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diff --git a/26509-0.txt b/26509-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcc6b74 --- /dev/null +++ b/26509-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5469 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery +of a North-West Passage, by William Edward Parry, Edited by Henry Morley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage + + +Author: William Edward Parry + +Editor: Henry Morley + +Release Date: September 2, 2008 [eBook #26509] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNAL OF THE THIRD VOYAGE FOR +THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE*** + + +This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler. + + CASSELL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY. + + + + + +JOURNAL +OF THE +THIRD VOYAGE +FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A +NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. + + + BY + CAPT. W. E. PARRY, R.N., F.R.S., + AND COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION. + + CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: + _LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_. + 1889. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +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 +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 Passage to Eastern Asia had been +suspended for more than half a century. No expedition had been sent out +since 1746. But after Lieutenant Parry’s return from the North American +station, an expedition was prepared under Sir John Ross in the +_Isabella_, 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 Lancaster 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 longitude +farther than any who had gone before. That was 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 November, 1820, and made a +Fellow of the Royal Society. He had shown in what direction to proceed +with further search, and at the age of thirty had established for himself +a place of lasting honour in the history of English navigation. + +Commander Parry was sent on a second expedition in 1821, from which he +returned in 1823. He was to explore the Fox Channel, for the purpose of +ascertaining whether it was connected with the Arctic Sea of his first +voyage. This voyage had no important results; and in 1824 Parry started +again on the third voyage, of which this volume contains his Journal. In +1827 he sailed again in the _Hecla_, 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 which 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 +1829 to 1834) as Commissioner to the Agricultural Company of Australia. +He was knighted, and became in 1852 a Rear-Admiral. Sir Edward Parry was +Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital at the time of his death, in +July, 1855. + + H. M. + + + + +THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Notwithstanding the want of success of the late Expedition to the Polar +Seas, it was resolved to make another attempt to effect a passage by sea, +between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The chief attentions in the +equipment of the present expedition consisted in the placing of +Sylvester’s warming stove in the very bottom of the ship’s hold, in +substituting a small quantity of salt beef for a part of the pork, and in +furnishing a much larger supply of newly corned beef. Preserved carrots +and parsnips, salmon, cream, pickles of onions, beetroot, cabbage, and, +to make the most of our stowage, split pease instead of whole ones, were +supplied. A small quantity of beef pemmican, made by pounding the meat +with a certain portion of fat, as described by Captain Franklin, was also +furnished. + +To the officers, seamen, and marines my best acknowledgments are once +more due, for the zealous support I have at all times received from them +in the course of this service; and I am happy to repeat my conviction +that, had it depended on their conduct and exertion, our most sanguine +expectations would, long ere this, have been crowned with complete +success. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Passage to the Whale-fish Islands, and Removal of Stores from the +Transport—Enter the Ice in Baffin’s Bay—Difficulties of Penetrating to +the Westward—Quit the Ice in Baffin’s Bay—Remarks on the Obstructions +encountered by the Ships, and on the Severity of the Season. + +The equipment of the _Hecla_ and _Fury_, and the loading of the _William +Harris_ transport, being completed, we began to move down the river from +Deptford on the 8th of May, 1824, and on the 10th, by the assistance of +the steamboat, the three ships had reached Northfleet, where they +received their powder and their ordnance stores. Two days were here +employed in fixing, under the superintendence of Mr. Barlow and +Lieutenant Foster, the plate, invented by the former gentleman, for +correcting the deviation of the compass produced by the attraction of the +ship’s iron; and the continuance of strong easterly winds prevented our +getting to the Nore till the 16th. During our stay at Northfleet the +ships were visited by Viscount Melville, and the other Lords +Commissioners of the Admiralty, who were pleased to approve of our +general equipment and arrangements. + +During our passage across the Atlantic in June, and afterwards on our way +up Davis’s Strait, we threw overboard daily a strong copper cylinder, +containing the usual papers, giving an account of our 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-fish Islands, rather than incur the +risk of hampering and damaging her among the ice. Fresh gales and thick +weather, however, prevented our 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 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 our stores being +removed, and Lieutenant Pritchard having received his orders, together +with our despatches and letters for England, the _William Harris_ 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 +morning, 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 being 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 the only one found by +our boats which may prove dangerous to ships going in and out of this +harbour, and with which our pilots were unacquainted. Another was +discovered 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, the highest tides being the +third and fourth after the 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 leave 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 Graah, 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 making much progress for +several days, and kept us in the neighbourhood of numerous icebergs, +which it is dangerous to approach when there is any swell. We counted +from the deck, at one time, no less than one hundred and three of these +immense bodies, some of them from one to two hundred feet in height above +the sea; and it was necessary, in one or two instances, to tow the ships +clear of them with the boats. We had occasion, about this time, to +remark the more than usual frequency of fogs with a northerly wind, a +circumstance from which the whalers are accustomed to augur a +considerable extent of open water in that direction. + +The ice soon beginning to close around us, our progress became so slow +that, on the 17th, we saw a ship at the margin of the “pack,” and two +more on the following day. We supposed these to be whalers, which, after +trying to cross the ice to the northward, had returned to make the +attempt in the present latitude; a supposition which our subsequent +difficulties served to strengthen. From this time, indeed, the +obstructions from the quantity, magnitude, and closeness of the ice, were +such as to keep our people almost constantly employed in heaving, +warping, or sawing through it; and yet with so little success that, at +the close of the month of July, we had only penetrated seventy miles to +the westward, or to the longitude of about 62° 10′. Here, while closely +beset, on the 1st of August, we encountered a hard gale from the +south-east, which pressing the ice together in every direction, by mass +overlaying mass for hours together, the _Hecla_ 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 side, 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 so, it +is said, to have run completely over a ship in some extreme and fatal +cases. With ice of still more formidable dimensions a vessel would +probably, by an equal degree of pressure, be absolutely crushed, in +consequence of the increased difficulty of sinking it on one side, and +causing it to rise on the other. + +_Sept. 9th_.—I shall doubtless be readily excused for not having entered +in this journal a detailed narrative of the obstacles we met with, and of +the unwearied exertions of the officers and men to overcome them, during +the tedious eight weeks employed in crossing this barrier. I have +avoided this detail because, while it might appear an endeavour to +magnify ordinary difficulties, which it is our business to overcome +rather than to discuss, I am convinced that no description of mine, nor +even the minute formality of the log-book, could convey an adequate idea +of the truth. The strain we constantly had occasion to heave on the +hawsers, as springs to force the ships through the ice, was such as +perhaps no ships ever before attempted; and by means of Phillips’s +invaluable capstan, we often separated floes of such magnitude as must +otherwise have baffled every effort. In doing this, it was next to +impossible to avoid exposing the men to very great risk from the frequent +breaking of the hawsers. On one occasion, three of the _Hecla’s_ seamen +were knocked down as instantaneously as by a gunshot by the sudden +flying-out of an anchor; and a marine of the _Fury_ suffered in a similar +manner when working at the capstan; but, providentially, they all escaped +with severe contusions. A more serious accident occurred in the breaking +of the spindle of the _Fury’s_ windlass, depriving her of the use of the +windlass-end during the rest of the season. + +The constant besetment of the ships, and our daily observations for +latitude and longitude, afforded a favourable opportunity for +ascertaining precisely the set of any currents by which the whole body of +ice might be actuated. By attending very carefully to all the +circumstances, it was evident that a daily set to the southward obtained, +when the wind was northerly, differing in amount from two or three to +eight or ten miles per day, according to the strength of the breeze; but +a northerly current was equally apparent, and fully to the same amount, +whenever the wind blew from the southward. A circumstance more +remarkable than these, however, forced itself strongly upon my notice at +this time, which was, that a _westerly_ set was very frequently apparent, +even against a fresh breeze blowing from that quarter. I mention the +circumstance in this place, because I may hereafter have to offer a +remark or two on this fact in connection with some others of a similar +nature noticed elsewhere. + +With respect to the dimensions of the ice through which we had now +scrambled our way, principally by warping and towing a distance of +between three and four hundred miles, I remarked that it for the most +part increased, as well in the thickness as the extent of the floes, as +we advanced westward about the parallel of 71°. During our subsequent +progress to the north, we also met with some of enormous dimensions, +several of the floes, to which we applied our hawsers and the power of +the improved capstan, being at their margin more than twenty feet above +the level of the sea, and over some of these we could not see from the +mast-head. Upon the whole, however, the magnitude of the ice became +somewhat less towards the north-west; and within thirty miles of that +margin the masses were comparatively small, and their thickness much +diminished. Bergs were in sight during the whole passage; but they were +more numerous towards the middle of the “pack,” and rather the most so to +the southward. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Enter Sir James Lancaster’s Sound—Land at Cape Warrender—Meet with young +ice—Ships beset and carried near the shore—Driven back to Navy-board +Inlet—Run to the westward, and enter Prince Regent’s Inlet—Arrival at +Port Bowen. + +All our past obstacles were in a moment forgotten when we once more saw +an open sea before us; but it must be confessed that it was not so easy +to forget that the middle of September was already near at hand, without +having brought us even to the entrance of Sir James Lancaster’s Sound. +That not a moment might be lost, however, in pushing to the westward, a +press of canvas was crowded, and being happily favoured with an easterly +breeze, on the morning of the 10th of September we caught a glimpse of +the high bold land on the north side of the magnificent inlet up which +our course was once more to be directed. From the time of our leaving +the main body of ice we met with none of any kind, and the entrance to +the Sound was, as usual, entirely free from it, except here and there a +berg, floating about in that solitary grandeur of which these enormous +masses, when occurring in the midst of an extensive sea, are calculated +to convey so sublime an idea. + +On the morning of the 11th, the ships being taken a-back with a fresh +westerly breeze when near Cape Warrender, I landed in a small bay close +to the westward of it, accompanied by several of the officers, in order +to examine the country, and to make the necessary observations. + +On the morning of the 12th we were once more favoured with a breeze from +the eastward, but so light and unsteady that our progress was vexatiously +slow; and on the 13th, when within seven leagues of Cape York, we had the +mortification to perceive the sea ahead of us covered with young ice, the +thermometer having for two days past ranged only from 18° to 20°. On +reaching it we had, as usual, recourse to “sallying,” breaking it with +boats ahead, and various other expedients, all alike ineffectual without +a fresh and free breeze furnishing a constant impetus; so that, after +seven or eight hours of unsuccessful labour in this way, we were obliged +to remain as we were, fairly and immovably beset. + +It now appeared high time to determine as to the propriety of still +continuing our efforts to push to the westward or of returning to +England, according to my instructions on that head under particular +circumstances. As the crossing of the ice in Baffin’s Bay had of itself +unexpectedly occupied nearly the whole of one season, it could not, of +course, be considered that the attempt to penetrate to the westward in +the manner directed by their lordships had as yet been made, nor could +it, indeed, be made during the present year. I could not, therefore, +have a moment’s hesitation as to the propriety of pushing on as far as +the present season would permit, and then giving a fair trial during the +whole of the next summer to the route I was directed by my instructions +to pursue. In order, however, to confirm my own opinion on this subject, +I requested to be furnished with that of Captain Hoppner; and finding +that his views entirely agreed with my own, I resolved still to pursue +our object by all the means in our power. + +The next breeze sprang up from the westward, drawing also from the +southward at times, out of Prince Regent’s Inlet, and for three days we +were struggling with the young ice to little or no purpose, now and then +gaining half a mile of ground to windward in a little “hole” of open +water, then losing as much by the necessity of bearing up or wearing (for +the ice was too strong to allow us to tack), sallying from morning to +night with all hands, and with the watch at night, two boats constantly +under the bows; and, after all, rather losing ground than otherwise, +while the young ice was every hour increasing in thickness. + +On the 17th, when we had driven back rather to the eastward of Admiralty +Inlet, an easterly breeze again enabled us to make some progress. The +sea was now for the most part covered with young ice, which had become so +thick as to look white throughout its whole extent. The holes of water +could now, therefore, be more distinctly seen, and by taking advantage of +these we succeeded in making a few miles of westing, the “leads” taking +us more in-shore, towards Admiralty Inlet, than before. Towards sunset +we became more and more hampered, and were eventually beset during the +night. A breeze sprang up from the westward, which increasing to a fresh +gale, we found ourselves at daylight far to the eastward, and also within +two miles of the land, near a long low point, which on the former voyages +had not been seen. The sea was covered with ice between us and the +shore, all of this year’s formation, but now of considerable thickness +and formidable appearance. The wind continuing strong, the whole body +was constantly pressed in upon the land, bearing the ships along with it, +and doubling one sheet over another, sometimes to a hundred thicknesses. +We quickly shoaled the water from seventy to forty fathoms, the latter +depth occurring about a mile from the beach; and after this we drifted +but little, the ice being blocked up between the point and a high +perpendicular berg lying aground off it. + +The sails being furled, and the top-gallant yards got down, we now +considered ourselves fortunate in our situation; for had we been only a +quarter of a mile farther out we should have been within the influence of +a current that was there sweeping the whole body of ice to the eastward, +at the rate of a mile and a half an hour. Indeed, at times this current +was disposed to approach us still nearer, carrying away pieces of ice +close to our quarter; but by means of long hawsers, secured to the +heaviest and most compact of the small floes in-shore of us, we contrived +to hold on. Under such circumstances, it evidently became expedient to +endeavour, by sawing, to get the ships as close in-shore as possible, so +as to secure them either to grounded ice or by anchoring within the +shelter of a bay at no great distance inside of us; for it now seemed not +unlikely that winter was about to put a premature stop to all further +operations at sea for this season. At all events it was necessary to +consult the immediate safety of the ships, and to keep them from being +drifted back to the eastward. I therefore gave orders for endeavouring +to get the ships in towards the bay by cutting through what level floes +still remained. At the same time an officer was despatched to examine +the shore, which was found safe, with regular soundings in every part. +So strong had been the pressure while the ice was forcing in upon us, +that on the 20th, after liberating the _Hecla_ on one side, she was as +firmly cemented to it on the other as after a winter’s formation, and we +could only clear her by heavy and repeated “sallying.” After cutting in +two or three hundred yards, while the people were at dinner on the 21st, +our canal closed, by the external pressure coming upon the parts which we +had weakened, and in a few minutes the whole was once more in motion, or, +as the seamen not inaptly expressed it, “alive,” mass doubling under +mass, and raising those which were uppermost to a considerable height. +The ice thus pressed together was now about ten feet in thickness in some +places, and on an average not less than four or five, so that while thus +forced in upon a ship, although soft in itself, it caused her to tremble +exceedingly; a sensation, indeed, commonly experienced in forcing through +young ice of considerable thickness. We were now once more obliged to be +quiet spectators of what was going on around us, having with extreme +difficulty succeeded 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 deeper 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 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 about 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 above the level of the sea, several +pieces of coal, which he found to burn with a clear bright flame, +crackling much, and throwing off slaty splinters.” + +Hares’ burrows were numerous on this hill; Lieutenant Ross saw 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 _Fury_, 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 _Hecla’s_ hawsers +being too great for them, they snapped one after another, and a +bower-anchor was let go as a last resource. It was one of Hawkins’s, +with the double fluke, and immediately brought up, not merely the ship, +but a large 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 one; 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 off 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 unusually 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 Islands at the entrance of Navy Board Inlet. We 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 Hoppner 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 moderate, and by degrees +also drew more to the southward than before. At daylight, therefore, we +found ourselves seven or eight miles from the land; but no ice was in +sight, except the “sludge,” of honey-like consistence, 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 us to suppose. We found 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 precarious chance 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 become 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 1819, it did not occur to me as +anything new or worthy of notice. At Port Bowen, however, which in that +year was closely examined, I am quite certain that no such thing was to +be 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 occupation for her boats. Several which came near us +were of large and “payable” dimensions. 