given in the description of their various implements. As mechanics, they have little to boast when compared with other savages lying under equal disadvantages as to scantiness of tools and materials. As carpenters, they can scarf two pieces of wood together, secure them with pins of whalebone or ivory, fashion the timbers of a canoe, shoe a paddle, and rivet a scrap of iron into a spear or arrow head. Their principal tool is the knife (patina), and, considering the excellence of a great number which they possessed previous to our inter- course with them, the work they do is remarkably coarse and clumsy. Their very manner of holding and handling a knife is the most awkward that can be imagined. For the purpose of boring holes they have a drill and bow so exactly like our own that they need no further descrip- tion, except that the end of the drill-handle, which our artists place against their breast, is rested by these people against a piece of wood or bone held in their mouths, and having a cavity fitted to receive it. With the use of the saw they were well acquainted, but had nothing of this kind in their possession better than a notched piece of iron. One or two small European axes were lashed to handles in a contrary direction to ours ; that is, to be used like an adze, a form which, according to the observati^a 172 ACCOUNT OF THE E8QUIMAUX. ":]•! ' 2 V' of a traveller well qualified to judge, savages in general prefer. It was said that these people steamed or boiled wood in order to bend it for fashioning the timbers of their canoes. As fishermen or seamen, they can put on a woolding or seizing with sufficient strength and security, and are acquainted with some of the most simple and serviceable knots in use among us. In all the arts, how- ever, practised by the men, it is observable that the ingenuity lies in the principle, not in the execution. The experience of a.^es has led them to adopt the most effica- cious methods, but their practice as handicrafts has gone no further than absolute necessity requires ; they besto>^ little labour upon neatness or ornament. In some of the few arts practised by the women there is much more dexterity displayed, [particularly in that important liranch of a housewife's business, sewing, which even with their own clumsy needles of bone they perform with extraordinary neatness. They had, however, several steel needles of a three-cornered shape, which they kept in a very convenient case, consisting of a strip of leather passed through a hollow bone and having its ends remain« ing out, so that the needles which are stuck into it may be drawn in and out at pleasure. These cases were some- times ornamented by cutting ; and several thimbles of leather, one of which in sewing is worn on the first finger, are usually attached to it, together with a bunch of narrow spoons and other small articles liable to be lost. The thread they use is the sinew of the reindeer (tooktoo Stvdlldo), or, when they cannot procure this, the swallow-pipe of the nfitiek. This may be split into threads of different sizes, according to the nature of their work, and is certainly a most admirable material. This, together with any other articles of a similar kind, tiiey t • I ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX. 171^ n general or boiled limbers of in put on i security, imple and arts, how- that the Ltion, The aost effica- s has gone hey bestoT^ jmen there rly in that ving, which Ley perform iver, several they kept of leather |nds remain- into it may were some- thimbles of ►n the first lith a bunch lliable to be ;he reindeer •e this, the split into iure of their Tial. This, kind, they keep in little bags, which are sometimes made of the »kin of birds' feet, disposed with the claws downwards in a very neat and tasteful manner. In sowing, the point of the needle is entered and drawn through in a direction towards the body, and not from i ; or towards one side, as with our sempstresses. They sew the deei-hkins with a " round seam," and the waiter- tight boots and shoes are *' stitched." The latter is performed in a very adroit and efficacious manner, by putting the needle only half through the substance of one part of the seal-skin, so as to leave r"> hole for admitting the water. In cutting out the clothes, the women do it after one regular and uniform pattern, which probably descends unaltered from generation to generation. The skin of the deer's head is always made to form the apex of the hood, while that of the neck and shoulders comes down the back of the jacket ; and so of every other part of the animal, which is appropriated to its particular portion of the dress. To soften the seal-skins of which the boots, shoes, and mittens are made, the women chew them for an hour or two together, and the young girls are often seen em- ployed in thus preparing the materials for their mothers. The covering of the canoes is a part of the women's business, in which good workmanship is especially necessary to render the whole smooth and water-tight. The skins, which are those of the neitiek only, are pre- pared by scraping off the hair and the fleshy parts with an ooloo, and stretching them out tight on a frame, in which state they are left over the lamps or in the sun for several days to dry ; and after this they are well chewed by the women to make them fit for working. Th'^ dressing^ of leather and of skins in the hair Is an art v^hich the women have brought to no inoonaiderable de^r 3 of Ih: 174 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. r ! ' I perfection. They perform this by first cleansing the skin from as much of the fat and fleshy matter as the ouloo will take off, and then rubbing it hard for several hours with a blunt scraper, called sidliddt, so as nearly to dry it. It is then put into a vessel containing urine, and left to steep a couple of days, after which a drying completes the process. Skins dressed in the hair are, however, not always thus steeped ; the women, instead of this, chewing them for hours together, till they are quite soft and clean. Some of the leather thus dressed looked nearly as well a« ours, and the hair was as firmly fixed to the pelt ; but there was in this respect a very great difference, according to the art or attention of the housewife. Dye- ing is an art wholly unknown to them. The women are very expert at platting, which is usually done with three