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

reequipment; 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. 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. 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. 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.

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

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, despatching 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. 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. 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. I therefore

directed Captain Hoppner 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.

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 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 canvass 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. 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 southwestward.

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.

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

farther 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. 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 farther 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.

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 sea-worthy. 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 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

be 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. Those

expectations were now at an end. With a twelvemonth's provisions for

both ship's 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 tenour of my instructions. As soon as the

boats were hoisted up, therefore, and the anchor stowed, the ship's head

was put to the northeastward, 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.--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.

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 seahorse, 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.

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 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 complete 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 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.

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. Having a great

deal of heavy work to do in the restowage 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. 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 afterward 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 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. This work, together with the entire restowage 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 the ice had before

prevented. These arrangements had just been completed, when the

northeasterly wind died away, and was succeeded, on the morning of the

31st, by a light air from the northwest. 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.

Finding the wind at northwest 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.

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.

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.

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

twentyfour hours from that quarter. 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.

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 driftwood 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 farther from the

coast of Greenland than usual.

On, the morning of the 24th, notwithstanding the continuance of a

favourable breeze, we met, in the latitude of 58-1/2°, so heavy a swell

from the northeastward as to make the ship labour violently for

four-and-twenty hours. 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. 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 N.W.

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_. 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 26.39 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 afterward to 29.73 as the weather

became moderate and fine in the course of the täähree 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 we were enabled to continue our progress to the eastward, so as to

make Mould Head, towards the northwest end of the Orkney Islands, at

daylight on the 10th of October.

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.

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.

ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX.

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 upward 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. 5-1/3 in.

Women.--From 5 ft. 3-1/2 in. to 4 ft. 8-3/4 in.

The average height, 5 ft. 0-1/2 in.

The women, however, generally appear shorter than they really are, both

from the unwieldy nature of their clothes, and from a habit, which they

early acquire, of stooping considerably forward in order to balance the

weight of the child they carry in their hood.

In their figure they are rather well formed than 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 T=e-~a, 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 sealskins 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.

By whatever peculiarities, however, they may in general be

distinguished, they are by no means an 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. 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. 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. 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.

In winter every individual, when in the open air, wears two jackets, of

which the outer one (_C=app~e t=egg~a_) has the hair outside,

and the inner one (_At-t=e=ega_) 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

deerskin, 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

waistband, 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 deerskin boots (_All~ekt=eeg~a_) 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 sealskin 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 (_oguk~e_);

this last is also used for their fishing-lines. When the men are not

prepared to encounter wet, they wear an outer boot of deerskin, 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 jackets, considerable

taste is displayed in the selection of different parts of the deerskin,

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

(_Itteeg~eg~a_) over all in the winter time.

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 black and white 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.

Among their personal ornaments must 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 these 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

lampblack 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 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 inward, 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 mean time occupied in throwing up snow with

the _p~oo=all~er=ay_ 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 antechamber, 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 it 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 disk 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,

tentpoles, 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[008] and of the _andromeda tetragona_.

Their deerskins, 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 _k=eipik_.

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 seahorse

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 _Inn~et~at_,

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 bedplace. 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 _=o=otk~o~os~e~eks_, 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 watertight.

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 _Imm=o=ochiuk_.

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 spearhead, 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.

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

(_patt=ekniuk_, from _p=att~ek_, 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.

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 dependance, however, is

on the reindeer (_t=o=okto~o_); musk-ox (_=o=om~ingm~uk_),

in the parts where this animal is found; whale (_=agg~aw~ek_);

walrus (_=ei-~u-~ek_); the large and small seal (_=og~uke_ and

_n~eitiek_); and two sorts of salmon, the _=ew~ee-t=ar~oke_

(_salmo alpinus?_) and _ichl=u~ow~oke_. The latter is taken by

hooks in fresh-water 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.[009] 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 k=ay~o, made of

blood, gravy, and water, and eaten quite hot.

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

ootkooseeks 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 downward a little from the centre towards the head and stern,

giving it the appearance of what in ships is 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 sown 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

snowdrift 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 woman'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 _=o=on~ak_, 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 _si=atk~o_, 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 _=allek_, 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.

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 _=akl~eak_ or _akl=e=eg~a_, used for the large seal, has a

blown bladder attached to the staff, for the purpose of impeding the

animal in the water.

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

sealskin (_h~ow-w=ut-t~a_), inflated like a bladder, for the

purpose of tiring it out in its progress through the water.

They have a spear called _~ippoo_ for killing deer in the water. They

describe it as having a light staff and a small head of iron; but they

had none of these so fitted in the winter. The _n=ug~uee_, 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 inward. The spear for salmon or other fish,

called _k=ak~eew~ei_, 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 downward. Their fishhooks (_kakli=okio_)

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

sealskin 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 reappearing after some time, all the canoes again

paddle towards him, some warning being given by the sealskin 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 the 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.

In attacking the walrus in the water they use the same gear, but 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. 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

_t~oop=o=ot~a_, 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.

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 treenails 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 plat 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 number of strings in the

middle of the bow sometimes amount to sixty. These being put on with the

bow bent somewhat 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 treenails.

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 treenails. Towards the opposite end of the arrow are two

feathers, generally of the spotted oval, not very neatly lashed on. The

bowstring 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.

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, which 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. A great number of them, 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. 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. By the information

afterward 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 63-3/4°, 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 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.

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 feet 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 sealskins 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 cross-pieces which form

the bottom of the sledges are made of bone, wood, or anything they can

muster. Over these is generally laid a sealskin as a flooring, and in

the summer time a pair of deer's horns are attached to the sledge as a

back, which in the winter are removed, to enable them, when stopping, to

turn the sledge up, so as to prevent the dogs running away with it. The

whole is secured by lashings of thong, giving it a degree of strength

combined with flexibility which perhaps no other mode of fastening could

effect.

The colour of the dogs varies from a white, through brindled, to black

and white, or almost entirely black. 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 vertebrae was found

to be the same in both,[010] 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, which is allowed, by a longer

trace, to precede the rest as leader, and to which, 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 precedence

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 hindermost 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 platted 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 his 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 crosspiece 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 hundred

weight, 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 or twenty-five pounds.

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 "nen-nook" (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 k=a~ow, 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

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 countenance at our supposed

credulity in believing them. There was, indeed, at all times, some,

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 event 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 afterward,

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 allowance for the degree of temptation to which

they were daily exposed, amid the boundless stores of wealth which our

ships appeared to them to furnish. To draw a parallel case, we must

suppose an European of the lower class suffered to roam about amid

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 to 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.

In the barter of their various commodities, their dealings with us were

fair and upright, though latterly they were by no means backward nor

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

eventually been a hundred-fold in their favour. Many such complaints

were made, when the only fault in the purchaser had been excessive

liberality, and frequently, also, as a retort, by way of 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 observations, 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 even 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.

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.

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 among them

would have gone half a mile out of his road, or have sacrificed the most

trivial self-gratification to serve 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 mainspring 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,[011] 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.

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

Greenlander's 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 civilized

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 occur, 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.