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 disposed to persevere in the +fishery under circumstances so precarious, and to a ship unprepared for a +winter involving 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 perhaps have seen many more of both, but +for the continual presence of the young ice. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Winter Arrangements—Improvements in Warming and Ventilating the +Ships—Masquerades adopted as an Amusement to the Men—Establishment of +Schools—Astronomical Observations—Meteorological 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, +however, 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 succeed 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 health 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 description 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 possessed; more especially in a +station already delineated with tolerable geographical precision on our +maps, and thus, as 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 occasionally 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 catalogue 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 situation. Whatever difference time or events may +have wrought in individual feelings, and however different the +occupations which those feelings may have suggested, they are not such +as, without impertinence, can be intruded upon others; with these “the +stranger intermeddleth 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 comfort 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 versâ_, 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 pulmonary complaints at all. Nor is a covering for the +mouth at all necessary under these circumstances, 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 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 carrying 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 woollen clothes, and is indeed almost weather-proof. For the +prevention of lumbago, to which our seamen are especially 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 lower temperature modifies, and perhaps improves the +annoyance by converting it into ice, which again an occasional 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 alone can furnish. With an +apartment in this state, the men’s clothes and bedding are continually in +a moist and unwholesome 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 apparatus—a contrivance of which I scarcely know how to express +my admiration in adequate terms. The alteration 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 rapidity +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 scarcely 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 than one-third 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 regularity of their bodily exercise. +Our former amusements 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 masquerade, 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 disgraced by copying the good +order, decorum, and inoffensive 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 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 +_Hecla_, 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 surprisingly great), but also to the cultivation of that +religious 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 company, 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 effects thus produced upon the +minds of the men were owing, in a very high degree, the constant yet +sober cheerfulness, the uninterrupted 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 our attention was to be directed during the winter. +The interest of these, especially of such as related to magnetism, +increased so much as we proceeded, that the neighbourhood of the +observatory assumed ere long almost 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 6696 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 displays 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 phenomenon appeared +partially, and with a variable light, in different parts of the southern +sky for several hours. At seven on the following morning it became more +brilliant and stationary, describing a well-defined arch, extending 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, appearing 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 brilliantly +illuminated, the light being continuous almost throughout the whole +extent, and reaching several degrees in height. Very bright vertical +rays were constantly shooting upwards from the general mass. At +half-past five it again became so brilliant as to attract particular +notice, describing two arches passing in an east and west direction, very +near the zenith, with bright coruscations issuing from it; but the whole +gradually disappeared with the returning dawn. At dusk the same evening, +the Aurora again appeared in the southern quarter, and continued visible +nearly the whole night, but without any remarkable feature. + +About midnight on the 27th of January, this phenomenon 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 appeared to +be evidently composed of numerous pencils 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 observatory, 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 within that distance of us. + +About one o’clock on the morning of 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 stars, +like a thin veil drawn over them. We 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 never 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 disturbance taken +place, the needles being visited every hour for several months, and +oftener, when anything occurred to make it desirable. + +The meteors called Falling-stars were 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 overhead, 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 weather was at +this time clear and serene, and no remarkable change took place. On 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 remarkable +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, gradually sinking towards the horizon, +and by eleven o’clock the whole atmosphere was extremely clear above the +altitude of five or six degrees. The thermometer also fell from -5° to +-9° as the haze cleared away. At a quarter past eleven my attention was +directed by Mr. Bell to some meteors which he observed, and in less than +a quarter of an hour five were seen. The two first, noticed only by Mr. +Bell, fell in quick succession, probably 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 β +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 β Tauri +and Gemini. 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 this +occasion, as well as on the 12th of December, there 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 encouragement 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 mercurial column. When we were fixed for the winter, 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 +oscillation 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, both 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 accompany 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 +barometer falling at all below the mean altitude of the column in these +regions, or even rose steadily during the continuance of 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 my 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 usually noticed that the +easterly winds were with us attended with clear weather, 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 overcome 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. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Meteorological Phenomena continued—Re-equipment of the Ships—Several +Journeys undertaken—Open Water in the Offing—Commence sawing a Canal to +liberate the Ships—Disruption of the 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 an 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 any rise in the thermometer except +for an hour or two during 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 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 the 18th, many considerable 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 distinguished by the naked eye, when near the south +meridian at noon. About the first week in April the reflection of light +from the snow became so strong as to create inflammation in the eyes, and +notwithstanding the usual precaution of wearing black crape veils during +exposure, several cases of snow-blindness occurred shortly afterwards. + +There are perhaps few things more difficult to obtain 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 consequence +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, fourteen feet +deep, had formed on one side of the _Hecla_, 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 seaman 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 first arrival at Port Bowen, +afforded a striking instance of maternal affection in her anxiety to save +her two cubs. She might herself easily have escaped the boat, but would +not forsake her young, which she was actually “towing” off by allowing +them to rest on her back, when the boat came near them. A second similar +instance occurred in the spring, when two cubs having got down into a +large 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 out, and which were always at work +in a sledge; especially as, during the winter, our number was increased +by the birth of six others of these useful animals. + +One or two foxes (_Canis Lagopus_) were killed, and four caught in traps +during 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 _Fury_ 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 Variabilis_) 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 Bowen at any season, neither were we visited by +their enemies the wolves. A single ermine and a few mice (_Mus +Hudsonius_) 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 occasionally seen. A very few grouse were met with also after +our arrival at Port Bowen; a single specimen was 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 month 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 ornithology, remarked that +the grouse met with here are of three kinds, namely, the ptarmigan +(_Tetrao Lagopus_), the rock-grouse, (_Tetrao Rupestris_), and the +willow-partridge (_Tetrao Albus_). 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 Integrifolia_, buds of the _Saxifraga Oppositifolia_, _Salix +Arctica_, and _Draba Alpina_, the quantities being according to the order +in which the plants have here been named. A few leaves also of the +_Polygonum Viviparum_ 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 were 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 +permitted, three land journeys were undertaken as soon as the weather was +sufficiently warm 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 land 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 being 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, preclude 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 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 surveying it accurately, and +of obtaining observations for the longitude 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 northward 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 +intelligence 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 Barrow’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 dovekies, 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 72¼°, 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 +fresh; but as this might in a northern climate remain 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 been 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 (_Colymbus Grylle_) were extremely +numerous in the cracks of the ice at the entrance of Port Bowen, and as +these were the only 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 occasionally 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 manner this +accident happened, but it was supposed that he must have overreached +himself in stooping for a bird that he had killed. His 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 vexatious 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 communicate with the other. This work proved heavier than we +expected, the ice being 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 19th a very welcome stop was put to our +operations by the separation of the floe entirely across the harbour, and +about one-third from the ships to where we were at work. All hands being +instantly recalled 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 employed 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. + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Sail over towards the Western Coast of Prince Regent’s Inlet—Stopped by +the Ice—Reach the Shore about Cape Seppings—Favourable Progress along the +Land—Fresh and repeated Obstructions from Ice—Both Ships driven on +Shore—Fury seriously damaged—Unsuccessful 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 +coasting 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 longitude of 95°, 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 ice 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. + +On the clearing up of the fog on the 21st, we could perceive no opening +of the ice leading towards the western land; nor any appearance of the +smallest channel to the southward along the eastern shore. I was +determined, therefore, to try at once a little farther to the northward, +the present state of the ice appearing completely to accord with that +observed in 1819, its breadth increasing as we advanced from Prince +Leopold’s Islands to the southward. As, therefore, I felt confident of +being able to push along the shore if we should once gain it, I was +anxious to effect 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 detained 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 morning 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. 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 24th, 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 +perceive that the late gale had blown the ice off the land, leaving us a +fine 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 slowly, 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 +appearance 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, however, still somewhat doubtful, and the Leopold +Isles, therefore, still retain their original designation on the chart. +The land here, when closely viewed, assumes a very striking and +magnificent character, the strata of limestone, which are numerous and +quite horizontally disposed, being much more regular than on the eastern +shore of Prince Regent’s Inlet, and retaining nearly their whole +perpendicular height of six or seven hundred feet, close to the sea. The +south-eastern promontory of the southernmost island is particularly +picturesque and beautiful, the heaps of loose _débris_ 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 distance 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 Barrow’s Strait, as far as we could see to the +N.N.E. of the 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, and the tedium of a long +winter, were forgotten 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 accomplishment of our object. + +Early on the morning of the 25th, we passed the opening in the land +delineated in the former chart of this coast, in latitude 73° 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 falling 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 formation to consist +wholly of lime, and now discovered the nature of the narrow white stratum +observed the day 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 contained a quantity of it in the +state of selenite in beautiful transparent laminæ 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 first excited unnecessary +apprehensions as to the soundings along 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 Guards. We now perceived that the ice closed completely +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 curious 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° 02.1′, 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 attributed to the greater abundance of open water in the +parts we have 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 succeeded. We +instantly took advantage 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 eye 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 for 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 about to +leave the _Hecla_ for that purpose, the ice was observed to be in rapid +motion towards the shore. The _Fury_ was immediately hauled in by some +grounded masses, and placed to the best advantage; but the _Hecla_ 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 evening, we were enabled, with +considerable labour, to get to some grounded masses, where we lay much +exposed, as the _Fury_ also did. In this situation, our latitude being +72° 51′ 51″, we saw a comparatively low point of land three or four +leagues 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 +_Hecla_ 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 habitations the +vegetation was much more luxuriant than anything of the kind we had seen +before during this voyage. The state of this year’s plants was now very +striking, compared with those of the last, and afforded strong evidence, +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 year’s +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 its admixture with the soil. Of the past winter’s snow +not a particle could be seen at the close of July on any part of 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, principally shells and +madrepore. On a hill abreast of the _Hecla_, and at an elevation of not +less than three or four hundred feet above the sea, one particular spot +was discovered in which the same kind of shells first found in Barrow’s +Strait in 1819 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 was quite +astonishing, in looking at the numberless fossil animal remains occurring +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 +season, and adding, by falls of large masses of stone, to the slope of +_débris_ 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 +Bowen 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 distinctly 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 where she was, there +being no second berth even so good as the bad one where she was now +lying. In the afternoon 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 troublesome 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 _Hecla_ 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 ground with very +little strain, so that, upon the whole, considering 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 close 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 appeared 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 circumstances of +difficulty; for when the ice is fairly acting against the ship, ten times +the strength and ingenuity 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 _Hecla_ after thus driving, and now and then forcing her +way 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 _Fury_ continuing to drive was now +irresistibly carried past us, and we escaped, only 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 _Hecla_; and having gone about two +hundred yards farther she was observed to receive a severe pressure from +a large floe-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 +_Fury’s_ stern, which was aground, was lifted several feet, and the +_Hecla_ at low water having sewed five feet forward and two abaft, we +presented altogether no very pleasing or comfortable spectacle. However, +about high water, the ice very opportunely slacking, the _Hecla_ was hove +off with great ease, and warped to a floe in the offing 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, by 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 being informed by telegraph, about two A.M. on the 2nd, that +the water was gaining on two pumps, and that a part of the doubling had +floated up. The _Hecla_ 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 signal to endeavour to +reach the best security in-shore which the present slackness of the ice +might permit, until it was possible for the _Hecla_ 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, when 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 gradually shoaling in approaching the beach, so that +the ships 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 examining 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 +_Fury_, and found four pumps constantly going to keep the ship free, and +Captain Hoppner, his officers and men, almost exhausted with the +incessant labour of the 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 afford, with the assistance of art, +something like shelter. Wild and insecure 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 occasion 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 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 the smallest external pressure must +inevitably force us ashore, neither ship having more than two feet of +water to spare. One watch of the _Hecla’s_ crew were sent round to +assist at the _Fury’s_ pumps, which required one-third of her ship’s +company to be constantly employed at them. + +The ice coming in with considerable violence on the night of the 2nd, +once more forced the _Fury_ on shore, so that at low water she sewed two +feet and a half. Nothing but the number and strength of the _Hecla’s_ +hawsers prevented her sharing the same fate, for the pressure was just as +much as seven of these of six inches and two stream-cables would bear. +The _Fury_ floated in the morning, and was enabled to haul off a little, +but there was no opening of the ice to allow us to move to our intended +station. The more leisure we obtained to consider the state of the +_Fury_, the more apparent became the absolute, however unfortunate, +necessity of heaving her down. Four pumps were required