threads of sinew ; if greater strength is required, several of these are twisted slackly together, as in the bow- strings. The quickness with which some of the women plat is really surprising ; and it is well that they do so, for the quantity required for the bows alone would otherwise occupy half the year in completing it. It may be supposed that among so cheerful a people as the Esquimaux there are many games or sports practised ; indeed, it was rarely that we visited their habitations without seeing some engaged in them. One of these our gentlemen saw at Winter Island, on an occasion when most of the men were absent from the huts on a sealing excursion, and in this Iligliuk was the chief performer. Being requested to am.use them in this way, she sud- denly unbound her hair, platted it, tied both ends to- gether to keep it out of her way, and then, stepping out into the middle of the hut, began to make the most hideous faces that can be conceived, by drawing both ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 1 ^ " the skin the ooloo al hours to dry it. a left to jompletes rever, not , chewing soft and nearly as the pelt ; iifference, Lfe. Dye- iromen are vith three ed, several the bow- he women :hey do so, >ne would people as practised ; abitations these our aion when 1 a sealing performer. she aud- ends to- epping out the most wing both lips into her mouth, poking forward her chin, squinting frightfully, occasionally shutting one eye, and moving her head from side to side as if her neck had been dis- located. This exhibition, which they call dydklt'tdli-pokv, and which is evidently considered an accomplishment that few of them possess in perfection, distorts every feature in the most horrible manner imaginable, and would, I think, put our most skilful horse-collar grinners quite out of countenance. The next performance consists in looking stedfastly and gravely forward and repeating the words tAbdh- tdbaliy lieihu-heihOy lie-hdng-e-nn'td-eek, heboAigenutoeeli, dmdtdmd, amatOjma^ in the order in which they are here placed, but each at least four times, and always by a peculiar modulation of the voice, speaking them in pairs, as they are coupled above. The sound is made to pro- ceed from the throat in a way much resembling ven- triloquism, to v^hich art it is indeed an approach. After the last amatama Iligliuk always pointed with her finger towards her body, and pronounced the word angetkooli, steadily retaining her gravity for five or six seconds, and then bursting into a loud laugh, in which she was joined by all the rest. The women sometimes produce a much more guttural and unnatural sound, repeating principally the word Ikkeree-ihkerec, coupling them as before, and staring in such a manner as to make their eyes appear ready to burst out of their sockets with the exertion. Two or more of them will sometimes stand up face to face, and with great quickness and regularity respond to each other, keeping such exact time that the sound ap- pears to come from one throat instead of several. Very few of the females are possessed of this accomplishment, which is called jiitlioo-she-rdli-pohe, and it is not un- 176 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. ccmmon to see several of the younger females practising it. A third part of the game, distinguished by the word heitlk'poke^ consists only in falling on each knee alter- nately, a piece of agility which they perform with toler- able quickness, considering the bulky and awkward nature of their dress. The last kind of individual exhibition was stilf per- formed by Iligliuk, to whom in this, as in almost every thing else, the other women tacitly acknowledged their inferiority, by quietly giving place to her on every oc- casion. She now once more came forward, and letting her arms hang down loosely and bending her body very much forward, E\hook herself with extreme violence, as if her whole frame had been strongly convulsed, uttering at the same time, in a wild tone of voice, some of the unnatural sounds before mentioned. This being at an end, a new exhibition was commenced, in which ten or twelve women took a part, and which our gentlemen compared to blind man's buff. A circle being formed, and a boy despatched to look out at the door of the hut, Iligliuk, still the principal actress, placed herself in the centre, and after making a variety of gut- tural Qoises for about half a minute, shut her eyes, and ran aoout till she had taken hold of one of the others, whose business it then became to take her station in the centre, so that almost every womar L ler turn occupied this post, and in her own peculiar way, either by dis- tortion of countenance or other gestures, perforiiied her part in the game. This continued three-quarters of an hour, and, from the precaution of placing a look-out, who was withdrawn when it was over, as well as from some very expressive signs which need not here be mentioned, there is reason to believe that it is usually ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 177 ractising the word lee alfcer- ith toler- iwkward still per- lost every ged their every oc- id letting body very 3iice, as if ,, uttering ne of the mmenced, nd which A circle ut at the ess, placed ,y of gut- ej'es, and he others, lion in the 1 occupied er by dia- criiied her ierB of an look-out, 11 as from b here be is usually followed by certain indecencies, with which their husbands are not to be acquainted. Kaoongut was present indeed on this occasion, but his age seemed to render him a ])rivileged person ; besides which his own wife did not join in the game. The most common amusement, however, and to which their husbands made no objection, they performed at Winter Island expressly for our gratification. The females, being collected to the number of ten or twelve, stood in as large a circle as the hut would admit, >vith Okotook in the centre. He began by a sort of half-howl- ing, half-singing noise, which appeared as if designed to call the attention of the women, the latter soon com- mencing the AiNTia Ay a song hereafter described. This they continued without variety, remaining quite still while Okotook walked round within the circle ; his body was rather bent forward, his eyes sometimes closed, his arms constantly moving up and down, and now and then hoarsely vociferating a word or two, as if to increase the animation of the singers, who, whenever he