The women do not appear to be, in general, very prolific. Illumea indeed

had borne seven children, but no second instance of an equal number in

one family afterward came to our knowledge; three or four is about the

usual number. They are, according to their own account, in the habit of

suckling their children to the age of three years; but we have seen a

child of five occasionally at the breast, though they are dismissed from

the mother's hood at about the former age. It is not uncommon to see one

woman suckling the child of another, while the latter happens to be

employed in her other domestic occupations. They are in the habit, also,

of feeding their younger children from their own mouths, softening the

food by mastication, and then turning their heads round so that the

infant in the hood may put its lips to theirs. The chill is taken from

water for them in the same manner, and some fathers are very fond of

taking their children on their knees and thus feeding them. The women

are more desirous of having sons than daughters, as on the former must

principally depend their support in old age.

Twelve of the men had each two wives, and some of the younger ones had

also two betrothed; two instances occurred of the father and son being

married to sisters. The custom of betrothing children in their infancy

is commonly practised here, in which respect these people differ from

the natives of Greenland, where it is comparatively rare. A daughter of

Arnaneelia, between two and three years old, had long been thus

contracted to Okotook's son, a hero of six or seven, and the latter used

to run about the hut calling his intended by the familiar appellation of

_N~o~oll=e-~a_ (wife), to the great amusement of the parents.

When a man has two wives there is generally a difference of five or six

years in their ages. The senior takes her station next the principal

fire, which comes entirely under her management; and she is certainly

considered in some respects superior to the other, though they usually

live together in the utmost harmony. The men sometimes repudiate their

wives without ceremony, in case of real or supposed bad behaviour as in

Greenland, but this does not often occur. There was a considerable

disparity of age between many of the men and their wives, the husband

being sometimes the oldest by twenty years or more, and this also when

he had never married any former wife. We knew no instance in which the

number of a man's wives exceeded two, and, indeed, we had every reason

to believe that the practice is never admitted among them. We met with a

singular instance of two men having exchanged wives, in consequence

merely of one of the latter being pregnant at the time when her husband

was about to undertake a long journey.

The authority of the husband seems to be sufficiently absolute,

depending, nevertheless, in great measure on the dispositions of the

respective parties. Iligliuk was one of those women who seem formed to

manage their husbands; and we one day saw her take Okotook to task in a

very masterly style, for having bartered away a good jacket for an old

useless pistol, without powder or shot. He attempted at first to bluster

in his turn, and with most women would probably have gained his point.

But with Iligliuk this would not do; she saw at once the absurdity of

his bargain, and insisted on his immediately cancelling it, which was

accordingly done, and no more said about it. In general, indeed, the

husband maintains his authority, and in several instances of supposed

bad behaviour in a wife, we saw obedience enforced in a very summary

manner. It is very rare, however, to see them proceed to this extremity;

and the utmost extent of a husband's want of tenderness towards his wife

consists in making her walk or lead the dogs, while he takes his own

seat in the sledge and rides in comfort. Widows, as might be expected,

are not so well off as those whose husbands are living, and this

difference is especially apparent in their clothes, which are usually

very dirty, thin, and ragged; when, indeed, they happen to have no near

relatives, their fate, as we have already seen, is still worse than

this.

I fear we cannot give a very favourable account of the chastity of the

women, nor of the delicacy of their husbands in this respect. As for the

latter, it was not uncommon for them to offer their wives as freely for

sale as a knife or a jacket. Some of the young men informed us that,

when two of them were absent together on a sealing excursion, they often

exchanged wives for the time, as a matter of friendly convenience; and,

indeed, without mentioning any other instances of this nature, it may

safely be affirmed, that in no country is prostitution carried to

greater lengths than among these people. The behaviour of most of the

women when their husbands were absent from the huts, plainly evinced

their indifference towards them, and their utter disregard of connubial

fidelity. The departure of the men was usually the signal for throwing

aside restraint, which was invariably resumed on their return. For this

event they take care to be prepared by the report of the children, one

of whom is usually posted on the outside for the purpose of giving due

notice.

The affection of parents for their children was frequently displayed by

these people, not only in the mere passive indulgence, and abstinence

from corporeal punishment, for which Esquimaux have before been

remarked, but by a thousand playful endearments also, such as parents

and nurses practise in our own country. Nothing, indeed, can well exceed

the kindness with which they treat their children, and this trait in

their character deserves to be the more insisted on, because it is, in

reality, the only very amiable one which they possess. It must be

confessed, indeed, that the gentleness and docility of the children are

such as to occasion their parents little trouble, and to render severity

towards them quite unnecessary. Even from their earliest infancy they

possess that quiet disposition, gentleness of demeanour, and uncommon

evenness of temper, for which, in more mature age, they are for the most

part distinguished. Disobedience is scarcely ever known; a word or even

a look from a parent is enough; and I never saw a single instance of

that frowardness and disposition to mischief which, with our youth, so

often requires the whole attention of a parent to watch over and to

correct. They never cry from trifling accidents, and sometimes not even

from very severe hurts, at which an English child would sob for an hour.