to be at work +without intermission to keep her free, and this in perfectly smooth +water, showing that she was, in fact, so materially injured as to be very +far from seaworthy. One-third of her working men were constantly +employed, as before remarked, in this laborious operation, and some of +their hands had become so sore from the constant friction of the ropes, +that they could hardly handle them any longer without the use of mittens, +assisted by the unlaying of the ropes to make them soft. When, in +addition to these circumstances, the wet state of the decks and the +little room left, as well as the reduced strength for working the ship or +heaving at hawsers among the ice, be considered, I believe that every +seaman will admit the impracticability of pursuing this critical +navigation till the _Fury_ had been examined and repaired. As, +therefore, not a moment could be lost we took advantage of a small lane +of water deep enough for boats, which kept open within the grounded +masses along the shore, to convey to the _Hecla_ some of the _Fury’s_ dry +provisions, and to land a quantity of heavy ironwork and other stores not +perishable; for the moment this measure was determined on I was anxious, +almost at any risk, to commence the lightening of the ship as far as our +present insecurity and our distance from the shore would permit. + +The wind blowing fresh from the northward, which always increased our +difficulties on this coast, the ice pressed so violently upon the ships +as almost to force them adrift during the night, employing our people, +now sufficiently harassed by their work during the day, for two or three +hours in still further increasing our security by additional hawsers. We +continued landing stores from the _Fury_ on the 4th, and at night a bower +cable was passed round one of the grounded masses alongside of her; for +if either ship had once got adrift, it is difficult to say what might +have been the consequence. + +At two A.M. on the 5th, the ice began to slacken near the ships, and as +soon as a boat could be rowed along shore to the southward, I set out, +accompanied by a second from the _Fury_, for the purpose of examining the +state of our intended harbour since the recent pressure, and to endeavour +to prepare for the reception of the ships by clearing out the loose ice. +On my arrival there, the distance being about a mile, I found that one of +the three bergs had shifted its place so materially by the late movements +of the ice, as not only to alter the disposition of these masses, on +which our whole dependence rested, very much for the worse, but also to +destroy all confidence in their stability upon the ground. Landing upon +one of the bergs to show the appointed signal for the ships to come, I +perceived, about half a mile beyond us to the southward, a low point +forming a little bay, with a great deal of heavy grounded ice lying off +it. I immediately rowed to this, in hopes of finding something like a +harbour for our purpose, but on my arrival there, had once more the +mortification to find that there were not above six feet of water at low +tide in any part of it, and within the grounded ice not more than twelve. +Having assured myself that no security or shelter was here to be found, I +immediately returned to the former place, which the _Hecla_ was just +reaching. The _Fury_ was detained some time by a quantity of loose ice +which had wedged itself in, in such a manner as to leave her no room to +move outwards; but she arrived about seven o’clock, when both ships were +made fast in the best berths we could find, but they were still excluded +from their intended place by the quantity of ice which had fixed itself +there. Within twenty minutes after our arrival, the whole body of ice +again came in, entirely closing up the shore, so that our moving proved +most opportune. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +Formation of a Basin for heaving the Fury down—Landing of the Fury’s +Stores, and other preparations—The Ships secured within the +Basin—Impediments from the pressure of the Ice—Fury hove down—Securities +of the Basin destroyed by a Gale of Wind—Preparations to tow the Fury +out—Hecla re-equipped, and obliged to put to Sea—Fury again driven on +Shore—Rejoin the Fury; and find it necessary finally to abandon her. + +As there was now no longer room for floating the ice out of our proposed +basin, all hands were immediately employed in preparing the intended +securities against the incursions of the ice. These consisted of anchors +carried to the beach, having bower-cables attached to them, passing quite +round the grounded masses, and thus enclosing a small space of just +sufficient size to admit both ships. The cables we proposed floating by +means of the two hand-masts and some empty casks lashed to them as buoys, +with the intention of thus making them receive the pressure of the ice a +foot or two below the surface of the water. By uncommon exertions on the +part of the officers and men, this laborious work was completed before +night as far as was practicable until the loose ice should set out; and +all the tents were set up on the beach for the reception of the _Fury’s_ +stores. + +The ice remaining quite close on the 6th, every individual in both ships, +with the exception of those at the pumps, was employed in landing +provisions from the _Fury_, together with the spars, boats, and +everything from off her upper deck. The ice coming in, in the afternoon, +with a degree of pressure which usually attended a northerly wind on this +coast, twisted the _Fury’s_ rudder so forcibly against a mass of ice +lying under her stern that it was for some hours in great danger of being +damaged, and was indeed only saved by the efforts of Captain Hoppner and +his officers, who, without breaking off the men from their other +occupations, themselves worked at the ice-saw. On the following day, the +ice remaining as before, the work was continued without intermission, and +a great quantity of things landed. The two carpenters (Messrs. Pulfer +and Fiddis) took the _Fury’s_ boats in hand themselves, their men being +required as part of our physical strength in clearing the ship. The +armourer was also set to work on the beach in forging bolts for the +martingales of the outriggers. In short, every living creature among us +was somehow or other employed, not even excepting our dogs, which were +set to drag up the stores on the beach; so that our little dockyard soon +exhibited the most animated scene imaginable. The quickest method of +landing casks and other things not too weighty, was that adopted by +Captain Hoppner, and consisted of a hawser secured to the ship’s main +mast-head, and set up as tight as possible to the anchor on the beach; +the casks being hooked to a block traversing on this as a jack-stay, were +made to run down it with great velocity. By this means more than two +were got on shore for every one landed by the boats, the latter, however, +being constantly employed in addition. The _Fury_ was thus so much +lightened in the course of the day that two pumps were now nearly +sufficient to keep her free, and this number continued requisite until +she was hove down. Her spirit-room was now entirely clear, and, on +examination, the water was found to be rushing in through two or three +holes that happened to be in the ceiling, and which were immediately +plugged up. Indeed; it was now very evident that nothing but the +tightness of the Fury’s diagonal ceiling had so long kept her afloat, and +that any ship not thus fortified within could not possibly have been kept +free by the pumps. + +At night, just as the people were going to rest, the ice began to move to +the southward, and soon after came in towards the shore, again +endangering the _Fury’s_ rudder, and pressing her over on her side to so +alarming a degree, as to warn us that it would not be safe to lighten her +much more in her present insecure situation. One of our bergs also +shifted its position by this pressure, so as to weaken our confidence in +the pier-heads of our intended basin; and a long “tongue” of one of them +forcing itself under the _Hecla’s_ forefoot, while the drift-ice was also +pressing her forcibly from astern, she once more sewed three or four feet +forward at low water, and continued to do so, notwithstanding repeated +endeavours to haul her off, for four successive tides the ice remaining +so close and so much doubled under the ship, as to render it impossible +to move her a single inch. Notwithstanding the state of the ice, +however, we did not remain idle on the 8th, all hands being employed in +unrigging the _Fury_, and landing all her spars, sails, booms, boats, and +other top-weight. + +The ice still continuing very close on the 9th, all hands were employed +in attempting, by saws and axes, to clear the _Hecla_, which still +grounded on the tongue of ice every tide. After four hours’ labour, they +succeeded in making four or five feet of room astern, when the ship +suddenly slid down off the tongue with considerable force, and became +once more afloat. We then got on shore the _Hecla’s_ cables and hawsers +for the accommodation of the _Fury’s_ men in our tiers during the heaving +down, struck our top-masts which would be required as shores and +outriggers, and, in short, continued to occupy every individual in some +preparation or other. These being entirely completed at an early hour in +the afternoon, we ventured to go on with the landing of the coals and +provisions from the _Fury_, preferring to run the risk which would thus +be incurred, to the loss of even a few hours in the accomplishment of our +present object. As it very opportunely happened, however, the external +ice slackened to the distance of about a hundred yards outside of us on +the morning of the 10th, enabling us, by a most tedious and laborious +operation, to clear the ice out of our basin piece by piece. The +difficulty of this apparently simple process consisted in the heavy +pressure having repeatedly doubled one mass under another—a position in +which it requires great power to move them—and also by the corners +locking in with the sides of the bergs. Our next business was to tighten +the cables sufficiently by means of purchases, and to finish the floating +of them in the manner and for the purpose before described. After this +had been completed, the ships had only a few feet in length, and nothing +in breadth to spare; but we had now great hopes of going on with our work +with increased confidence and security. The _Fury_, which was placed +inside, had something less than eighteen feet at low water; the _Hecla_ +lay in four fathoms, the bottom being strewed with large and small +fragments of limestone. + +While thus employed in securing the ships, the smoothness of the water +enabled us to see in some degree the nature of the _Fury’s_ damage; and +it may be conceived how much pain it occasioned us plainly to discover +that both the stern-post and forefoot were broken and turned up on one +side with the pressure. We also could perceive as far as we were able to +see along the main-keel, that it was much torn, and we had therefore +reason to conclude that the damage would altogether prove very serious. +We also discovered that several feet of the _Hecla’s_ false keel were +torn away abreast of the fore-chains, in consequence of her grounding +forward so frequently. + +The ships being now as well secured as our means permitted from the +immediate danger of ice, the clearing of the _Fury_ went on during the +11th with increased confidence, though greater alacrity was impossible, +for nothing could exceed the spirit and zealous activity of every +individual, and as things had turned out, the ice had not obliged us to +wait a moment, except at the actual times of its pressure. Being +favoured with fine weather, we continued our work very quickly, so that +on the 12th every cask was landed and also the powder; and the spare +sails and clothing put on board the _Hecla_. On the 13th we found that a +mass of heavy ice, which had been aground within the _Fury_, had now +floated off alongside of her at high water, still further contracting our +already narrow basin, and leaving the ship no room for turning round. At +the next high water, therefore, we got a purchase on it and hove it out +of the way, so that at night it drifted off altogether. The coals and +preserved meats were the principal things now remaining on board the +_Fury_, and these we continued landing by every method we could devise as +the most expeditious. The tide rose so considerably at night, new moon +occurring within an hour of high water, that we were much afraid of our +bergs floating: they remained firm, however, even though the ice came in +with so much force as to break one of our hand-masts, a fir spar of +twelve inches diameter. As the high tides and the lightening of the +_Fury_ now gave us sufficient depth of water for unshipping the rudders, +we did so, and laid them upon the small berg astern of us, for fear of +their being damaged by any pressure of the ice. + +Early on the morning of the 14th, the ice slackening a little in our +neighbourhood, we took advantage of it, though the people were much +fagged, to tighten the cables, which had stretched and yielded +considerably by the late pressure. It was well that we did so; for in +the course of this day we were several times interrupted in our work by +the ice coming with a tremendous strain on the north cables, the wind +blowing strong from the N.N.W., and the whole “pack” outside of us +setting rapidly to the southward. Indeed, notwithstanding the recent +tightening and readjustment of the cables, the bight was pressed in so +much as to force the _Fury_ against the berg astern of her twice in the +course of the day. Mr. Waller, who was in the hold the second time that +this occurred, reported that the coals about the keelson were moved by +it, imparting the sensation of a part of the ship’s bottom falling down; +and one of the men at work there was so strongly impressed with that +belief that he thought it high time to make a spring for the hatchway. +From this circumstance it seemed more than probable that the main keel +had received some serious damage near the middle of the ship. + +From this trial of the efficacy of our means of security, it was plain +that the _Fury_ could not possibly be hove down under circumstances of +such frequent and imminent risk; I therefore directed a fourth anchor, +with two additional cables, to be carried out, with the hope of breaking +some of the force of the ice by its offering a more oblique resistance +than the other, and thus by degrees turning the direction of the pressure +from the ships. We had scarcely completed this new defence, when the +largest floe we had seen since leaving Port Bowen came sweeping along the +shore, having a motion to the southward of not less than a mile and a +half an hour; and a projecting point of it just grazing our outer berg, +threatened to overturn it, and would certainly have dislodged it from its +situation but for the cable recently attached to it. A second similar +occurrence took place with a smaller mass of ice about midnight, and near +the top of an unusually high spring tide, which seemed ready to float +away every security from us. For three hours about the time of this high +water, our situation was a most critical one, for had the bergs, or +indeed any one of them, been carried away or broken, both ships must +inevitably have been driven on shore by the very next mass of ice that +should come in. Happily, however, they did not suffer any further +material disturbance, and the main body keeping at a short distance from +the land until the tide had fallen, the bergs seemed to be once more +firmly resting on the ground. The only mischief, therefore, occasioned +by this disturbance was the slackening of our cables by the alteration in +the positions of the several grounded masses, and the consequent +necessity of employing more time, which nothing but absolute necessity +could induce us to bestow in adjusting and tightening the whole of them +afresh. + +The wind veering to the W.N.W. on the morning of the 15th, and still +continuing to blow strong, the ice was forced three or four miles off the +land in the course of a few hours, leaving us a quiet day for continuing +our work, but exciting no very pleasing sensations when we considered +what progress we might have been making had we been at liberty to pursue +our object. The land was, indeed, so clear of ice to the southward that +Dr. Neill, who walked a considerable distance in that direction, could +see nothing but an open channel in-shore to the utmost extent of his +view. We took advantage of this open water to send the launch for the +_Fury’s_ ironwork left at the former station; for though the few men thus +employed could very ill be spared, we were obliged to arrange everything +with reference to the ultimate saving of time; and it would have occupied +both ships’ companies more than a whole day to carry the things round by +land. + +The _Fury_ being completely cleared at an early hour on the 16th, we were +all busily employed in “winding” the ship, and in preparing the +outriggers, shores, purchases, and additional rigging. Though we +purposely selected the time of high water for turning the ship round, we +had scarcely a foot of space to spare for doing it, and indeed, as it +was, her forefoot touched the ground, and loosened the broken part of the +wood so much as to enable us to pull it up with ropes, when we found the +fragments to consist of the whole of the “gripe” and most of the +“cutwater.” The strong breeze continuing, and the sea rising as the open +water increased in extent, our bergs were sadly washed and wasted; every +hour producing a sensible and serious diminution in their bulk. As, +however, the main body of ice still kept off, we were in hopes, now that +our preparations were so near completed, we should have been enabled in a +few hours to see the extent of the damage, and repair it sufficiently to +allow us to proceed. In the evening we received the _Fury’s_ crew on +board the _Hecla_, every arrangement and regulation having been +previously made for their personal comfort, and for the preservation of +cleanliness, ventilation, and dry warmth throughout the ship. The +officers of the _Fury_, by their own choice, pitched a tent on shore for +messing and sleeping in, as our accommodation for two sets of officers +was necessarily confined. On the 17th, when every preparation was +completed, the cables were found again so slack, by the wasting of the +bergs in consequence of the continued sea, and possibly also in part by +the masses having moved somewhat in-shore, that we were obliged to occupy +several hours in putting them to rights, as we should soon require all +our strength at the purchases. One berg had also, at the last low water, +fallen over on its side in consequence of its substance being undermined +by the sea, and the cable surrounding it was thus forced so low under +water as no longer to afford protection from the ice should it again come +in. In tightening the cables, we found it to have the effect of bringing +the bergs in towards the shore, still further contracting our narrow +basin; but anything was better than suffering them to go adrift. This +work being finished at ten P.M. the people were allowed three hours’ rest +only, it being necessary to heave the ship down at or near high water, as +there was not sufficient depth to allow her to take her distance at any +other time of tide. Every preparation being made, at three A.M. on the +18th, we began to heave her down on the larboard side, but when the +purchases were nearly a-block, we found that the strops under the +_Hecla’a_ bottom, as well as some of the _Fury’s_ shorefasts, had +stretched or yielded so much, that they could not bring the keel out of +water within three or four feet. We immediately eased her up again, and +readjusted everything as requisite, hauling her farther in-shore than +before by keeping a considerable heel upon her, so as to make less depth +of water necessary; and we were then in the act of once more heaving her +down, when a snowstorm came on and blew with such violence off the land, +as to raise a considerable sea. The ships had now so much motion as to +strain the gear very much, and even to make the lower masts of the _Fury_ +bend in spite of the shores: we were, therefore, most unwillingly +compelled to desist until the sea should go down, keeping everything +ready to recommence the instant we could possibly do so with safety. The +officers and men were now literally so harassed and fatigued as to be +scarcely capable of further exertion without some rest; and on this and +one or two other occasions, I noticed more than a single instance of +stupor amounting to a certain degree of failure in intellect, rendering +the individual so affected quite unable at first to comprehend the +meaning of an order, though still as willing as ever to obey it. It was +therefore perhaps a fortunate necessity which produced the intermission +of labour which the strength of every individual seemed to require. + +The gale rather increasing than otherwise during the whole day and night +of the 18th, had on the following morning, when the wind and sea still +continued unabated, so destroyed the bergs on which our sole dependence +was placed, that they no longer remained aground at low water; the cables +had again become slack about them, and the basin we had taken so much +pains in forming had now lost all its defences, at least during a portion +of every tide. It will be plain, too, if I have succeeded in giving a +distinct description of our situation, that, independently of the +security of the ships, there was now nothing left to seaward by which the +_Hecla_ could be held out in that direction while heaving the _Fury_ +down, so that our preparations in this