did this, quitted the chorus and rose into the words of the song. At the end of ten minut;es they all left off at once, and, after one minute's interval commenced a second act pre- cisely similar and of equal duration, Okotook continuing to invoke their Muse as before. A third act which fol- lowed this varied only in his frequently towards the close throwing his feet up before and clapping his hands together, by which exertion he was thrown into a violent perspiration. He then retired, desiring a young man (who, as we were informed, was the only individual of several then present thus qualified) to take his place in the centre as master of the ceremonies, when the same antics as before were again gone through. After this 178 ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX. 1^^ I description it will scarcely be necessary to remark that nothing can be poorer in its way than this tedious sing- ing recreation, which, as well as everything in which dancing is concerned, they express by the word momdk" jwhe. They seem, however, to take great delight in it ; and even a number of the men, as well as all the children, crept into the hut by degrees to peej at the performance. The Esquimaux women and childien often amuse them- selves with a game not unlike our "skip-rope." This is performed by two women holding the ends of a line and whirling it* regularly round and round, while a third jumps over it in the middle according to the following order : — She commences by /imping twice on both feet, then alternately with the right and left, and nexi; four ^ times with the feet slipped one behind th(? otJier, the rope passing once round at each jump. After thi - she performs a circle on the ground, jumping about lialf-a-dozen times in the course of it, which bringing her to her original position, the same thing is repeated as often as it can be done without entangling the line, One or two of the women performed this with considerable agility and adroitness, conside^i;. .; he clumsiness of their boots and jackets, and weemed <<.» ^.vide themselves in some degree on the qualification. A second kind of this game consists in two women holding a long rope by its ends and whirling it round in such a manner, over the heads of two others standing close together near the middle of the bight, that each of these ^ shall jump over it alternately. The art therefore, which is indeed considerable, depends more on those whirling Jthe rope than on the jumpers, who are, however, obliged to keep exact time, in order to be ready for the rope passing under their feet. The '•r aole of these people, but especially the women, I 1 ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX. 179 ark that ous sing- n which womdk" ht in it ; children, orraance. use them- Thifl ia line and e a third following both feet, next four, r, the rope e performs lozen times 3r original a it can be bwo of the gility and boots and e degree on consists in whirling it two others bight, that '. The art is more oa :8, who are, ;o be ready the women, are fond of music, both vocal and instrumental. Some of them might be said to be passionately so, removing their hair from off their ears and bending their heads forward, as if to catch the sounds more distinctly, whenever we amused them in this manner. Their own music is entirely vocal, unless indeed' the drum or tjimbourine before mentioned be considered an exception. The voices of the women are soft and feminine, and when singing with the men are pitched an octave higher than theirs. They have most of them so far good ears that, in whatever key a song is commenced by one of them, the rest will always join in perfect unison. After singing for ten minutes, the key had usually fallen a full semitone. Only two of them, of whom Iligliuk was one, could catch the tune as pitched by an instrument ; which made it difficult with most of them to complete the writing of the notes, for if they once left off they were sure to re-commence in some other key, though a flute or violin were playing at the time. During the season passed at Winter Island, which appears to have been a healthy one to the Esquimaux, vve had little opportunity of becoming acquainted with tlie diseases to which they are subject. Our subseqv. r.t intercourse with a greater number of these people a,b Igloolik having unfortunately afforded more frequeii- and fatal instances of sickness among t' m, I here insert Mr. Edwards's remarks on this subject : — " Exempted as these people are fron. a host of diseases usually ascribed to the vitiated habits of more civilised life, as well as from those equally lumerous and more destructive ones engendered by the pestilential effluvia that float in the atmosphere of more favoured climes, the diversity of their maladies is, as might a jjriori be 180 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. $ inferred, very limited. But, unfortunately, that improvi- dence which is 80 remarkable in their kindred tribes is also with them proof against the repeated lessons of bitter experience they are doomed to endure. Alternate ex- cesses and privations mark their progress through life, and consequent misery in one or another shape is an active agent in effecting as much mischief amongst them as the diseases above alluded to produce in other countries. The mortality arising from a few diseases and wretched- ness combined, seems sufficient to check anything like a progressive increase of their numbeis. The great propor- tion of deaths to births that occurred during the period of our intercourse with them has already been noticed. '* Tt is doubtful in what proportion the mortality is directly occasioned by disease. Few perhaps die, in the strict sense of the term, a natural death. A married person of either sex rarely dies without leaving destitute 1, parent, a widow, or n- helpless female infant. To be deprived of near relations is to be deprived of everything ; such Tmfortunates are usually abandoned to their fate, and too generally perish. A widow .nd two or three children left under these circumstances were known to have (lied of inanition, from the neglect and apathy of their neighbours, who jeered at the commanders of our 8hip« on the failure of their humane endeavours to save what the Esquimaux considered as worthless. " Our first communication with these people at Winter Island rmve us a more favourable impression of their gericral