It is, indeed, astonishing to see the indifference with which, even as

tender infants, they bear the numerous blows they accidentally receive,

when carried at their mothers' backs.

They are just as fond of play as any other young people, and of the same

kind; only that while an English child draws a cart of wood, an

Esquimaux of the same age has a sledge of whalebone; and for the superb

baby-house of the former, the latter builds a miniature hut of snow, and

begs a lighted wick from her mother's lamp to illuminate the little

dwelling. Their parents make for them, as dolls, little figures of men

and women, habited in the true Esquimaux costume, as well as a variety

of other toys, many of them having some reference to their future

occupations in life, such as canoes, spears, and bows and arrows. The

drum or tambarine, mentioned by Crantz, is common among them, and used

not only by the children, but by the grown-up people at some of their

games. They sometimes serrate the edges of two strips of whalebone and

whirl them round their heads, just as boys do in England to make the

same peculiar humming sound. They will dispose one piece of wood on

another, as an axis, in such a manner that the wind turns it round like

the arms of a windmill; and so of many other toys of the same simple

kind. These are the distinct property of the children, who will

sometimes sell them, while their parents look on without interfering or

expecting to be consulted.

When not more than eight years old, the boys are taken by their fathers

on their sealing excursions, where they begin to learn their future

business; and even at that early age they are occasionally intrusted to

bring home a sledge and dogs from a distance of several miles over the

ice. At the age of eleven we see a boy with his water-tight boots and

moccasins, a spear in his hand, and a small coil of line at his back,

accompanying the men to the fishery, under every circumstance; and from

this time his services daily increase in value to the whole tribe. On

our first intercourse with them we supposed that they would not

unwillingly part with their children, in consideration of some valuable

present, but in this we afterward found that we were much mistaken.

Happening one day to call myself Toolooak's _attata_ (father), and

pretend that he was to remain with me on board the ship, I received from

the old man, his father, no other answer than what seemed to be very

strongly and even satirically implied, by his taking one of our

gentlemen by the arm and calling him _his_ son; thus intimating that the

adoption which he proposed was as feasible and as natural as my own.

The custom of adoption is carried to very great lengths among these

people, and served to explain to us several apparent inconsistencies

with respect to their relationships. The custom owes its origin entirely

to the obvious advantage of thus providing for a man's own subsistence

in advanced life; and it is consequently confined almost without

exception to the adoption of _sons_, who can alone contribute

materially to the support of an aged and infirm parent. When a man

adopts the son of another as his own, he is said to "_tego_," or take

him; and at whatever age this is done (though it generally happens in

infancy), the child then lives with his new parents, calls them father

and mother, is sometimes even ignorant of any such transfer having been

made, especially if his real parents should be dead; and whether he

knows it or not, is not always willing to acknowledge any but those with

whom he lives. The agreement seems to be always made between the

fathers, and to differ in no respect from the transfer of other

property, except that none can equal in value the property thus disposed

of. The good sense, good fortune, or extensive claims of some

individuals were particularly apparent in this way, from the number of

sons they had adopted. Toolemak, deriving, perhaps, some advantage from

his qualifications as Angetkook, had taken care to negotiate for the

adoption of some of the finest male children of the tribe; a provision

which now appeared the more necessary, from his having lost four

children of his own, besides Noogloo, who was one of his _tego'd_ sons.

In one of the two instances that came to our knowledge of the adoption

of a female child, both its own parents were still living, nor could we

ascertain the motive for this deviation from the more general custom.

In their behaviour to old people, whose age or infirmities render them

useless, and, therefore, burdensome to the community, the Esquimaux

betray a degree of insensibility bordering on inhumanity, and ill

repaying the kindness of an indulgent parent. The old man Hikkeiera,

who was very ill during the winter, used to lie day after day, little

regarded by his wife, son, daughter, and other relatives, except that

his wretched state constituted, as they well knew, a forcible claim upon

our charity; and, with this view, it was sure to excite a whine of

sympathy and commiseration whenever we visited or spoke of him. When,

however, a journey of ten miles was to be performed over the ice, they

left him to find his way with a stick in the best manner he could, while

the young and robust ones were many of them drawn on sledges. There is,

indeed, no doubt that, had their necessities or mode of life required a

longer journey than he could thus have accomplished, they would have

pushed on like the Indians, and left a fellow-creature to perish. It was

certainly considered incumbent on his son to support him, and he was

fortunate in that son's being a very good man; but a few more such

journeys to a man of seventy would not impose this encumbrance upon him

much longer. Illumea, the mother of several grown-up children, lived

also in the same hut with her other relations. She did not, however,

interfere, as in Greenland, with the management of her son's domestic

concerns, though his wife was half an idiot. She was always badly

clothed, and, even in the midst of plenty, not particularly well-fed,

receiving everything more as an act of charity than otherwise; and she

will probably be less and less attended to, in proportion as she stands

more in need of assistance.