way were no longer available. +After a night of most anxious consideration and consultation with Captain +Hoppner, who was now my messmate in the _Hecla_, it appeared but too +plain, that, should the ice again come in, neither ship could any longer +be secured from driving on shore. It was therefore determined instantly +to prepare the _Hecla_ for sea, making her thoroughly effective in every +respect; so that we might at least push her out into comparative safety +among the ice, when it closed again, taking every person on board her, +securing the _Fury_ in the best manner we could, and returning to her the +instant we were able to do so, to endeavour to get her out, and to carry +her to some place of security for heaving down. If, after the _Hecla_ +was ready, time should still be allowed us, it was proposed immediately +to put into the _Fury_ all that was requisite, or at least as much as she +could safely carry, and towing her out into the ice, to try the effect of +“foddering” the leaks by sails under those parts of her keel which we +knew to be damaged, until some more effectual means could be resorted to. + +Having communicated to the assembled officers and ships’ companies my +views and intentions, and moreover given them to understand that I hoped +to see the _Hecla’s_ top-gallant-yards across before we slept, we +commenced our work; and such was the hearty goodwill and indefatigable +energy with which it was carried on, that by midnight the whole was +accomplished, and a bower-anchor and cable carried out in the offing, for +the double purpose of hauling out the _Hecla_ when requisite, and as some +security to the _Fury_, if we were obliged to leave her. The people were +once more quite exhausted by these exertions, especially those belonging +to the _Fury_, who had never thoroughly recovered their first fatigues. +The ice being barely in sight, we were enabled to enjoy seven hours of +undisturbed rest; but the wind becoming light, and afterwards shifting to +the N.N.E., we had reason to expect the ice would soon close the shore, +and were, therefore, most anxious to continue our work. + +On the 20th, therefore, the reloading of the _Fury_ commenced with +recruited strength and spirits, such articles being in the first place +selected for putting on board as were essentially requisite for her +re-equipment; for it was my full determination, could we succeed in +completing this, not to wait even for rigging a topmast, or getting a +lower yard up, in the event of the ice coming in, but to tow her out +among the ice, and there put everything sufficiently to rights for +carrying her to some place of security. At the same time, the end of the +sea-cable was taken on board the _Fury_, by way of offering some +resistance to the ice, which was now more plainly seen, though still +about five miles distant, A few hands were also spared, consisting +chiefly of two or three convalescents, and some of the officers, to thrum +a sail for putting under the _Fury’s_ keel; for we were very anxious to +relieve the men at the pumps, which constantly required the labour of +eight to twelve hands to keep her free. In the course of the day, +several heavy masses of ice came drifting by with a breeze from the N.E., +which is here about two points upon the land, and made a considerable +swell. One mass came in contact with our bergs, which, though only held +by the cables, brought it up in time to prevent mischief. By a long and +hard day’s labour, the people not going to rest till two o’clock on the +morning of the 21st, we got about fifty tons’ weight of coals and +provisions on board the _Fury_, which, in case of necessity, we +considered sufficient to give her stability. While we were thus +employed, the ice, though evidently inclined to come in, did not approach +us much; and it may be conceived with what anxiety we longed to be +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 _Hecla_ for casting by a spring 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 violently 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 +setting considerably on the shore, became more and more precarious; and +indeed, under circumstances as critical as can well be imagined, nothing +but the urgency and importance 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 _Hecla_ under 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 board, 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 masses of ice drove along the shore +near us at a quick rate, and two or three successively coming 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 _Hecla_ could no longer be kept in her present situation with +the smallest chance of safety, and therefore immediately got under sail, +dispatching Captain Hoppner with every individual, except a few for +working the ship, to continue getting the things on board the _Fury_, +while the _Hecla_ 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 closing in with the land +near her; and at twenty minutes past four P.M., being an hour and five +minutes after the _Hecla_ had cast off, I was informed by signal that the +_Fury_ was on shore. Making a tack in-shore, but not being able, even +under 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 _Hecla_ 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 Hoppner was thoroughly +acquainted with all my views and intentions, 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 +_Fury_, seemed to offer 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 officer 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 Ross, 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 the 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 _Fury_, nothing +short of chopping and sawing up a part of the ice under her stern could +by any possibility have effected her release, 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 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 at the pumps so long as a communication could be kept up between +the _Hecla_ and the shore. Every moment, however, decreased the +practicability of doing this; and finding, soon after Captain Hoppner’s +return, that the current swept the _Hecla_ a long way to the southward +while hoisting up the boats, and that more ice was drifting in towards +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 +increasing 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 leisure now allowed us, to let the people mend and +wash their clothes, which they had scarcely had a moment to do for the +last three weeks. We also completed the thrumming of a second sail for +putting under the _Fury’s_ keel whenever we should be enabled to haul her +off the shore. It fell quite calm in the evening, when the breadth of +the ice in-shore had increased to six or seven miles. We did not during +the day perceive any current setting to the southward, 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 _Fury_ 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 +_Fury_ 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 beach several miles in extent, afterwards joining higher land, +and running in a south-easterly direction to a point which terminated 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 discovery. The whole of the bay +(which I named after my 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 perfectly navigable sea in that +direction; but between us and the Fury there 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. + +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 produced 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 this was now +impracticable, the ice being once more closely packed there. We could +only wait, therefore, in patience, for some alteration in our favour. +The latitude at noon was 72° 34′ 57″, making our distance from the _Fury_ +twelve miles, which by the morning of the 25th had increased to at least +five leagues, the ice continuing 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 streaming off in the course of the day, that by +seven P.M. we had nearly reached a channel of clear water, which kept +open for seven or eight miles from the land. Being impatient to obtain a +sight of the _Fury_, 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 floe-piece, which was still alongside +of her, seemed alone to support her 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, we found +that she had pushed the stones at the bottom up before her, and that the +broken keel, stern-post, and deadwood 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 high water, the depth +was eleven feet alongside her keel; forward 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 _Fury’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 seaward, or securing her from +the further incursions of the ice, every endeavour of ours to get her +off, or if got off, to float her to any known place of safety, would be +at once utterly hopeless in itself, and productive of extreme risk to our +remaining ship. + +Being anxious, however, in a case of so much importance, to avail myself +of the judgment and experience 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 _Fury_, to hold a +survey upon her, and to report their opinions to me. And to prevent the +possibility of the officers receiving any bias from my own opinion, the +order was given to them the moment we arrived on board the _Fury_. + +Captain Hoppner and the other officers, after spending several hours in +attentively examining every part of the ship, both within and without, +and maturely weighing all the circumstances of her situation, gave it as +their opinion that it would be quite impracticable to make her seaworthy, +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; and that, if even hove +down, twenty days’ work, with the means we possessed, would be required +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 +hopelessness of saving her, and feeling more strongly than ever the +responsibility which attached to me of preserving the _Hecla_ 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 _Hecla’s_ bower-anchor, which had been placed on the beach, was sent +on board as soon as the people came on shore; but her remaining cable was +too much entangled with the grounded ice to be disengaged without great +loss of time. Having allowed the officers and men an hour for packing up +their clothes, and what else belonging to them the water in the ship had +not covered, the _Fury’s_ 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 _Fury’s_ stores were of necessity left either on board +her or on shore, every spare corner that we could find in the _Hecla_ +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 +limited space would permit. The spot where the _Fury_ was left is in +latitude 72° 42′ 30″, the longitude by chronometers is 91° 50′ 05″, the +dip of the magnetic needle 88° 19′ 22″, and the variation 129° 25′ +westerly. + +When the accident first happened to the _Fury_, I confidently expected to +have been able to repair her damages in good time to take advantage of a +large 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 destroy, with a rapidity of which we had before no +conception, our sole defence from the incursions of the ice, as well as +the only trustworthy means we before possessed of holding the _Hecla_ 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 expectation I had hitherto cherished +of the ultimate accomplishment of our object. Those expectations were +now at an end. With a twelvemonth’s provisions for both ships’ +companies, extending our resources only to the autumn of the following +year, it would have been folly to hope for final success, considering the +small progress we had already made, the uncertain 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 circumstances 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 before the ice should again set in-shore. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Some Remarks upon the loss of the Fury—And on the Natural History, &c., +of the Coast of North Somerset—Arrive at Neill’s Harbour—Death of John +Page—Leave Neill’s Harbour—Recross the Ice in Baffin’s Bay—Heavy +Gales—Aurora Borealis—Temperature of the Sea—Arrival in England. + +The accident which had now befallen the _Fury_, 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 navigation, 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 will be plain that an occurrence of this nature was +at all times rather to be expected than otherwise, and that the only real +cause for wonder has been our long exemption from such a catastrophe. I +can confidently affirm, and I trust that on such an occasion I may be +permitted 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 not 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 accomplish the Northwest Passage. On numerous +occasions, which will easily recur to the memory of those I have had the +honour to command, 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, and thus preserved 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. + +The ice we met with after leaving Port Bowen, previously to the _Fury’s_ +disaster, and for some days after, I consider to have been much the +lightest as well as the most broken we have ever had to contend with. +During the time we were shut up at our last station near the _Fury_, one +or two floes of very large dimensions drifted past us; and these were of +that heavy “hummocky” kind which we saw off Cape Kater in the beginning +of August, 1819. On the whole, however, Mr. Allison and myself had +constant occasion to remark the total absence of floes, and the unusual +lightness of the other ice. We thought, indeed, that this latter +circumstance might account for its being 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 apprehension of some new and +increased 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 up, was +extremely luxuriant and forward; a great deal of the old snow which had +laid on the ground during the last season was rapidly dissolving even +early in August; and every appearance of Nature exhibited a striking +contrast with the last summer, while it seemed evidently to furnish an +extraordinary compensation for its rigour and inclemency. + +We have scarcely ever 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, +however, as an exception to this scarcity of animals, the numberless +kittiwakes which were flying about the remarkable spout of water; and we +were one day visited, at the place where the _Fury_ was left, by hundreds +of white whales sporting about in the shoal water close to the beach. No +black whales were ever seen on this coast. Two reindeer were observed by +the gentlemen who extended 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 this 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 that there was a constant southerly set at this season; but the +experience we had before obtained of that superficial current which every +breeze of wind creates in a sea encumbered with ice, 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 was 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 Melville Island in 1820 +will abundantly testify; every light air of wind producing, in half an +hour’s time, an extraordinary 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 determining the true direction of the +flood-tide, the latter being generally much the weaker of the two, and +therefore 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 occasionally 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. + +The weather continuing nearly calm during the 26th, 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 _Fury’s_ crew +more comfortably for their accommodation and convenience. 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 _Fury_ down, without the smallest doubt or selection as to size +or strength, 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 +the 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, lightly powdering the higher parts, +especially those having a northern aspect, and creating a much more +wintry sensation than the large broad patches or drifts, which, on all +tolerably high land in these regions, remain 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, anywhere 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 Neill’s Harbour to put in here, +in order to prepare the ship completely for crossing the Atlantic. I was +desirous also of ascertaining the depth of water in this place, which was +wanting to complete Lieutenant Sherer’s survey of it. At one P.M., +therefore, after communicating to the officers and ships’ companies my +intention to return to England, I left the ship, accompanied by +Lieutenant Sherer in a second boat, to obtain the necessary soundings for +conducting the ship to the anchorage, and to lay down a buoy in the +proper berth. Finding the harbour an extremely convenient one for our +purpose, we worked the ship in, and at four 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 tombstone, having on it a copper-plate +with the usual inscription. + +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 29th and 30th; +during which time Lieutenant Sherer was employed 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 that the sea 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 Bowen, to which it is far superior, corresponds with +one of the apparent openings 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 the anchoring +ground is entirely land-locked, and some shoal points which narrow the +entrance would serve to break off 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 no description of them is necessary. The harbour +may best be 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 is +the more peculiar, as consisting of that very regular horizontal +stratification appearing to be supported by buttresses, which +characterises a large portion of the western shore of Prince Regent’s +Inlet, but is not seen on any part of this coast so well 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 rise 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 73° 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 Harbour, 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 probably, 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. + +Finding the wind at north-west in Prince Regent’s Inlet, we were barely +able to lie along the eastern coast. As the breeze freshened in the +course of the day, a great 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 the northward. By carrying a press of +sail, however, we were enabled, towards night, to get 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. Many 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 attributed +to the extraordinary prevalence and strength of the easterly winds during +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 situation of the ice 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 season 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 now increased to +38°, soon after leaving the Sound, where it had generally been from 33° +to 35°, whereas at the same season last year it rose no higher than 32° +anywhere 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. In the whole course +of this distance the ice was so much spread, that it would not, if at all +closely “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, between the +parallels of 73° and 74°, when compared with its extent and closeness +about the same time the preceding year, was a decided confirmation, if +any were wanting, that the summer of 1824 was extremely unfavourable for +penetrating to the westward about the usual latitudes. How it had proved +elsewhere we could not of course conjecture, till, on the 8th, being in +latitude 71° 55′, longitude 60° 30′, and close to the margin of the ice, +we fell in with the _Alfred_, _Ellison_, and _Elizabeth_, whalers of +Hull, all running to the northward, even at this season, to look for +whales. From them we learned that the _Ellison_ 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 _Ellison_ informed us that, after continuing their course +along the margin of the ice to the southward, they at length passed +through it to the western land without any difficulty, in the latitude of +68° 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 confess 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 +information I have been able to collect, has never before occurred during +the only six years that it has been customary for the whalers to cross +this ice at all, and which, therefore, in all probability, will seldom +occur again. + +If we seek for a cause for the ice thus hanging with more than ordinary +tenacity to the northward, the comparative coldness of the season +indicated by our meteorological observations may perhaps be considered +sufficient to furnish it. For as the annual clearing of the northern +parts of Baffin’s Bay depends entirely on the time of the disruption of +the ice, and the rate at which it is afterwards drifted to the southward +by the excess of northerly winds, any circumstance tending to retain it +in the bays and inlets to a later period than usual, and subsequently to +hold it together in large floes, which drive more slowly than smaller +masses, would undoubtedly produce the effect in question. There is, at +all events, one useful practical inference to be drawn from what has been +stated, which is that, though perhaps in a considerable majority of years +a northern latitude may prove the most favourable for crossing in, yet +seasons will sometimes intervene in which it will be a matter of great +uncertainty whereabouts to make the attempt with the best hope of +success. + +As the whaling ships were not homeward bound, having as yet had +indifferent success in the fishery, I did not consider it necessary to +send despatches by them. After an hour’s communication with them, and +obtaining such information of a public nature as could not fail to be +highly interesting to us, we made sail to the southward: while we +observed them lying-to for some time after, probably to consult +respecting the unwelcome information with which we had furnished them as +to the whales, not one of which, by some extraordinary chance, we had +seen since leaving Neill’s Harbour. As this circumstance was entirely +new to us, it seems not unlikely that the whales are already beginning to +shift their ground, in consequence of the increased attacks which have +been made upon them of late years in that neighbourhood. + +On the 10th we had an easterly wind, which, gradually freshening to a +gale, drew up the Strait from the southward, and blew strong for +twenty-four hours from that quarter. In the course of the night, and +while lying-to under the storm-sails, an iceberg was discovered, by its +white appearance, under our lee. The main-topsail being thrown aback we +were enabled to drop clear of this immense body, which would have been a +dangerous neighbour in a heavy seaway. The wind moderated on the 11th, +but on the following day another gale came on, which for nine or ten +hours blew in most tremendous gusts from the same quarter, and raised a +heavy sea. We happily came near no ice during the night, or it would +scarcely have been possible to keep the ship clear of it. It abated +after daylight on the 13th, but continued to blow an ordinary gale for +twelve hours longer. It was remarkable that the weather was extremely +clear overhead during the whole of this last gale, which is very unusual +here with a southerly wind. Being favoured with a northerly breeze on +the 15th we began to make some way to the southward. From nine A.M. to +one P.M. a change of temperature in the sea water took place from 37° to +33°. This circumstance seemed to indicate our approach to some ice +projecting to the eastward beyond the straight and regular margin of the +“pack,” which was at this time not in sight. The indication proved +correct and useful; for after passing several loose pieces of ice during +the night, on the morning of the 15th, just at daybreak, we came to a +considerable body of it, through which we continued to run to the +southward. We were now in latitude 68° 56′, and in longitude 58° 27′, in +which situation a great many bergs were in sight, and apparently aground. +We ran through this ice, which was very heavy, but loose and much broken +up, the whole day; when having sailed fifty-three miles S.S.E., and +appearances being the same as ever, we hauled to the E.S.E., to endeavour +to get clear before dark, which we were just enabled to effect after a +run of thirty miles in that direction, and then bore up to the southward. +After this we saw but one iceberg and one heavy loose piece previous to +our clearing Davis’s Strait. + +On the 17th at noon we had passed to the southward of the Arctic Circle, +and from this latitude to that of about 58° we had favourable winds and +weather; but we remarked on this, as on several other occasions during +this season, that a northerly breeze, contrary to ordinary observation, +brought more moisture with it than any other. In the course of this run +we also observed more drift-wood than we had ever done before, which I +thought might possibly be owing to the very great prevalence of easterly +winds this season driving it further from the coast of Greenland than +usual. We saw very large flocks of kittiwakes, some of the whales called +finners, and, as we supposed, a few also of the black kind, together with +multitudes of porpoises. + +On the morning of the 24th, notwithstanding the continuance of a +favourable breeze, we met, in the latitude of 58½°, so heavy a swell from +the north-eastward as to make the ship labour violently for +four-and-twenty hours. The northerly wind then dying away was succeeded +by a light air from the eastward with constant rain. A calm then +followed for several hours, causing the ship to roll heavily in the +hollow of the sea. On the morning of the 25th we had again an easterly +wind, which in a few hours reduced us to the close-reefed topsails and +reefed courses. At eight P.M. it freshened to a gale, which brought us +under the main-topsail and storm-staysails, and at seven the following +morning it increased to a gale of such violence from N.E.b.N. as does not +very often occur at sea in these latitudes. The gusts were at times so +tremendous as to set the sea quite in a foam, and threatened to tear the +sails out of the bolt-ropes. It abated a little for four hours in the +evening, but from nine P.M. till two the following morning blew with as +great violence as before, with a high sea, and very heavy rain; +constituting altogether as inclement weather as can well be conceived for +about eighteen hours. The wind gradually drew to the westward, with dry +weather, after the gale began to abate, and at six A.M. we were enabled +to bear up and run to the eastward with a strong gale at north-west. + +The indications of the barometer previous to and during this gale deserve +to be noticed, because it is only about Cape Farewell that, in coming +from the northward down Davis’s Strait, this instrument begins to speak a +language which has ever been intelligible to us as a weather-glass. As +it is also certain that a “stormy spirit” resides in the neighbourhood of +this headland, no less than in that of more famed ones to the south, it +may become a matter of no small practical utility for ships passing it, +especially in the autumn, to attend to the oscillations of the mercurial +column. It is with this impression alone that I have detailed the +otherwise uninteresting circumstances of the inclement weather we now +experienced here; and which was accompanied by the following indications +of the barometer. On the 24th, notwithstanding the change of wind from +north to east, the mercury rose from 29.51 on that morning, to 29.72 at +three A.M. the following day, but fell to 29.39 by nine P.M., with the +strong but not violent breeze then blowing. After this it continued to +descend very gradually, and had reached 28.84, which was its minimum, at +three P.M. on the 26th, after which it continued to blow tremendously +hard for eleven or twelve hours, the mercury uniformly though slowly +ascending to 28.95 during that interval, and afterwards to 29.73 as the +weather became moderate and fine in the course of the three following +days. + +After this gale the atmosphere seemed to be quite cleared, and we enjoyed +a week of such remarkably fine weather as seldom occurs at this season of +the year. We had then a succession of strong southerly winds, but were +enabled to continue our progress to the eastward, so as to make Mould +Head, towards the north-west end of the Orkney Islands, at daylight on +the 10th of October; and the wind becoming more westerly we rounded North +Ronaldsha Island at noon, and then shaped a course for Buchaness. + +In running down Davis’s Strait, as well as in crossing the Atlantic, we +saw on this passage as well as in all our former autumnal ones, a good +deal of the Aurora Borealis. It first began to display itself on the +15th of September, about the latitude of 69½°, appearing in the (true) +south-east quarter as a bright luminous patch five or six degrees above +the horizon, almost stationary for two or three hours together, but +frequently altering its intensity, and occasionally sending up vivid +streamers towards the zenith. It appeared in the same manner on several +subsequent nights in the south-west, west, and east quarters of the +heavens; and on the 20th a bright arch of it passed across the zenith +from S.E. to N.W., appearing to be very close to the ship, and affording +so strong a light as to throw the shadow of objects on the deck. The +next brilliant display, however, of this beautiful phenomenon which we +now witnessed, and which far surpassed anything of the kind observed at +Port Bowen, occurred on the night of the 24th of September, in latitude +58½°, longitude 44½°. It first appeared in a (true) east direction, in +detached masses like luminous clouds of yellow or sulphur-coloured light, +about three degrees above the horizon. When this appearance had +continued for about an hour, it began at nine P.M. to spread upwards, and +gradually extended itself into a narrow band of light passing through the +zenith and again downwards to the western horizon. Soon after this the +streams of light seemed no longer to emanate from the eastward, but from +a fixed point about one degree above the horizon on a true west bearing. +From this point, as from the narrow point of a funnel, streams of light, +resembling brightly illuminated vapour or smoke, appeared to be +incessantly issuing, increasing in breadth as they proceeded, and darting +with inconceivable velocity, such as the eye could scarcely keep pace +with, upwards towards the zenith, and in the same easterly direction +which the former arch had taken. The sky immediately under the spot from +which the light issued appeared, by a deception very common in this +phenomenon, to be covered with a dark cloud, whose outline the +imagination might at times convert into that of the summit of a mountain, +from which the light proceeded like the flames of a volcano. The streams +of light as they were projected upwards did not consist of continuous +vertical columns or streamers, but almost entirely of separate, though +constantly renewed masses, which seemed to roll themselves laterally +onward with a sort of undulating motion, constituting what I have +understood to be meant by that modification of the Aurora called the +“merry dancers,” which is seen in beautiful perfection at the Shetland +Islands. The general colour of the light was yellow, but an orange and a +greenish tinge were at times very distinctly perceptible, the intensity +of the light and colours being always the greatest when occupying the +smallest space. Thus the lateral margins of the band or arch seemed at +times to roll themselves inwards so as to approach each other, and in +this case the light just at the edges became much more vivid than the +rest. The intensity of light during the brightest part of the +phenomenon, which continued three-quarters of an hour, could scarcely be +inferior to that of the moon when full. + +We once more remarked in crossing the Atlantic that the Aurora often gave +a great deal of light at night, even when the sky was entirely overcast, +and it was on that account impossible to say from what part of the +heavens the light proceeded, though it was often fully equal to that +afforded by the moon in her quarters. This was rendered particularly +striking on the night of the 5th of October, in consequence of the +frequent and almost instantaneous changes which took place in this way, +the weather being rather dark and gloomy, but the sky at times so +brightly illuminated, almost in an instant, as to give quite as much +light as the full moon similarly clouded, and enabling one distinctly to +recognise persons from one end of the ship to the other. We did not on +any one occasion perceive the compasses to be affected by the Aurora +Borealis. + +As we approached the Orkneys, I demanded from the officers, in compliance +with my instructions from my 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, therefore, 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 _Hecla’s_ crew, and also those of the +_Fury_ (with the two exceptions already mentioned), return to their +native country in as good health as when they left it eighteen months +before. The _Hecla_ arrived at Sheerness on the 20th of October, where +she was detained for a few days for the purpose of Captain Hoppner, his +officers, and ship’s company, being put upon their trial (according to +the customary and indispensable rule in such cases) for the loss of the +_Fury_; when, it is scarcely necessary to add, they received an +honourable acquittal. The _Hecla_ then proceeded to Woolwich, and was +paid off on the 21st of November. + + + +ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX OF MELVILLE PENINSULA AND THE ADJOINING ISLANDS, + + +More particularly of Winter Island and Igloolik. + +The number of individuals composing the tribe of Esquimaux 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 +only 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 Europeans 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. 10 in. to 4 ft. 11 in. The average height, 5 ft. 5⅓ in. + +Women.—From 5 ft. 3½ in. to 4 ft. 8¾ in. The average height, 5 ft. ½in. + +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 otherwise. Their knees +are indeed rather large in proportion, but their legs are straight, and +the hands and feet, in both sexes, remarkably small. The younger +individuals were all plump, but none of them corpulent; the women +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, _Tē-ă_, his brother, his wife, and two +daughters had good Roman 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 furnished 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 easily, and therefore less +frequently, dislodged from them. Besides the smallness of their eyes, +there are two peculiarities in this feature common to almost all of them. +The first consists in the eye not being horizontal as with us, but coming +much lower at the end 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 general be distinguished, +they are by no means ill-looking people; and there were among them three +or four grown-up persons 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 about 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 extremely on the +length and thickness of their hair; and it was 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 side of +their heads and in front of their shoulders. To stiffen and bind these +they use a narrow strap of deerskin attached at one end to a round piece +of bone, fourteen 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 much resemble one of those +formerly worn by our seamen. The strap of this article of dress, which +is altogether called a _tŏglēēgă_, is so made from the deerskin 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 _tŏglēēgă_ and one plait; and others again, 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 chin, from an inch to an inch +and a half in length, and some 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 met with. In the form of the dress they vary very little from +those so repeatedly 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 dimensions; 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 and loose about the shoulders +than those of the men, for the convenience, as we understood, of more +readily depositing a child in the 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, just 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 (_Cāppĕ-tēggă_) has the hair outside, and the inner +one (_Attēēgă_) next the body. Immediately on entering the hut the men +take off their outer jacket, beat the snow 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 a 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 +considerably 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 (_Allĕktēēgă_) 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 moccasin 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 of the skin of the small seal (_neitiek_), except the +soles, which consist of the skin of the large seal (_oguke_); this last +is also used for their fishing-lines. When the men are not prepared to +encounter 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 hair 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 preposterously as to give the +women the most awkward, bow-legged appearance imaginable. This +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 sometimes 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 +moccasin (_Itteegĕgă_) 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 deerskin, 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 eight or nine years of age had a pair of +breeches and boots united in one, with braces over their shoulders to +keep them up. These, with a jacket like the others and a pair of +deer-skin mittens, with which each individual is furnished, constitute +the whole of their dress. Children’s clothes 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 still 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 intercourse, 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 second winter, covered the whole +front of their jackets with the beads they received from us. + +The most common ornament of this kind, exclusively their own, consists in +strings of teeth, sometimes many hundred in number, which are either +attached to the lower part of the jacket, like the fringe before +described, or fastened as a belt round the waist. Most of these teeth +are of the fox and wolf, but some also belong to the musk-ox +(_ōōmĭngmŭk_), of which animal, though it is never seen at Winter Island, +we procured from the Esquimaux several of the grinders and a quantity of +the hair and skin. The bones of the _kāblĕĕ-ārioo_, supposed to be the +wolverine, constitute another of their ornaments; and it is more than +probable that all these possess some imaginary qualities, as specific +charms for various purposes. The most extraordinary amulet, if it be +one, of this kind was a row of foxes’ noses attached to the fore-part of +a woman’s jacket like a tier of black buttons. I purchased from Iligliuk +a semicircular ornament of brass, serrated at the upper edge and brightly +polished, which she wore over her hair in front and which was very +becoming. The handsomest thing of this kind, however, was understood to +be worn on the head by men, though we did not learn on what occasions. +It consisted of a band two inches in breadth, composed of several strips +of skin sewn together, alternately black and yellow; near the upper edge +some hair was artfully interwoven, forming with the skin a very pretty +chequer-work: along the lower edge were suspended more than a hundred +small teeth, principally of the deer, neatly fastened by small double +tags of sinew, and forming a very appropriate fringe. + +Among their personal ornaments must also be reckoned that mode of marking +the body called tattooing, which, of the customs not essential to the +comfort or happiness of mankind, is perhaps the most extensively +practised throughout the world. Among those people it seems to be an +ornament of indispensable importance to the women, not one of them being +without it. The operation is performed about the age of ten, or +sometimes earlier, and has nothing to do with marriage, except that, +being considered in the light of a personal charm, it may serve to +recommend them as wives. The parts of the body thus marked are their +faces, arms, hands, thighs, and in some few women the breasts, but never +the feet as in Greenland. The operation, which by way of curiosity most +of our gentlemen had practised on their arms, is very expeditiously +managed by passing a needle and thread (the latter covered with +lamp-black and oil) under the epidermis, according to a pattern +previously marked out upon the skin. Several stitches being thus taken +at once, the thumb is pressed upon the part while the thread is drawn +through, by which means the colouring matter is retained, and a permanent +dye of a blue tinge imparted to the skin. A woman expert at this +business will perform it very quickly and with great regularity, but +seldom without drawing blood in many places, and occasioning some +inflammation. Where so large a portion of the surface of the body is to +be covered, it must become a painful as well as tedious process, +especially as, for want of needles, they often use a strip of whalebone +as a substitute. For those parts where a needle cannot conveniently be +passed under the skin they use the method by puncture, which is common in +other countries, and by which our seamen frequently mark their hands and +arms. Several of the men were marked on the back part of their hands; +and with them we understood it to be considered as a souvenir of some +distant or deceased person who had performed it. + +In their winter habitations, I have before mentioned that the only +materials employed are snow and ice, the latter being made use of for the +windows alone. The work is commenced by cutting from a drift of hard and +compact snow a number of oblong slabs, six or seven inches thick and +about two feet in length, and laying them edgeways on a level spot, also +covered with snow, in a circular form, and of a diameter from eight to +fifteen feet, proportioned to the number of occupants the hut is to +contain. Upon this as a foundation is laid a second tier of the same +kind, but with the pieces inclining a little inwards, and made to fit +closely to the lower slabs and to each other, by running a knife adroitly +along the under part and sides. The top of this tier is now prepared for +the reception of a third by squaring it off smoothly with a knife, all +which is dexterously performed by one man standing within the circle and +receiving the blocks of snow from those employed in cutting them without. +When the wall has attained a height of four or five feet, it leans so +much inward as to appear as if about to tumble every moment; but the +workmen still fearlessly lay their blocks of snow upon it, until it is +too high any longer to furnish the materials to the builder in this +manner. Of this he gives notice by cutting a hole close to the ground in +that part where the door is intended to be, which is near the south side, +and through this the snow is now passed. Thus they continue 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 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 people outside are in the +meantime occupied in throwing up snow with the _pŏoāllĕrāy_, or +snow-shovel, and in stuffing in little wedges of snow where holes have +been accidentally left. + +The builder next proceeds to let himself out by enlarging 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 by slabs laid on +horizontally. 