health than subsequent experience confirmed. There . however, they were not free from sickness. A eati Thai uffection in the month of February became gent "ally prevalent, from which they readily recovered after the exciting caa:3es — intemperance and exposure to ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 181 improyi- tribes is } of bitter mate ex- 3ugh life, ipe is an igst them countries, wretched- iug like a at propor- the period loticed. ortality is lie, in the A married ? destitute ttt. To be ^erything ; their fate, or three known to apathy of lers of our irs to save 5 at Winter >n of their confirmed. Lckness. A iry became Y recovered exposure to wet — had ceased to operate. A solitary instance of pleurisy also occurred, which probably might have ended fatally but for timely assistance. Our intercourse with them in the summer was more interrupted ; but at our occasional meetings they were observed to be enjoying excellent health. It is probable that their certain supplies of food, and the nomad kind of life they lead in its pursuit during that season, are favourable to health. Nutrition goes on actively, and an astonishing increase of strength and ful- ness is acquired. Active diseavses might now be looked for, but that the powers of nature are providentially exerted with effect. "The unlimited use of stimulating animal food, on which they are from infancy fed, induces at an early age a highly plethoric state of the vascular system. The weaker over-distended vessels of the nose quickly yield to the increased impetus of fthe blood, and an active hemor- rhage relieves the subject. As'the same causes continue to be applied in excess at frequent intervals, and are fol- lowed by similar effects, a kind of vicarious hemorrhage at length becomes established by habit ; superseding the intervention of art, and having no small share in main- taining a balance in the circulating system. The phe- nomenon is too constant to have escaped the observation of those who have visited the different Esquimaux people ; a party of them has indeed rarely been seen that did not exhibit two or three instances of the fact. ♦' About the month of September the approach of winter induced the Esquimaux at Igloolik to abandon their tents and to retire into their more established village. The majority were here crowded into huts of a permanent construction, the materials composing the sides being stones a nd the bones of whales, and the roofs being formed 182 ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX. of skins, turf, and bdjw ; the rest of the people were lodged in snow-huts. For a while they continued very healthy ; in fact, as long as the temperature of the in- terior did not exceed the freezing-point, the vapours of the atmosphere congealed upon the walls, and the air remained dry and tolerably pure ; besides, their hard- frozen winter stock of walrus did not at this time tempt them to indulge their appetites immoderately. In January the temperature suffered an unseasonable rise, some suc- cessful captures of walrus also took place, and these cir- cumstances, combined perhaps with some superstitious customs, of which we were ignorant, seemed the signal for giving way to sensuality. The lamps were accumu- lated and the kettles more frequently replenished, and gluttony in its most disgusting form became for a while the order of the day. The Esquimaux were now seen wallowing in tilth, while some surfeited lay stretched upon their skins enormously distended, and with their friends employed in rolling them about to assist the operations of oppressed nature. The roofs of their huts were no longer congealed, but dripping with wet and threatening speedy dissolution. The air was in the bone- huts damp, hot, and, beyond sufferance, offensive with putrid exhalations from the decomposing relics of offals, or otlier animal matter, permitted to remain from year to year undisturbed in these horrible sinks. " What the consequences might have been had this state of affairs long continued, it is not difi&cult to imagine ; but, fortunately for them, an early and gradual dispersion took place, so that by the end of January few individuals were left in the village. The rest, in divided bodies, established themselves in snow-huts upon the sea-ice at some distance from the land. Before this change had p.e were ued very : the ill- pours of the air lir harcl- ne tempt January 5ome suc- these cir- erstitious he signal accumu- shed, and »r a while now seen stretched yith their assist the their huts* L wet and L the bone- isive with s of offals, 3m year to i this state I imagine ; dispersion ndividuals led bodies, ) sea-ice at hange had ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIRrAUX. 18:^ ■ l)een completed, disorders of an inflammatory character had appeared. A few went away sick, some were unable to remove, and others taken ill upon the ice, and we heard of the death of several about this period. "The cold snow-huts into which they had moved, though infinitely preferable to those abandoned, were ill- suited to the reception of people already sick or predis- IK)sed, from the above-named causes, to sickness ; many of them were also deficient in clothing to meet the rigo- rous weather that followed. Nevertheless, after this violent excitement had passed away, a comparatively good condition of health was enjoyed for the remainder of the winter and spring months. " Their distance from the ships at once precluded any effectual assistance being rendered them at their huts, and their removal on board with safety ; the complaints of those who died at the huts, therefore, did not com© uPider observation. It appears, however, to have been acute inflammation of some of the abdominal viscera, very rapid in its career. In the generality the disease assumed a more insidious and sub acute form, xmder which the patient lingered for a while, and was then either carried off by a diarrhoea or slowly recovered by the powers of nature. Three or four individuals who, with some risk and trouble, were brought to the ships, we were providentially instrumental in recovering ; but two others, almost helpless patients, were so far exhausted before their arrival that the endeavours used were un- successful, and death was probably hastened by their removal. ** Abdominal and thoracic inflammations, in fact, seem to be the only active diseases they have to encounter. A\Tiere a spontaneous recovery does not take place, these 184 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 'ifiii m \ prove fatal in a short time. The only instance amonj*' thorn of chronic sequels to those complaints occurred in an old man almost in dotage, whose feeble remains of life were wasting away by an ulceration of the lungs. " No traces of the cxanthematous disorders met our observation. A solitary case of epilepsy was seen in a deaf and dumb boy, who eventually died. Chronic rheu- matism occurs, but it is rare and not severe. I have .