The different families appear always to live on good terms with each

other, though each preserves its own habitation and property as

distinct and independent as any housekeeper in England. The persons

living under one roof, who are generally closely related, maintain a

degree of harmony among themselves which is scarcely ever disturbed. The

more turbulent passions which, when unrestrained by religious principle,

or unchecked by the dread of human punishment, usually create so much

havoc in the world, seem to be very seldom excited in the breasts of

these people, which renders personal violence or immoderate anger

extremely rare among them; and one may sit in a hut for a whole day, and

never observe an angry word or look, except in driving out the dogs. If

they take an offence, it is more common for them to show it by the more

quiet method of sulkiness, and this they now and then tried as a matter

of experiment with us. Okotook, who was often in this humour, once

displayed it to some of our gentlemen in his own hut, by turning his

back and frequently repeating the expression "good-by," as a broad hint

to them to go away. Toolooak was also a little given to this mood, but

never retained it long, and there was no malice mixed with his

displeasure. One evening that he slept on board the Fury, he either

offended Mr. Skeoch, or thought that he had done so, by this kind of

humour; at all events, they parted for the night without any formal

reconciliation. The next morning Mr. Skeoch was awakened at an unusually

early hour, by Toolooak's entering his cabin and taking hold of his hand

to shake it, by way of making up the supposed quarrel. On a disposition

thus naturally charitable, what might not Christian education and

Christian principles effect? Where a joke is evidently intended, I

never knew people more ready to join in it than these are. If ridiculed

for any particularity of manner, figure, or countenance, they are sure

not to be long behind-hand in returning it, and that very often with

interest. If we were the aggressors in this way, some ironical

observation respecting the _Kabloonas_ was frequently the consequence;

and no small portion of wit as well as irony was at times mixed with

their raillery.

In point of intellect as well as disposition, great variety was, of

course, perceptible among the different individuals of this tribe; but

few of them were wanting in that respect. Some, indeed, possessed a

degree of natural quickness and intelligence which, perhaps, could

hardly be surpassed in the natives of any country. Iligliuk, though one

of the least amiable, was particularly thus gifted. When she really

wished to develop our meaning, she would desire her husband and all the

rest to hold their tongues, and would generally make it out while they

were puzzling their heads to no purpose. In returning her answers, the

very expression of her countenance, though one of the plainest among

them, was almost of itself sufficient to convey her meaning; and there

was, in these cases, a peculiarly decisive energy in her manner of

speaking which was extremely interesting. This woman would, indeed, have

easily learned anything to which she chose to direct her attention; and

had her lot been cast in a civilized country instead of this dreary

region, which serves alike to "freeze the genial current of the soul"

and body, she would probably have been a very clever person. For want

of a sufficient object, however, neither she nor any of her companions

ever learned a dozen words of English, except our names, with which it

was their interest to be familiar, and which, long before we left them,

any child could repeat, though in their own style of pronunciation.

Besides the natural authority of parents and husbands, these people

appear to admit no kind of superiority among one another, except a

certain degree of superstitious reverence for their _angetkooks_, and

their tacitly following the counsel or steps of the most active

seal-catcher on their hunting excursions. The word _nallegak_, used in

Greenland to express "master," and "lord" in the Esquimaux translations

of the Scriptures, they were not acquainted with. One of the young men

at Winter Island appeared to be considered somewhat in the light of a

servant to Okotook, living with the latter, and quietly allowing him to

take possession of all the most valuable presents which he received from

us. Being a sociable people, they unite in considerable numbers to form

a settlement for the winter; but on the return of spring they again

separate into several parties, each appearing to choose his own route,

without regard to that of the rest, but all making their arrangements

without the slightest disagreement or difference of opinion that we

could ever discover. In all their movements, they seem to be actuated by

one simultaneous feeling that is truly admirable.