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 account 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 feet in diameter, let into it. The light 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, +perhaps, 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 each apartment, except on the side next +the door. This bank, which is neatly squared off, forms their beds and +fireplace, 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 _andromeda tetragona_. +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 _kēipik_. + +The fire belonging to each family consists of a single lamp, or shallow +vessel of _lapis ollaris_, its form being the lesser segment of a circle. +The wick, composed of dry moss rubbed between the hands till it is quite +inflammable, is disposed along the edge of the lamp on the straight 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 sometimes 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 whale, 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 _Innĕtăt_, is intended 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 different ways, one for each +family occupying the corresponding bed-place. There is frequently also a +smaller and less-pretending establishment on the same model—lamp, pot, +net, and all—in one of the corners next the door; for one apartment +sometimes contains three families, which are always closely related, and +no married woman, or even a widow without children, is without 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 +air at the time being 25° below zero. A greater degree of warmth than +this produces extreme inconvenience by the dropping from the roofs. This +they endeavour to obviate by 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 spring, 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 _ōōtkŏŏsĕĕks_ 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 suspended 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-tight. +I may here remark that as these people distinguish the Wager River by the +name of _Oōtkŏŏsĕĕksălik_, 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 were 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 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 precisely similar to those described on the western +coast of Baffin’s Bay in 1820. They have also a number 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-all,” consisting of a small skin basket for catching the +oil that falls over. 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 convenient 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 _Immōōchiuk_. + +Besides the ivory knives, the men were well supplied with a much more +serviceable kind, made of iron, and 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 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 excursions. 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 be +observed of the best of their women’s knives (_ooloo_), on one of which, +of a larger 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 much like ours +in shape; and I must not omit to mention their marrow spoons +(_pattēkniuk_, from _pāttĕk_, marrow), made out of long, narrow, hollowed +pieces of bone, of which every housewife has a bunch of half a dozen or +more tied together, and generally attached to her needle-case. + +For the purpose of obtaining fire the Esquimaux use two lumps of common +iron pyrites, from which sparks are struck into a little leathern case +containing moss well dried and rubbed between the hands. If this tinder +does not readily catch, a small quantity of the white floss of the seed +of the ground willow is laid above the moss. As soon as a spark has +caught, it is gently blown till the fire has spread an inch around, when, +the pointed end of a piece of oiled wick being applied, it soon bursts +into a flame, the whole process having occupied perhaps two or three +minutes. + +Among the articles in their possession, which must have been obtained by +communication along shore with Hudson’s Bay, were two large copper +kettles, several open knives with crooked wooden handles, and many +fragments of copper, iron, and old files. On a small European axe was +observed the name of “Foster.” + +In enumerating the articles of their food, we might perhaps give a list +of every animal inhabiting these regions, as they certainly will at times +eat any one of them. Their principal dependence, however, is on the +reindeer (_tōōktoŏ_), musk-ox (_ōōmĭngmŭk_)(in the parts where this +animal is found), whale (_āggăwĕk_), walrus (_ēi-ŭ-ĕk_), the large and +small seal (_ōgŭke_ and _nēitiek_), and two sorts of salmon, the +_ēwĕe-tārŏke_ (_salmo alpinus_?) and _ichlūŏwŏke_. The latter is taken +by hooks in freshwater lakes, and the former by spearing in the shoal +water of certain inlets of the sea. Of all these animals they can only +procure in the winter the walrus and small seal upon this part of the +coast; and these at times, as we have seen, in scarcely sufficient +quantity for their subsistence. + +They certainly in general prefer eating their meat cooked, and while they +have fuel they usually boil it; but this is a luxury and not a necessary +to them. Oily as the nature of their principal food is, yet they +commonly take an equal proportion of lean to their fat, and unless very +hungry do not eat it otherwise. Oil they seldom or never use in any way +as a part of their general diet; and even our butter, of which they were +fond, they would not eat without a due quantity of bread. They do not +like salt meat as well as fresh, and never use salt themselves; but +ship’s pork, or even a red herring, did not come amiss to them. Of +pea-soup they would eat as much as the sailors could afford to give them; +and that word was the only one, with the exception of our names, which +many of them ever learned in English. Among their own luxuries must be +mentioned a rich soup called _kāyŏ_, made of blood, gravy, and water, and +eaten quite hot. In obtaining the names of several plants, we learned +that they sometimes eat the leaves of sorrel (_kōngŏlek_), and those of +the ground willow; as also the red berries (_paōōna-rootik_) of the +_vaccinium uliginosum_, and the root of the _potentilla pulchella_; but +these cannot be said to form a part of their regular diet; scurvy grass +they never eat. + +Their only drink is water; and of this, when they can procure it, they +swallow an inconceivable quantity; so that one of the principal +occupations of the women during the winter is the thawing of snow in the +ootkooseks for this purpose. They cut it into thin slices, and are +careful to have it clean, on which account they will bring it from a +distance of fifty yards from the huts. They have an extreme dislike to +drinking water much above the temperature of 32°. In eating their meals +the mistress of the family, having previously cooked the meat, takes a +large lump out of the pot with her fingers, and hands it to her husband, +who placing a part of it between his teeth cuts it off with a large knife +in that position, and then passes the knife and meat together to his next +neighbour. In cutting off a mouthful of meat the knife passes so close +to their lips, that nothing but constant habit could ensure them from the +danger of the most terrible gashes; and it would make an English mother +shudder to see the manner in which children, five or six years old, are +at all times freely trusted with a knife to be used in this way. + +The length of one of the best of seven canoes belonging to these +Esquimaux was twenty-five feet, including a narrow-pointed projection, +three feet long at each end, which turns a little upward from the +horizontal. The extreme breadth, which is just before the circular hole, +was twenty-one inches, and the depth ten inches and a half. The plane of +the upper surface of the canoe, except in the two extreme projections, +bends downwards a little from the centre towards the head and stern, +giving it the appearance of what is in ships called “broken-backed.” The +gunwales are of fir, in some instances of one piece, three or four inches +broad in the centre and tapering gradually away towards the ends. The +timbers, as well as the fore-and-aft connecting pieces, are of the same +material, the former being an inch square, and sometimes so close +together as to require between forty and fifty of them in one canoe: +which when thus “in frame” is one of the prettiest things of the kind +that can be imagined. The skin with which the canoe is covered is +exclusively that of the _neitiek_, prepared by scraping off the hair and +fat with an _ooloo_, and stretching it tight on a frame over the fire; +after which and a good deal of chewing, it is sewn on by the women with +admirable neatness and strength. Their paddles have a blade at each end, +the whole length being nine feet and a half; the blades are covered with +a narrow plate of bone round the ends to secure them from splitting: they +are always made of fir, and generally of several pieces scarfed and +woolded together. + +In summer they rest their canoes upon two small stones raised four feet +from the ground; and in winter, on a similar structure of snow; in one +case to allow them to dry freely, and in the other to prevent the +snow-drift from covering, and the dogs from eating them. The difficulty +of procuring a canoe may be concluded from the circumstance of there +being at Winter Island twenty men able to manage one, and only seven +canoes among them. Of these indeed only three or four were in good +repair, the rest being wholly or in part stripped of the skin, of which a +good deal was occasionally cut off during the winter, to make boots, +shoes, and mittens for our people. We found no _oomiak_, or women’s +boat, among them, and understood that they were not in the habit of using +them, which may in part be accounted for by their passing so much of the +summer in the interior; they knew very well, however, what they were, and +made some clumsy models of them for our people. + +In the weapons used for killing their game there is considerable variety, +according to the animal of which they are in pursuit. The most simple of +these is the _ōōnăk_, which they use only for killing the small seal. It +consists of a light staff of wood, four feet in length, having at one end +the point of a narwhal’s horn, from ten to eighteen inches long, firmly +secured by rivets and wooldings; at the other end is a smaller and less +effective point of the same kind. To prevent losing the ivory part in +case of the wood breaking, a stout thong runs along the whole length of +the wood, each end passing through a hole in the ivory, and the bight +secured in several places to the staff. In this weapon, as far as it has +yet been described, there is little art or ingenuity displayed; but a +considerable degree of both in an appendage called _siātkŏ_, consisting +of a piece of bone three inches long, and having a point of iron at one +end, and at the other end a small hole or socket to receive the point of +the oonak. Through the middle of this instrument is secured the _āllek_, +or line of thong, of which every man has, when sealing, a couple of +coils, each from four to six fathoms long, hanging at his back. These +are made of the skin of the _oguke_ as in Greenland, and are admirably +adapted to the purpose, both on account of their strength, and the +property which they possess of preserving their pliability even in the +most intense frost. + +When a seal is seen, the siatko is taken from a little leathern case, in +which, when out of use, it is carefully enclosed, and attached by its +socket to the point of the spear; in this situation it is retained by +bringing the allek tight down and fastening it round the middle of the +staff by what seamen call a “slippery hitch,” which may instantly be +disengaged by pulling on the other end of the line. As soon as the spear +has been thrown, and the animal struck, the siatko is thus purposely +separated; and being slung by the middle, now performs very effectually +the important office of a barb, by turning at right angles to the +direction in which it has entered the orifice. This device is in its +principle superior even to our barb; for the instant any strain is put +upon the line it acts like a toggle, opposing its length to a wound only +as wide as its own breadth. + +The _āklĕak_, or _aklēēgă_, used for the large seal, has a blown bladder +attached to the staff, for the purpose of impeding the animal in the +water. The weapon with two long parallel prongs of bone or iron, +obtained from the natives of the Savage Islands, these people also called +_akleak_, and said it was for killing seals. + +The third and largest weapon is that called _katteelik_, with which the +walrus and whale are attacked. The staff of this is not longer but much +stouter than that of the others, especially towards the middle, where +there is a small shoulder of ivory securely lashed to it for the thumb to +rest against, and thus to give additional force in throwing or thrusting +the spear. The ivory point of this weapon is made to fit into a socket +at the end of the staff, where it is secured by double thongs, in such a +manner as steadily to retain its position when a strain is put upon it in +the direction of its length, but immediately disengaging itself with a +sort of spring, when any lateral strain endangers its breaking. The +siatko is always used with this spear; and to the end of the allek, when +the animal pursued is in open water, they attach a whole seal-skin +(_hŏw-wūt-tă_), inflated like a bladder, for the purpose of tiring it out +in its progress through the water. + +They have a spear called _īppoo_ 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 _nūgŭee_, or dart for +birds, has, besides its two ivory prongs at the end of the staff, three +divergent ones in the middle of it, with several small double barbs upon +them turning inwards; they differ from the _nuguit_ 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 (_noke-shak_) 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 kākĕe-wĕi, +consists of a wooden staff with a spike of bone or ivory, three inches +long, secured at one end. On each side of the spike is a curved prong, +much like that of a pitchfork, but made of flexible horn, which gives +them a spring, and having a barb on the inner part of the point turning +downwards. Their fish-hooks (_kakliōkia_) consist only of a nail crooked +and pointed at one end, the 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 apparently 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 described the whole of it quite _con +amore_, mentioned the names of thirteen men who, each in his canoe, had +assisted 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 _katteelik_ into the animal with all the force of +both arms. This having the _siatko_, a long _allek_, and the inflated +seal-skin attached to it, the whale immediately dives, taking the whole +apparatus with him except the _katteelik_ 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 canoes again +paddle towards him, some warning 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 privilege 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 _Einwīllik_. + +In attacking the walrus in the water they use the same gear, but with +much more caution than with the whale, always throwing the _katteelik_ +from some distance, lest the animal should attack the canoe 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 of all the animals +killed during the winter, except two or three of the walrus, which we +obtained with great difficulty. 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 objection to part with them before the +summer arrived. As the blood of the animals which they kill is all used +as food of the most luxurious kind, they are careful to avoid losing any +portion of it; for this purpose they carry with them on their excursions +a little instrument of ivory called _tŏopōōtă_, 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 instrument called _keipkūttuk_, 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 where 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 fishermen 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 girth 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 bone, 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 elasticity 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 +composed of a plait or “sinnet” of three sinews. The number of lines +thus reaching from end to end is generally about thirty; but besides +these, several others are fastened with hitches round the bow, in pairs, +commencing eight inches from one end, and again united at the same +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 bent the contrary way, produce a spring so strong as to +require considerable force as well as knack in stringing it and giving +the requisite 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 the 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 and a half. At +twenty yards they 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 a fawn if the animal stood still. These +weapons are perhaps 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 86° 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 exaggerated report; on +the western coast of Baffin’s Bay it has certainly been seen, though very +rarely, by the present 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 Akkōōleĕ, 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 themselves very +much upon it. Toolooak, who was about seventeen years of age, had never +seen either the musk-ox or the _kābleĕ-ārioo_, 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 +consists in two men walking directly from the deer they 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, continuing 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 after them at all when the weather is +calm. For several weeks in the course of the summer some of these people +almost entirely 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 _seenik_ (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 we have not hitherto visited. A +great number of these people, who were born at Amitioke and Igloolik, had +been to _Noowook_, or nearly as far south as Chesterfield Inlet, which is +about the _ne plus ultra_ of their united knowledge 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 from three to five 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 which 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 +(_pīccălōōyăk_) 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 63¾°, being a +distance of more than five hundred miles reckoned in a direct line, +besides the numerous turnings and windings of the coast along which they +are accustomed 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 personal knowledge; for no land can +be seen in that direction 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 Hearne, 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 +(_Eērt-kĕi-lĕe_), which appears evidently the same as that applied by the +Greenlanders 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 peg, 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 drags 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 himself up in it. On the top is 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 another place. + +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 in 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 +pounds, 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 cemented by throwing 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 proper form, and being left to freeze, adhering firmly +together and to the skins. The usual shoeing of smooth ice beneath +completed the runner, which for more than six months out of twelve, in +this climate, was nearly as hard as any wood; and for winter use no way +inferior to those constructed of more durable materials. The crosspieces +which form the bottom of the sledge are made of bone, wood, or anything +they can muster. Over these is generally laid a seal-skin as a flooring, +and in the summertime 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 fastening 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 visits 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 over the back. A +difference less distinguishable, when the animals are apart, is the +superior size and more muscular make of the wild animal, especially about +the breast and legs. The wolf is also, in general, full two inches +taller than any Esquimaux 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 dogs 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 suffering from the cold; and +at whatever temperature 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 mortification. 