«omo doubt in saying that scurvy exists among them. A disease, however, having a close affinity to it was witnessed, but as in the only case that came fairly under our notice it was complicated with the symptoms of a previous debilitating disease, the diagnosis was difficult. During the patient's recovery from one of the abdominal iittacks above mentioned, the gums were observed to be spongy, separated from the teeth and reverted, bleeding, and in various parts presenting the livid appearance of scorbutic gums. At the same period arose pains of an anomalous description, and of considerable severity about the shoulders and thorax. These gradually yielded as he recovered strength, but were succeeded by other pains and tenderness of the bones and muscles of the thighs and legs. The ci .ric acid was given to him freely from the beginning, until it interfered with his appetite and bowels, when it was omitted. Topical applications were at the same time used, and afterwards continued. Signs of amendment appeared before it became necessary to withhold the vegetable acid, and it was not recurred to while he remained on board. Urged by impatience of control, he left us to join his countrymen before he had well regained his strength ; but we saw him on board several times afterwards in a progressive state of improve- ment, and, though yet weak, free from scorbutic symptoms. ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. i«r> 5e amonpT mrrtd in mairiH of ungi. met our Bocn in a nic rheu- lave Home them. A ) it was rly under x)ms of a \ difficult, tbdominal ved to be , bleeding, iarance of EtinB of an rity about Ided as he iher paina bhe thigha •eely from petite and tions were ed. Signs icessary to ecurred to )atience of )re he had I on board if improve- symptoms. Another inntance offered in a woman, whom T paw but once. Her gums were spongy and reverted, but not dis- coloured ; her countenance sallow, lips pal»', and nhe Buffered under general debility, without local pain or rigidity of the limbs. She remained in this state for a long time, and eventually, as the weather improved, recovered without assistance. '•That affection of the eyes known by the nam* of snow-blindness, fa extremely frequent among those people. With them it scarcely ever goes beyond i)aint'ul irrita- tion, whilst among strangers inflammation is sometimes the consequence. I have not seen them use any other remedy besides the exclusion of light ; but as a preventive a wooden eye-screen is worn, very simple in its construc- tion, consisting of a curved piece of wood six or sjven inches long and ten or twelve lines broad. It is tied over the eyes like a pair of spectacles, being adapted to the forehead and nose, and hollowed out to favour the motion of the eyelids. A few rays of light only are admitted through a narrow slit an inch long, cut opposite to each eye. This contrivance is more simple and quite as efficient as the more heavy one possessed ))y some who have been fortunate enough to acquire wood for the purpose. This is merely the former instrument com- plicated by the addition of a horizontal plate projecting three or four inches from its upper rim, like the peak of a jockey's cap. In Hudson's Strait the latter is common, and the former in Greenland, where also we are told they wear with advantage the simple horizontal peak alone. " There are upon the whole no people more destitute of curative means than t^ese. With the exception of the %^ " ^f^^ -,% -.^^ . IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 5^ // f/. 1.0 If f: llllM » IIM I.I i:^ m — 6" 2.0 1.8 11.25 11.4 ill 1.6 V] ' r V/ >!!^ 5^1 J o / Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 6^ 186 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. It 1 hemorrhage already mentioned, which they duly appre- ciate, and have been observed to excite artificially to cure head-ache, they are ignorant of any rational method of procuring relief. It has not been ascertained that they use a single herb medicinally. As prophylactics they wear amulets, which are usually the teeth, bones, or hair of some animal, the more rare apparently the more valu- able. In absolute sickness they depend entirely upon their Angekoks, who, they persuade themselves, have influence over some submarine deities who govern their destiny. The mummeries of these impostors, consisting in pretended consultations with their oracles, are looked upon with confidence, and their mandates, however absurd, superstitiously submitted to. These are consti- tuted of unmeaning ceremonies and prohibitions gener- ally affecting the diet, both in kind and mode, but never in quantity. Seal's flesh is forbidden, for instance, in one disease, that of the walrus in the other ; the heart is denied to some and the liver to others. A pc or woman, on discovering that the meat she had in her mouth was a piece of fried heart instead of the liver, appeared horror- struck ; and a man was in equal tribulation at having eaten, by mistake, a pi ace of meat cooked in his wife's kettle. "This charlatanerie, although we may ridicule the imposition, is not, however, with them, as it is with us, a positive evil. In the total absence of the medical art, it proves generally innoxious ; while in many instances it must be a source of real benefit and comfort, by buoying up the sick spirit with confident hopes of recover}'-, and eventually enabling the vital powers to rise superior to the malady, when, without such support, the sufferer it I in ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 187 y appre- to cure ethod of ihat they ;ics they or hair ore valu- jly upon '■es, have irn their !onsisting .re looked however re consti- ns gener- but never stance, in le heart is )r woman, >uth was a 3d horror- at having his wife's licule the with us, a Lcal art, it I stances it y buoying overy, and iuperior to e sufferer might have sunk under its weight. It was attempted to ascertain whether climate effected any difference in finimal heat between them and ourselves by frequently marking the temperature of the mouth ; but the experi- ments were necessarily made, as occasion offered, under such various states of vascular excitement, as to afford jiothing cor elusive. As it was, their temperature varied from 97° to 102**, coinciding pretty nearly with our own imder similar circumstances. The pulse offered nothing singular. " I may here remark that there is in many individuals a peculiarity about the eye, amounting in some instances to deformity, which I have not noticed elsewhere. It consists in the inner corner of the eye being entirely covered by a duplication of the adjacent loose skin of the eyelids and nose. This fold is lightly stretched over the edges of the eyelids, and forms, as it were, a third palpebra of a crescentic shape. The aperture is in consequence rendered somewhat pyriform, the inner curvature being very obtuse, and in some individuals distorted by an angle formed where the fold crosses the border of the lower palpebra. This singularity depends upon the variable form of the orbit during immature age, and is very remarkable in childhood, less so towards adult age, and then, it would seem, frequently disappearing alto- gether ; for the proportion in which it exists among grown-up persons bears but a small comparison with that observed among the young. ** Personal deformity from mal-conformation is un- common, the only instance I remember being that of a young woman, whose utterance was unintelligibly nasal, in consequence of an imperfect development of 188 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. l! li! il I:' it the palatine bones leaving a gap in the roof of the moii.th." The imperfect arithmetic of these people, which resolves every number above ten into one comprehensive word, prevented our obtaining any very certain information respecting the population of this part of North America and its adjacent islands. The principal stations of these people not visited by us are Ahkoolee, Toonoonee-rooehlnh^ Peelig, and Toonoonek, of whose situation I have already spoken. The first of these, which is the only one situated on the continent, lies in an indentation of considerable depth on the shores of the Polar Sea, running in towards Repulse Bay on the opposite coast, and forming with it the large peninsula situated like a bastion at the north- east angle of America, which I have named Melville Peninsula, in honour of Viscount Melville, the First Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. From what we know of the habits and disposition of the Esquimaux, which in- cline them always to associate in considerable numbers, we cannot well assign a smaller population than fifty souls to each of the four principal stations above- mentioned ; and including these, and the inhabitants of several minor ones that were occasionally named to us, there may perhaps be three or four hundred people be- longing to this tribe with whom we have never had com- munication. In all their charts of this neighbourhood they also delineate a tract of land to the eastward, and somewhat to the northward, of Igloolik, where they say the Seadlermeoo, or strangers, live, with whom, as with the Esquimaux of Southampton Island, and all others coming under the same denomination, they have seldom or never any intercourse, either of a friendly or a hostile ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 189 : of tho resolves ve word, jrmation America of these roochhiJf, e already situated isiderable L towards g with it he north- Melville rirst Lord e know of which in- ) numbers, than fifty ns above- fcbitants of med to us, people be- r had com- hbourhood bward, and •e they t>ay oa, as with all others ive seldom »r a hostile nature. It is more than probable that the natives of the inlet called the river Clyde, on the western coast of Baffin's Bay, are a part of the people thus .designated ; and, indeed, the whole of the numerous bays and inlets on that extensive and productive line of coast may be the residence of great numbers of Esquimaux, of whom these people possess no accurate information. Whatever may be the abundance sometimes enjoyed by these people, and whatever the maladies occasioned by their too frequent abuse of it, it is certain that they occasionally suffer very severely from the opposite ex- treme. A remarkably intelligent woman informed Cap- tain Lyon that two years ago some Esquimaux arrived at Igloolik from a place near Akkoolee, bringing in- formation that during a very grievous famine one party of men had fallen upon another and killed them ; and that they afterwards subsisted on their flesh while in a frozen state, but never cooked nor even thawed it. This horrible account was soon after confirmed by Toolemak on board the Fury ; and though he was evidently uneasy at our having heard the story, and conversed upon it with reluctance, yet by means of our questions he was brought to name, upon his fingers, five individuals who had been killed on this occasion. Of the fact therefore there can be no doubt ; but it is certain, also, that we ourselves scarcely regarded it with greater horror than those who related it ; and the occurrence may be con- sidered similar to those dreadful instances on record, even among civilised nations, of men devouring one another, in wrecks or boats, when rendered desperate by the sufferings of actual starvation. The ceremony of crying, which has before been men- 190 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. !!! I I tioned as practised after a person's death, is not, however, altogether confined to those melancholy occasions, but is occasionally adopted in cases of illness, and that of no very dangerous kind. The father of a sick person enters the apartment, and after looking at him for a few seconds without speaking, announces by a kind of low sob his preparation for the coming ceremony. At this signal every other individual present composes his features for crying, and tL.o leader of the chorus then setting up a loud and piteous howl, which lasts about a minute, is joined by all the rest, who shed abundant tears during the process. So decidedly is this a matter of form, un- accompanied by any feeling of sorrow, that those who are not