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 caressed and well fed, +they become quite familiar and domestic; but this mode of treatment does +not improve their qualities as animals of draught. Being desirous of +ascertaining whether these dogs are wolves in a state of domestication, a +question which we understood to have been the subject of some +speculation, Mr. Skeoch, at my request, made a skeleton of each, when the +number of all the vertebra was found to be the same in both, and to +correspond with the well-known anatomy of the wolf. + +When drawing a sledge, the dogs have a simple harness (_annoo_) of deer +or seal skin, going round the neck by one bight, and another for each of +the fore-legs, with a single thong leading over the back and attached to +the sledge as a trace. Though they appear at first sight to be huddled +together without regard to regularity, there is, in fact, considerable +attention paid to their arrangement, particularly in the selection of a +dog of peculiar spirit and sagacity, who is allowed, by a longer trace, +to precede the rest as leader, and to whom, in turning to the right or +left, the driver usually addresses himself. This choice is made without +regard to age or sex, and the rest of the dogs take precedency according +to their training or sagacity, the least effective being put nearest the +sledge. The leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet from the fore +part of the sledge, and the hindmost dog about half that distance, so +that when ten or twelve are running together, several are nearly abreast +of each other. The driver sits quite low on the fore part of the sledge, +with his feet overhanging the snow on one side, and having in his hand a +whip, of which the handle, made either of wood, bone, or whalebone, is +eighteen inches, and the lash more than as many feet in length. The part +of the thong next the handle is plaited a little way down to stiffen it +and give it a spring, on which much of its use depends; and that which +composes the lash is chewed by the women to make it flexible in frosty +weather. The men acquire from their youth considerable expertness in the +use of this whip, the lash of which is left to trail along the ground by +the side of the sledge, and with which they can inflict a very severe +blow on any dog at pleasure. Though the dogs are kept in training +entirely by fear of the whip, and indeed without it would soon have their +own way, its immediate effect is always detrimental to the draught of the +sledge; for not only does the individual that is struck draw back and +slacken his trace, but generally turns upon his next neighbour, and this, +passing on to the next, occasions a general divergency, accompanied by +the usual yelping and showing of teeth. The dogs then come together +again by degrees, and the draught of the sledge is accelerated; but, even +at the best of times, by this rude mode of draught, the traces of +one-third of the dogs form an angle of thirty or forty degrees on each +side of the direction in which the sledge is advancing. Another great +inconvenience attending the Esquimaux method of putting the dogs to, +besides that of not employing their strength to the best advantage, is +the constant entanglement of the traces by the dogs repeatedly doubling +under from side to side to avoid the whip, so that, after running a few +miles, the traces always require to be taken off and cleared. + +In directing the sledge the whip acts no very essential part, the driver +for this purpose using certain words, as the carters do with us, to make +the dogs turn more to the right or left. To these a good leader attends +with admirable precision, especially if his own name be repeated at the +same time, looking behind over his shoulder with great earnestness, as if +listening to the directions of the driver. On a beaten track, or even +where a single foot or sledge mark is occasionally discernible, there is +not the slightest trouble in guiding the dogs; for even in the darkest +night and in the heaviest snowdrift there is little or no danger of their +losing the road, the leader keeping his nose near the ground, and +directing the rest with wonderful sagacity. Where, however, there is no +beaten track, the best driver among them makes a terribly circuitous +course, as all the Esquimaux roads plainly show; these generally +occupying an extent of six miles, when with a horse and sledge the +journey would scarcely have amounted to five. On rough ground, as among +hummocks of ice, the sledge would be frequently overturned, or altogether +stopped, if the driver did not repeatedly get off, and, by lifting or +drawing it to one side, steer it clear of those accidents. At all times, +indeed, except on a smooth and well-made road, he is pretty constantly +employed thus with his feet, which, together with his never-ceasing +vociferations and frequent use of the whip, renders the driving of one of +these vehicles by no means a pleasant or easy task. When the driver +wishes to stop the sledge, he calls out “Wo, woa,” exactly as our carters +do; but the attention paid to this command depends altogether on his +ability to enforce it. If the weight is small and the journey homeward, +the dogs are not to be thus delayed; the driver is therefore obliged to +dig his heels into the snow to obstruct their progress; and having thus +succeeded in stopping them, he stands up with one leg before the foremost +cross-piece of the sledge, till, by means of laying the whip gently over +each dog’s head, he has made them all lie down. He then takes care not +to quit his position; so that should the dogs set off he is thrown upon +the sledge, instead of being left behind by them. + +With heavy loads the dogs draw best with one of their own people, +especially a woman, walking a little way ahead; and in this case they are +sometimes enticed to mend their pace by holding a mitten to the mouth, +and then making the motion of cutting it with a knife, and throwing it on +the snow, when the dogs, mistaking it for meat, hasten forward to pick it +up. The women also entice them from the huts in a similar manner. The +rate at which they travel depends, of course, on the weight they have to +draw, and the road on which their journey is performed. When the latter +is level and very hard and smooth, constituting what in other parts of +North America is called “good sleighing,” six or seven dogs will draw +from eight to ten hundredweight, at the rate of seven or eight miles an +hour, for several hours together, and will easily under those +circumstances perform a journey of fifty or sixty miles a day; on +untrodden snow, five-and-twenty or thirty miles would be a good day’s +journey. The same number of well-fed dogs, with a weight of only five or +six hundred pounds (that of the sledge included), are almost +unmanageable, and will on a smooth road run any way they please at the +rate of ten miles an hour. The work performed by a greater number of +dogs is, however, by no means in proportion to this, owing to the +imperfect mode already described of employing the strength of these +sturdy creatures, and to the more frequent snarling and fighting +occasioned by an increase of numbers. + +In the summer, when the absence of snow precludes the use of sledges, the +dogs are still made useful on journeys and hunting excursions, by being +employed to carry burdens in a kind of saddle-bags laid across their +shoulders. A stout dog thus accoutred will accompany his master, laden +with a weight of about twenty to twenty-five pounds. When leading the +dogs, the Esquimaux take a half hitch with the trace round their necks to +prevent their pulling, and the same plan is followed when a sledge is +left without a keeper. They are also in the habit of tethering them, +when from home, by tying up one of the fore-legs; but a still more +effectual method is similar to that which we saw employed by the +Greenlanders of Prince Regent’s Bay, and consists in digging with their +spears two holes in the ice in an oblique direction and meeting each +other, so as to leave an eye-bolt, to which the dogs are fastened. + +The scent of the Esquimaux dogs is excellent; and this property is turned +to account by their masters in finding the seal holes, which these +invaluable animals will discover entirely by the smell at a very great +distance. The track of a single deer upon the snow will in like manner +set them off at a full gallop, when travelling, at least a quarter of a +mile before they arrive at it, when they are with difficulty made to turn +in any other direction; and the Esquimaux are accustomed to set them +after those animals to hunt them down when already wounded with an arrow. +In killing bears the dogs act a very essential part, and two or three of +them when led on by a man will eagerly attack one of those ferocious +creatures. An Esquimaux seldom uses any other weapon than his spear and +_panna_ in this encounter, for which the readiness of the dogs may be +implied from the circumstance of the word “nennook” (bear), being often +used to encourage them when running in a sledge. Indeed, the only animal +which they are not eager to chase is the wolf, of which the greater part +of them seem to have an instinctive dread, giving notice at night of +their approach to the huts by a loud and continued howl. There is not +one dog in twenty among them that will voluntarily, or indeed without a +great deal of beating, take the water if they think it is out of their +depth, and the few that would do so were spoken of as extraordinary +exceptions. + +The Esquimaux in general treat their dogs much as an unfeeling master +does his slaves; that is, they take just as much care of them as their +own interest is supposed to require. The bitches with young are in the +winter allowed to occupy a part of their own beds, where they are +carefully attended and fed by the women, who will even supply the young +ones with meat and water from their mouths as they do their own children, +and not unfrequently also carry them in their hoods to take care of them. +It is probably on this account that the dogs are always so much attached +to the women, who can at any time catch them or entice them from the huts +when the men fail. Two females that were with young on board the _Fury_ +in the month of February brought forth six and seven at a litter, and the +former number were all females. Their feeding, which, both in summer and +winter, principally consists of _kāŏw_, or the skin and part of the +blubber of the walrus, is during the latter season very precarious, their +masters having then but little to spare. They therefore become extremely +thin at that time of the year, and would scarcely be recognised as the +same animals as when regularly fed in the summer. No wonder therefore +that they will eat almost anything however tough or filthy, and that +neither whipping nor shouting will prevent their turning out of the road, +even when going at full speed, to pick up whatever they espy. When at +the huts they are constantly creeping in to pilfer what they can, and +half the time of the people sitting there is occupied in vociferating +their names and driving them by most unmerciful blows out of the +apartments. The dogs have no water to drink during the winter, but lick +up some clean snow occasionally as a substitute; nor indeed if water be +offered them do they care about it unless it happens to be oily. They +take great pleasure in rolling in clean snow, especially after or during +a journey, or when they have been confined in a house during the night. +Notwithstanding the rough treatment which they receive from their masters +their attachment to them is very great, and this they display after a +short absence by jumping up and licking their faces all over with extreme +delight. The Esquimaux, however, never caress them, and indeed scarcely +ever take any notice of them but when they offend, and they are not then +sparing in their blows. The dogs have all names, to which they attend +with readiness, whether drawing in a sledge or otherwise. Their names +are frequently the same as those of the people, and in some instances are +given after the relations of their masters, which seems to be considered +an act of kindness among them. Upon the whole, notwithstanding the +services performed by these valuable creatures, I am of opinion that art +cannot well have done less towards making them useful, and that the same +means in almost any other hands would be employed to greater advantage. + +***** + +In the disposition of these people, there was of course among so many +individuals considerable variety as to the minute points; but in the +general features of their character, which with them are not subject to +the changes produced by foreign 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 certainly in this respect a +favourable 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 offender, 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 several 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 +readiness 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 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 constituted 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 allowance for the degree of temptation to which +they were 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 themselves 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 us. 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 presents by one to another, and invariably +found that they had been faithfully delivered. 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 possession 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 robbery, +would more probably add violence and murder to 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 dealings 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 subsequently to complain +that the Kabloonas had stolen their things, though the profit had been +eventually a hundredfold 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 warding off the imputation of some +dishonesty of their own. A trick not uncommon with the women was to +endeavour to excite the commiseration 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 +Togolat, she told Captain Lyon, in a most piteous tone, that _Parree_ had +stolen her last _ooloo_, that she did not know what to do 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 request, 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 a 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 must be reckoned an +extreme disposition to envy, which displayed 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, +accompanying 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 became a subject of satisfaction too manifest to be +repressed, and we were told of it with expressions of the most 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 +information, now and then mimicking the persons of whom 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 himself that if exposed to similar temptations he would not be +found wanting? + +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 opportunity 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 in the +conduct of children towards their parents, and 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 +returns an equal quantity when he is the successful fisherman. Uncertain +as their mode of living is, and dependent as they are upon each other’s +exertions, this custom is the evident and unquestionable interest of all. +The regulation does credit to their wisdom, but has nothing to do 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 something 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 forgetfulness was not unfrequently +aggravated by their giving out that their benefactor had been so shabby +as to make them no present 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-gratification, to have +served us. Though the riches lay on our side, they possessed abundant +means of making some nominal return, which, for the sake of the principle +that prompted it, would of course have been gratifying to us. Okotook +and Iligliuk, whom I had most loaded with presents, and who had never +offered me a single free gift in return, put into my hand, at the time of +their first removal 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 my accepting this, +from an unwillingness to affront them, they were uneasy and dissatisfied +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 exception their universal characteristic, and the +main-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 hospitality 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 +even good breeding could dictate. The kindly offices of drying and +mending our clothes, cooking our provision, and thawing snow for our +drink were performed by the women with an obliging cheerfulness which we +shall not easily forget, and which commanded its due share of our +admiration and esteem. While thus their guest, I have passed an evening +not only with comfort, but with extreme gratification; for with the women +working and singing, their 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 the time that an Esquimaux hut +was the scene of this domestic comfort and tranquillity; and I can safely +affirm with Cartwright, that, while thus lodged beneath their roof, I +know no people whom I would more confidently trust, as respects either my +person or my property, than the Esquimaux. It is painful, and may +perhaps be considered invidious after this, to inquire how far their +hospitality 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. But truth obliges me to confess that, from the +extreme selfishness of their general conduct, as well as from their +behaviour in some instances to the 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 these 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 +Greenlanders are said to be; being occupied only in those cares which may +properly be called domestic, and as such are considered the peculiar +business of the women among the lower classes in civilised society. The +wife of one of these people, for instance, makes and attends the fire, +cooks the victuals, looks after the children, and is sempstress to her +whole family; while her husband is labouring abroad for 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 labour, 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 perhaps in making their various journeys, when all their goods and +chattels are to be removed at once, and when each individual must +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 really almost a sinecure of it, sitting quietly in their huts, +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 off. They always sit upon the beds with their legs +doubled under them, and are uneasy in the posture usual with us. The men +sometimes sit as we do, but more generally with their legs 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 one 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 inconvenience and distress. +It is not uncommon to see one woman suckling the child of another, while +the latter happens to be employed in her other domestic occupations. +They are in the habit also of feeding their younger children from their +own mouths, softening the food by mastication, and then turning their +heads round, so that the infant in the hood may put its lips to theirs. +The chill 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 desirous of having sons than daughters, +as on the former must principally depend their support in old age. + +Twelve of the men had each two wives, and some of the younger ones had +also two betrothed; two instances occurred of the father and son being +married to sisters. The custom of betrothing children in their infancy +is commonly practised here, in which respect these people differ from the +natives of Greenland, where it is comparatively rare. A daughter of +Arnaneelia, between two and three years old, had long been thus +contracted to Okotook’s son, a hero of six or seven, and the latter used +to run about the hut, calling his intended by the familiar appellation of +_Nŏŏllē-ă_ (wife), to the great amusement of the parents. When a man has +two wives, there is generally a difference of five or six years in their +ages. The senior takes her station next the principal fire, which comes +entirely under her management; and she is certainly considered in some +respects superior to the other, though they usually live together in the +utmost harmony. The men sometimes repudiate their wives without +ceremony, in case of real or supposed bad behaviour, as in Greenland, but +this does not often occur. There was a considerable disparity of age +between many of the men and their wives, the husband being sometimes the +oldest by twenty years or more, and this also when he had never married +any former wife. We knew no instance in which the number of a man’s +wives exceeded two, and indeed we had every reason to believe that the +practice is never admitted among them. We met with a singular instance +of two men having exchanged wives, in consequence merely of one of the +latter being pregnant at the time when her husband was about to undertake +a long journey. + +The authority of the husband seems to be sufficiently absolute, depending +nevertheless in great measure on the dispositions of the respective +parties. Iligliuk was one of those women who seemed formed to manage +their husbands; and we one day saw her take Okotook to task in a very +masterly style for having bartered away a good jacket for an old useless +pistol without powder or shot. He attempted at first to bluster in his +turn, and with most women would probably have gained his point. But with +Iligliuk this would not do; she saw at once the absurdity of his bargain, +and insisted on his immediately cancelling it, which was accordingly +done, and no more said about it. In general, indeed, the husband +maintains his authority, and in several instances of supposed bad +behaviour in a wife, we saw obedience enforced in a pretty summary +manner. It is very rare, however, to see them proceed to this extremity; +and the utmost extent of a husband’s want of tenderness towards his wife +consists in general in making her walk or lead the dogs, while he takes +his own seat in the sledge and rides in comfort. Widows, as might be +expected, are not so well off as those whose husbands are living, and +this difference is especially apparent in their clothes, which are +usually very dirty, thin, and ragged; when indeed they happen to have no +near relatives, their fate, as we have already seen, is still worse than +this. + +I fear we cannot give a very favourable account of the chastity of the +women, nor of the delicacy of their husbands in this respect. As for the +latter, it was not uncommon for them to offer their wives as freely for +sale as a knife or a jacket. Some of the young men informed us that, +when two of them were absent together on a sealing excursion, they often +exchanged wives for the time, as a matter of friendly convenience; and +indeed, without mentioning any other instances