relatives shed just as many tears as those that are ; to which may be added that in the instances which we witnessed there was no real occasion for crying at all. It must therefore be considered in the light of a ceremony of condolence, which it would be either indecorous or unlucky to omit. I have already given several instances of the little care these people take in the interment of their dead, especially in the winter season ; it is certain, however, that this arises from some superstitious notion, and particularly from the belief that any heavy weight upon the corpse would have an injurious effect upon the deceased in a future state of existence ; for even in the summer, when it would be an easy matter to secure a body from the depredations of wild animals, the mode of burial is not essentially different. The corpse of a child observed by Lieutenant Palmer, he describes "as being laid in a regular but shallow grave, with its head to the north- east. It was decently dressed in a good deer-skin jacket, ACCOUNT OP THE ESQUIMAUX 101 owever, 8, but is it of no n enters V seconds sob his 19 signal ures for ,inpf up a Qinute, is rs during form, un- ;hose who }hose that ces which ing at all. ceremony ecorous or little care , especially , that this articularly the corpse leased in a mer, when J from the irial is not bserved by laid in a the north- jkin jacket^ and a seal-skin, prepared without the hair, was carefully placed as a cover to the whole figure, and tucked in on all sides. The body was covered with flat pieces of lime- stone, which, however, were so light that a fox might easily have removed them. Near the grave were four little separate piles of stones, not more than a foot in lieight, in one of which we noticed a piece of red cloth and a black silk handkerchief, in a second a pair of child's boots and mittens, and in each of the others a whalebone pot. The face of the child looked unusually clean and fresh, and a few days only could have elapsed since its decease." These Esquimaux do not appear to have any idea of the existence of One Supreme Being, nor indeed can they be said to entertain any notions on this subject, which may be dignified with the name of Religion. Their supersti- tions, which are numerous, have all some reference to the preternatural agency of a number of tourngdw, or spirits, with whom, on certain occasions, the Angetkooks pretend to hold mysterious intercourse, and who in various and distinct ways are supposed to preside over the destinies of the Esquimaux. On particular occasions of sickness or want of food the Angetkooks contrive, by means of a darkened hut, a peculiar modulation of the voice, and the uttering of a variety of unintelligible sounds, to persuade their countrymen that they are descending to the lower regions for this purpose, where they force the spirits to communicate the desired information. The superstitious reverence in which these wizards are held, and a consider- able degree of ingenuity in their mode of performing their Tnummery, pi^vent the detection of the imposture, and «ecure implicit confidence in these absurd oracles. My 192 ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 1^* friend Captain Lyon having particularly directed hi» attention to this part of their history during the whole of our intercourse with these people, and intending to publish his Journal, which contains much interesting information of this nature, I shall not here enter more at large on the subject. Some account of their ideas respecting death, and of their belief in a future state of existence, have already been introduced in the course of the foregoing pages, in the order of those occurrences which furnished us with opportunities of observing them. Wl Printed by CasBcll & CompaDy, LiiuKed.La Belle Saurage, T. ndon» E.eautiful llliistr.it>oii>« prc|Mi<'(l tritn r-pyri^.'lit i'li''lni;iiiiin4 320 Ixaiitifiil Vitws pre- I'iircil fiMiM < opyii^jlit Fhotoj;r.i|.lis. Mfditiiii 4'<), .liith >;ilt, jfilt edffcs, 9'.. Pictorial Scotland. IJcIdk tliK portion of the al>ove work dovotf-d to Scotland. <"l'tli a'M, trilt edijes, 7s. 6d. Pictoria' Ireland. < oi.tainmg 96 Hcautiful Views prepared from Copy- m^lii I'liutojjraplis. Cloth y,'\\t, 5s. The Nation's Pictures. A Selection from the most Mixlem Piiiiitin;(s in til." I'uiihc Ciallc'iios (if (.rcat Britain, l-..i h X'ol, contains 4K I'lctures, witli dc. crip- live t<'xt. Vols I, 2, iiad 3, cloth, las. «'.\ h: h-ather back, cloth sides, igs. cacli The Queen's Empire. Ci>iitaiiiiii): ucirly 700 exquisite IllustnTtions, jccirct';. Works m Chrouolosicul Order, frr in the 'I <-\i ot I'm, lessor DfMI'S. With an Iiitrodiicti.fi by I". J. l-'UK.NIVAl.U Vv'iili .ib'ni! 4 ' lihistr.itions ( luili, 3s. 6d. ; cloth gilt, jMlt edyf-s, 5^1. The Royal Shakspere. Iroin the te.xt o! I'roiessor Dki mjs. A Lt7>/ary J iiift.itt. wiili ov»-r 50 li!ll-paj;t' I'l ites, in llireo Vols., cloth i;ilt, 15s. the set. Living London. Edited by CiEokck R. .Sims. lt> Work and Its Play, Us Hum mr and Its I'.ithos, Us Si>;hts and Its Scfni;s. Copiously Itlusttaied. Complete in 1 hrce Vols., cloth. 12s. each ; half-leather, 165. each A History of England. rroiTi tho L.tkHd;: of Tuh'iis Caesar to the J'rescnt Day. Hv H- O. AkN( ij.l) )-(>kS ikk, .^;.A. Proiovly IUustratcmid in cloth, 7s. 6d. Child's Bible, 1 ho. Neiv I'.diiicn. With udo ruil-page Plates by H()d>-»n Artists, includin^j 12 in Colours. los. (A. Bible, Cassell's illustrated Family. With 900 Illustrations. Toned l'apos. 6d. The Story of the Sun. With 8 Coloured Plates and other Illustrations. Cloth Kilt, los. 61I. Star Land. Ikmuj: Talks with Voimij; P«;ople :?hout the Wonde'-.s of the Heavens. AViih Rembrandt rronlispi-'cc and 94 Ulnstraticns, 7s. 6d. The Earth's Beginning. With 4 Coloured Plates and other Illustrations. cloth tfilt. 7s. 6ti. ■ V/orks by the Very Rev. Dean FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S, The Life of Ct^rist. Chkai- Edition. With 16 Full-page Plates, cloth j;ilt. 3s. 6d. ; i).AStf- prfiiu, ss. net. The Life and Work of St. Paul. Cheap Edition. With 16 Full-page TlatPs, cl'>»h gilt 3s. od. ; jiaste Rrain, 5^. net. The Early Days of Christianity, Ciii-:ai' Edition. Cloth glit, 3s. 6d.; paste c'-'i". S^. 