of this nature, it may +safely be affirmed that in no country is prostitution carried to greater +lengths than among these people. The behaviour of most of the women when +their husbands were absent from the huts plainly evinced their +indifference towards them, and their utter disregard of connubial +fidelity. The departure of the men was usually the signal for throwing +aside restraint, which was invariably resumed on their return. For this +event they take care to be prepared by the report of the children, one of +whom is usually posted on the outside for the purpose of giving due +notice. + +The affection of parents for their children was frequently displayed by +these people, not only in the mere passive indulgence, and abstinence +from corporal punishment, for which Esquimaux have before been remarked, +but by a thousand playful endearments also, such as parents and nurses +practise in our own country. Nothing indeed can well exceed the kindness +with which they treat their children; and this trait in their character +deserves to be the more insisted on, because it is in reality the only +very amiable one which they possess. It must be confessed, indeed, that +the gentleness and docility of the children are such as to occasion their +parents little trouble, and to render severity towards them quite +unnecessary. Even from their earliest infancy, they possess that quiet +disposition, gentleness of demeanour, and uncommon evenness of temper, +for which in more mature age they are for the most part distinguished. +Disobedience is scarcely ever known, a word or even a look from a parent +is enough; and I never saw a single instance of that frowardness and +disposition to mischief which with our youth so often requires the whole +attention of a parent to watch over and to correct. They never cry from +trifling accidents, and sometimes not even from very severe hurts, at +which an English child would sob for an hour. It is indeed astonishing +to see the indifference with which, even as tender infants, they bear the +numerous blows they accidentally receive when carried at their mothers’ +backs. + +They are just as fond of play as any other young people, and of the same +kind; only that while an English child draws a cart of wood, an Esquimaux +of the same age has a sledge of whalebone; and for the superb baby-house +of the former, the latter builds a miniature hut of snow, and begs a +lighted wick from her mother’s lamp to illuminate the little dwelling. +Their parents make for them, as dolls, little figures of men and women, +habited in the true Esquimaux costume, as well as a variety of other +toys, many of them having some reference to their future occupations in +life, such as canoes, spears, and bows and arrows. The drum or +tambourine, mentioned by Crantz, is common among them, and used not only +by the children, but by the grown-up people at some of their games. They +sometimes serrate the edges of two strips of whalebone and whirl them +round their heads, 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 expecting 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 watertight boots and +moccasins, 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 +this 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 relationships. The adoption of a child in civilised +countries has usually for its motive either a tenderness for the object +itself, or some affection or pity for its deceased, helpless, or unknown +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 advantage of thus +providing for a man’s own subsistence in advanced life; and it is +consequently 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 +“_tego_,” 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 remarkable 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 compatible 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 thus +disposed of. The good sense, good fortune, or extensive 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 _tego’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 infirmities render them +useless and therefore burdensome to the community, the Esquimaux betray a +degree of insensibility, 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 +constituted, as they well knew, a forcible claim upon our charity; and, +with this view, it 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 performed 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 thus 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, and he was fortunate in +that son’s being a very good 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 +management 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 well fed, receiving everything more as an act of charity +than otherwise; and she will probably be less and less attended to in +proportion 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 as 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, +seem 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 sulkiness; +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 repeating +the expression “Good-bye,” as a broad hint 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 Mr. 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 people more ready to join in it than +these are. If ridiculed for any particularity of manner, figure, or +countenance, they are sure not to be long behindhand in returning it, and +that very often with interest. If we were the aggressors in this way, +some ironical observation respecting the _Kabloonas_ 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 wanting 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. Iligliuk, 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. In returning her answers, the very +expression of her countenance, 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 interesting. This woman would indeed have easily learned +anything to which she chose to direct her attention; and had her lot been +cast in a civilised country instead of this dreary region, which serves +alike to “freeze the genial current of the soul” and body, she would +probably have been a very clever person. For want of a sufficient +object, however, neither she nor any of her companions ever 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 superstitious reverence for their _angetkooks_, and +their tacitly following the counsel or steps of the most active +seal-catcher on their hunting excursions. The word _nallegak_, 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 considered 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 appearing to choose his own route, +without regard to that of the rest, but all making their arrangements +without the slightest disagreement or difference of opinion that we could +ever discover. In all their movements they 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, maintaining that idea of +self-sufficiency which has induced them, in common with the rest of their +nation, to call themselves, by way of distinction, _Innŭee_, or mankind. +One day, for instance, in securing some of the gear of a sledge, Okotook +broke a part of it composed of a piece of 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 individual 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 is true, they will recoil with horror at the tale of an +Indian massacre, and probably cannot conceive 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 +Esquimaux. 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 certainly 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 exceptions to this rule, though we have never witnessed +any; but it is assuredly not their general character. + +When viewed more nearly in their domestic relations, 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 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 their 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 (_panna_), and, considering the excellence of +a great number which they possessed previous to our intercourse 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 description, 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 +observation 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, however, practised +by the men, it is observable that the ingenuity lies in the principle, +not in the execution. The experience of ages has led them to adopt the +most efficacious methods, but their practice as handicrafts has gone no +further than absolute necessity requires; they bestow 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 branch 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 remaining out, so that the needles which +are stuck into it may be drawn in and out at pleasure. These cases were +sometimes 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 +ĕwāllŏŏ_), or, when they cannot procure this, the swallow-pipe of the +_neitiek_. 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, they keep in +little bags, which are sometimes made of the skin of birds’ feet, +disposed with the claws downwards in a very neat and tasteful manner. In +sewing, the point of the needle is entered and drawn through in a +direction towards the body, and not from it or towards one side, as with +our sempstresses. They sew the deer-skins with a “round seam,” and the +water-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 no +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 employed 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 prepared 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. The +dressing of leather and of skins in the hair is an art which the women +have brought to no inconsiderable degree of perfection. They perform +this by first cleansing the skin from as much of the fat and fleshy +matter as the _ooloo_ will take off, and then rubbing it hard for several +hours with a blunt scraper, called _siākŏŏt_, 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 as 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. Dyeing 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 bowstrings. 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 amuse them in this way, she suddenly +unbound her hair, platted it, tied both ends together 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 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 dislocated. This exhibition, which they call _āyŏkĭt-tāk-poke_, +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 _tăbāk-tabak_, _kĕibō-keibo_, +_kĕ-bāng-ĕ-nū-tŏ-ĕĕk_, _kebangenutoeek_, _ămātămā_, _amatama_, 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 proceed from the throat in +a way much resembling ventriloquism, to which art it is indeed an +approach. After the last _amatama_ Iligliuk always pointed with her +finger towards her body, and pronounced the word _angetkook_, 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 _īkkĕrĕe-ikkeree_, 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 appears to come from one throat +instead of several. Very few of the females are possessed of this +accomplishment, which is called _pitkoo-she-rāk-poke_, and it is not +uncommon to see several of the younger females practising it. A third +part of the game, distinguished by the word _keitīk-poke_, consists only +in falling on each knee alternately, a piece of agility which they +perform with tolerable quickness, considering the bulky and awkward +nature of their dress. + +The last kind of individual exhibition was still performed 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 +occasion. She now once more came forward, and letting her arms hang down +loosely and bending her body very much forward, shook 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 guttural noises for about half +a minute, shut her eyes, and ran about 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 woman in her turn occupied this post, and in +her own peculiar way, either by distortion of countenance or other +gestures, performed 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 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 privileged 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, with Okotook +in the centre. He began by a sort of half-howling, half-singing noise, +which appeared as if designed to call the attention of the women, the +latter soon commencing the _Amna Aya_ 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 minutes they all +left off at once, and, after one minute’s interval commenced a second act +precisely similar and of equal duration, Okotook continuing to invoke +their Muse as before. A third act which followed 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 description it +will scarcely be necessary to remark that nothing can be poorer in its +way than this tedious singing recreation, which, as well as everything in +which dancing is concerned, they express by the word _mŏmēk-poke_. 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 peep at the +performance. + +The Esquimaux women and children often amuse themselves 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 +jumping twice on both feet, then alternately with the right and left, and +next four times with the feet slipped one behind the other, the rope +passing once round at each jump. After this she performs a circle on the +ground, jumping about half-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, +considering the clumsiness of their boots and jackets, and seemed to +pride 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 the 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 whole of these people, but especially 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 tambourine 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, we had little opportunity of becoming +acquainted with the diseases to which they are subject. Our subsequent +intercourse with a greater number of these people at Igloolik having +unfortunately afforded more frequent and fatal instances of sickness +among them, I here insert Mr. Edwards’s remarks on this subject:— + +“Exempted as these people are from a host of diseases usually ascribed to +the vitiated habits of more civilised life, as well as from those equally +numerous 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 _à priori_ be inferred, very +limited. But, unfortunately, that improvidence which is so remarkable in +their kindred tribes is also with them proof against the repeated lessons +of bitter experience they are doomed to endure. Alternate excesses 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 wretchedness combined, seems +sufficient to check anything like a progressive increase of their +numbers. The great proportion of deaths to births that occurred during +the period of our intercourse with them has already been noticed. + +“It 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 a parent, a widow, or a helpless female infant. To be deprived +of near relations is to be deprived of everything; such unfortunates are +usually abandoned to their fate, and too generally perish. A widow and +two or three children left under these circumstances were known to have +died of inanition, from the neglect and apathy of their neighbours, who +jeered at the commanders of our ships on the failure of their humane +endeavours to save what the Esquimaux considered as worthless. + +“Our first communication with these people at Winter Island gave us a +more favourable impression of their general health than subsequent +experience confirmed. There, however, they were not free from sickness. +A catarrhal affection in the month of February became generally +prevalent, from which they readily recovered after the exciting +causes—intemperance and 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 fulness is +acquired. Active diseases 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 the blood, and an active hemorrhage +relieves the subject. As the same causes continue to be applied in +excess at frequent intervals, and are followed 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 +maintaining a balance in the circulating system. The phenomenon 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 +and the bones of whales, and the roofs being formed of skins, turf, and +snow; 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 +interior 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 successful captures of +walrus also took place, and these circumstances, combined perhaps with +some superstitious customs, of which we were ignorant, seemed the signal +for giving way to sensuality. The lamps were accumulated 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 filth, 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 other 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 difficult 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 been 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 predisposed, from the above-named causes, to sickness; +many of them were also deficient in clothing to meet the rigorous 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 +come under 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, under which the patient lingered for a while, and was then either +carried off by a diarrhœa 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 unsuccessful, 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. Where a spontaneous recovery +does not take place, these prove fatal in a short time. The only +instance among them 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 exanthematous disorders met our observation. A +solitary case of epilepsy was seen in a deaf and dumb boy, who eventually +died. Chronic rheumatism occurs, but it is rare and not severe. I have +some 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 attacks 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 citric 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 improvement, and, though yet weak, +free from scorbutic symptoms. Another instance offered in a woman, whom +I saw but once. Her gums were spongy and reverted, but not discoloured; +her countenance sallow, lips pale, and she suffered 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 name of snow-blindness, is +extremely frequent among these people. With them it scarcely ever goes +beyond painful irritation, 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 construction, consisting of a curved piece of +wood six or seven 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 by some who have been fortunate +enough to acquire wood for the purpose. This is merely the former +instrument complicated 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 +these. With the exception of the hemorrhage already mentioned, which +they duly appreciate, 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 +valuable. 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 constituted of unmeaning ceremonies and prohibitions +generally 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 poor woman, on discovering that the meat she had in her mouth +was a piece of fried heart instead of the liver, appeared horrorstruck; +and a man was in equal tribulation at having eaten, by mistake, a piece +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 recovery, and eventually enabling +the vital powers to rise superior to the malady, when, without such +support, the sufferer might have sunk under its weight. It was attempted +to ascertain whether climate effected any difference in animal heat +between them and ourselves by frequently marking the temperature of the +mouth; but the experiments were necessarily made, as occasion offered, +under such various states of vascular excitement, as to afford nothing +conclusive. As it was, their temperature varied from 97° to 102°, +coinciding pretty nearly with our own under 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 altogether; 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 uncommon, the only instance +I remember being that of a young woman, whose utterance was +unintelligibly nasal, in consequence of an imperfect development of the +palatine bones leaving a gap in the roof of the mouth.” + +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 _Akkoolee_, _Toonoonee-roochiuh_, _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 incline 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 belonging to this tribe with whom we have +never had communication. 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 _Seadlērmeoo_, 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 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 +extreme. A remarkably intelligent woman informed Captain Lyon that two +years ago some Esquimaux arrived at Igloolik from a place near Akkoolee, +bringing information 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 considered 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 mentioned 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 the 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, unaccompanied 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, 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 limestone, 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 height, 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 +superstitions, which are numerous, have all some reference to the +preternatural agency of a number of _toōrngŏw_, 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 considerable degree of ingenuity in +their mode of performing their mummery, prevent the detection of the +imposture, and secure implicit confidence in these absurd oracles. My +friend Captain Lyon having particularly directed his 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. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNAL OF THE THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE +DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE*** + + +******* This file should be named 26509-0.txt or 26509-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/5/0/26509 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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