'let. The Life of Lives : Further Studies in the Life of Christ. Cloth K'lt. jcs. ; I'opti'ar 1-Alition, 7s. 6:1. The Three Homes. With 8 Full-page Illustrations by Stanley L. Wool). Cloth, full tr^lt, 3b. 6d. reople's lidition, paper covers, 6d. CASSELL & COMPANY, Ltd., Londcn; ra. /V, New Votk&tMcIboumi. Ltions. J20 l»eautlful rclurtis, 9s. 1 Vitws pre- L dovolfU to 1 from Copy- PiiintiriK'- in •s, with dc-. crip- PS, iss. each Illustrptions, , 9s. each. ■vs of London 120 Original lit edRCs, 5'. isica.! Order, |. IUKNIVAI.I-. . A Lihtary s. the set. and Its PI.iv, jsly Itlustraied. Csp.sar tn the Illustrated, tis. a, l^yH O. . Also ii'. cl"th 10 Color.rcd n cloth, 7s. 6d. ge Plates by tions. Toned KDK.TT, M.A.I 7s. 6d. nd numerous r lUusLrations. ^ondc-.s of the 6d. r Illustrations. F.R.S, e Plates, cloth h 16 FuU-paj^e th glit, 3s. 6d.; hrist. Cloth Stanley L. ;,6d. &.» Melbounu. Selections from Cassell d Company's Publicationa. "WORK'* HANDBOOKS. A Series of Practical Manuals prepared under tkt iii*-eciion 0/ Vkv\. N. Haslim K, I'xJilor of " Worth:." Houno Decoration: CorapriH tinf Whilftwuhlnu^f, I'aperhangluttt Paiutinn, oi«. 79 Illustratious. Boot-malduK and MAndint; : In- cluding Hopairing, I.««»..iufc, and Pinishinf;'. 179 lllustxations. ITow to Wnto f.i^rriH. Tickets, and PoBtf-rs. I/O Ilhistrations. Munntint; and Frarainr Pictures- With 240 I-n|^ravin;,'s and DiajjTaiits. P'oithB* Work. W.th 311 Fn^Tavinps aniaj;ratiis. l\i X 4^. Cloth, IS. each. BuiJdinff Model Boits. With 168 tn;,'ravin>'s and Di.itjrani ;. Eloctr.c \\t\\& ; How to Make and Fn 'I hem. With 162 llnj;ravings and Dtagrams. EamboT work. With 177 Enijravinys .iri'l Dia^rauis. Tax rrinv. W'ith io8 Engravinfjs and lJi;i^r.iin.s. Tailorinpr. With 180 Kn^Jravin^:s anout 9,000 Recipes, and Key to thr I'rinciijles of Co^^ker}'. Cioth, 5s. ; half-bound, 6s. 6d. net. Cassell's Shilling Cookery. The Largest and Pest Book ever produced at the price, is. Cassell's Universal Cookery Book. By Lizztr Hkritagf. With Pieface by LEONARD C.Rf'NF.Nini.DIiK, and six-clal Intrrxhicticn by Dr. THL'DI- CIIL'.M. Contain. ng 12 Coloured Plates and nuiiierous Illustrations- 6s. POULTRY BOOKS. The Book of Poultry. r,y Lewis Wkicht. Popular EdUion. Illus- tr.tte 1 with a Series of I'un-paj,'e Plates. los. 6d. The New Boo-: of Poultry. By Lewis Wriciht. With Thirty Ex- (I'lisi e Colojred Plat^-.s .uul numerous ^Vood Ei'gTavuii;s. cis. The Piactical Poultry Keeper. By Lewis Wright. With Eight Coloure»l Piates and imnter')us Illustrations. 3s. 6d. The Practical Pigeon Keeper. By Lewis Wright. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. Cook of Pigeons. By R. Fitlton. E<1itf!d bv Lfv/t.s Wright. Re- vised by the Rev. W. V. L'IM/.HY. With go Fil' pny:o Lhistrationi. Crown 4:0. cloth, lOS €d. C'if;inal luiiticn, with 50 Coloured Plates. 21s. Incubators and Chicken Rearing Appliances : How to Make and USE THEM. Illustrated, is. CASSELL & COMPANY, Ltd., London; Paris, Neiv York &* Melbourne. Selections from Cassell d Company's Publications. m * DIOTIONARiea, OVCLOP>«DIA8, Ac Oataell't NEW French Dictionary. (French-Englwh— EnRlIsh-French.) F.ditedby I A MRS lioIPlXH, KK., OfGcier d'Acadi^mie : sometime Examiner in h'rench in the Uitivcrsiry of Loodon. i.aao pp., demy 9ri>, strongly bound incIotb» 7s. fld. ; or In half leather, los. 6d. CastelTa French Dictionary. (French-English— EnglUh-French.) 663rd Thousand. Revised and CorrectefL i.i^u pix, cloth, ^ 6d.:halfniuro(:co, $c. Cassell's Qftrman Dktionary. (Gennan-ICnKhsh— English-German.) ySTth Thousand. 1.330 ppi. Cloth, 3s. 6d. ; ttalf-iuorocco. $s. Catteir* Latin Dictionary. (Latin-English— English-Latin.) i4and I housand. Cloth, 3s. M. ; half morocco, js. Catseirs English Dictionary. Giving Definitions of more than 100,000 V/ordt ancrPbranes. Cloth, v. 6d. ; half-morocco, ^s. CasBoll's Concise CyclopOBaia. 1,340 p^ges. with about 600 Illustra- tioas. Cloth, 5s. Half persian. 6s. 6(1 net Castelf's Miniature Cyclopaedia. Containing 30,000 Subjects. Limp cloth, IS. ; cloth fUt, xs. 6d. Advice to Women on the Care of their l-lealth before, during, and after Confinement By FloRENCR STACPOOLH. JVnu and Enlarged lididon, 19a pa^es, cloth, as. Our Sick, and Horn to TakeOare of Them. By Florbncb Stacpoolb. Paper coren, is, ; cK>th, is. 6d. The Practical Nursing of Infants and Children. By F. C. Madden, M.B.. U.S. {Melb.), F. R.C.S. Cloth. 3$. 6d. Casteli's Family Doctor. By A Mbdical Man. Illustrated. Cloth» 6s. ; half-bound, 6s. fid. Mt. The Elements of Modern Dressmaking. By Jbanbttb £. Davis. AVto Edition. Illustrated, cloth, as. The Lad/s Physician. A Guide for Women in the Treatment of their Ailments. By A PHYSICIAN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. CASSKLL'S STANDARD UBRARY. A New Series of Cheap V(^umes, well printed oogood paper, and tastefully bound. About 384 pages, crown 8vo, cloth gilt, is. each, net. X. AdamBede. By CnoRCBt Eliot. a. Westward Hoi By Charlhs Kingsley. 3. The OM Ourloslty Shop. By Charlbs Dickens. 4. Iv»Qhoew By Sir Walter Scott. 5. The Last I>»y8 of Pompeii. By LORD Lytton. 6. Pride and Pr^udioe. By Janh AUSTEN. 7. The Itsst of the M ohioans. By FBNIMORB COOrBR. 8. Axnerioan Bumoiir. Selected. 9. Jane Xsrre. By Charlotte BRONTE. 10. HandyAjady.BySAMUHL LOVER. 11. trnole Tom's Cabin. By Harriet BBECHBK STOWB. IS. The Prince of the House of David. By the Rct. J. H. In- GRAHAM. 13. The Mill on the Floss. By GEORGE EUOT. 14. Oliver Twist. By Charles DICKENS. 15, BiensL By Lord Lytton. 16. The Soartet liStter. 17 By By Na. thanibl Hawthoanb. Th* Hsart of Midlothian. Sir Waxtb* Scott. xS. The Zngoldatnr Legends. By Rer. R. H. BARHAM. 19. The WooMkn in White. By WlUCIB COLXIN& ao. nraalij Bodge. By Charles Dickens. ai. 'rales of the Borders. By J. M. WILSON. aa. Charlee O'Malley. By Charles Lever. a^ The Last of the Barons. By Lord Lvtton. a4. The Sksteh Book. By Washing- ton Irving. ■5, The Tower of London. By Harrison Ainsworth. aS. Kenilworth. By Sir Walter Scott •7. The Deerslaarer. By Fenimorb Cooper. *«* A Cotnphi* Catalogu4 of Books pubUshtd by Mtssrs. Cassell & Company Will b» S0nt post/ttt on application. CASSELL & COMPANY, Ltd., London; Parts, New York A* Melbourne nations. gHsh-French.) ne Examiner in ly bound in clotb» rench.) 663rd Ifniorocco, js. ;Iish-Gerfnan.) ^tin.) X43nd e than 100,000 L 600 Illustra- ibjects. Limp iring, and after red t'.(iitiANB. Udlothian. By T. Iiegends. By A, 1 White. By By Charles ders. ByJ.M. r. By Charles ) Barons. By :. By Washing- Itondon. By ORTH. Sir Walter By FenimORB idl & Company k dr» Mtlbounu