Superior as our arts, contrivances, and materials must unquestionably

have appeared to them, and eager as they were to profit by this

superiority, yet, contradictory as it may seem, they certainly looked

upon us in many respects with profound contempt; maintaining that idea

of self-sufficiency which has induced them, in common with the rest of

their nation, to call themselves, by way of distinction, Innue, or

mankind. One day, for instance, in securing some of the gear of a

sledge, Okotook broke a part of it, composed of a piece of our white

line, and I shall never forget the contemptuous sneer with which he

muttered in soliloquy the word "Kabloona!" in token of the inferiority

of our materials to his own. It is happy, perhaps, when people,

possessing so few of the good things of this life, can be thus contented

with the little allotted them.

The men, though low in stature, are not wanting in muscular strength in

proportion to their size, or in activity and hardiness. They are good

and even quick walkers, and occasionally bear much bodily fatigue, wet,

and cold, without appearing to suffer by it, much less to complain of

it. Whatever labour they have gone through, and with whatever success in

procuring game, no individual ever seems to arrogate to himself the

credit of having done more than his neighbour for the general good. Nor

do I conceive there is reason to doubt their personal courage, though

they are too good-natured often to excite others to put that quality to

the test. It is true, they will recoil with horror at the tale of an

Indian massacre, and probably cannot conceive what should induce one set

of men deliberately and without provocation to murder another. War is

not their trade; ferocity forms no part of the disposition of the

Esquimaux. Whatever manly qualities they possess are exercised in a

different way, and put to a far more worthy purpose. They are

fishermen, and not warriors; but I cannot call that man a coward who,

at the age of one-and-twenty, will attack a polar bear single-handed, or

fearlessly commit himself to floating masses of ice, which the next puff

of wind may drift for ever from the shore.

Of the few arts possessed by this simple people, some account has

already been given in the description of their various implements. As

mechanics, they have little to boast when compared with other savages

lying under equal disadvantages as to scantiness of tools and materials.

As carpenters, they can scarf two pieces of wood together, secure them

with pins of whalebone or ivory, fashion the timbers of a canoe, shoe a

paddle, and rivet a scrap of iron into a spear or arrow-head. Their

principal tool is the knife (panna); and, considering the excellence of

a great number which they possessed previous to our intercourse with

them, the work they do is remarkably coarse and clumsy. Their very

manner of holding and handling a knife is the most awkward that can be

imagined. For the purpose of boring holes, they have a drill and bow so

exactly like our own, that they need no farther description, except that

the end of the drill handle, which our artists place against their

breasts, is rested by these people against a piece of wood or bone held

in their mouths, and having a cavity fitted to receive it. With the use

of the saw they were well acquainted, but had nothing of this kind in

their possession better than a notched piece of iron. One or two small

European axes were lashed to handles in a contrary direction to ours,

that is, to be used like an adze, a form which, according to the

observation of a traveller[012] well qualified to judge, savages in

general prefer. It was said that these people steamed or boiled wood, in

order to bend it for fashioning the timbers of their canoes. As

fishermen or seamen, they can put on a woolding or seizing with

sufficient strength and security, and are acquainted with some of the

most simple and serviceable knots in use among us. In all the arts,

however, practised by the men, it is observable that the ingenuity lies

in the principle, not in the execution. The experience of ages has led

them to adopt the most efficacious methods, but their practice as

handicrafts has gone no farther than absolute necessity requires; they

bestow little labour upon neatness or ornament.

In some of the few arts practised by the women there is much more

dexterity displayed, particularly in that important branch of a

housewife's business, sewing, which, even with their own clumsy needles

of bone, they perform with extraordinary neatness. They had, however,

several steel needles of a three-cornered shape, which they kept in a

very convenient case, consisting of a strip of leather passed through a

hollow bone, and having its ends remaining out, so that the needles

which are stuck into it may be drawn in and out at pleasure. These cases

were sometimes ornamented by cutting; and several thimbles of leather,

one of which, in sewing, is worn on the first finger, are usually

attached to it, together with a bunch of narrow spoons and other small

articles liable to be lost. The thread they use is the sinew of the

reindeer (_tooktoo =ew=all~o~o_), or, when they cannot procure

this, the swallow-pipe of the _neiliek_. This may be split into threads

of different sizes, according to the nature of their work, and is

certainly a most admirable material. This, together with any other

articles of a similar kind, they keep in little bags, which are

sometimes made of the skin of birds' feet, disposed with the claws

downward in a very neat and tasteful manner. In sewing, the point of the

needle is entered and drawn through in a direction towards the body, and

not from it or towards one side, as with our seamstresses. They sew the

deerskins with a "round seam," and the water-tight boots and shoes are

"stitched." The latter is performed in a very adroit and efficacious

manner, by putting the needle only half through the substance of one

part of the sealskin, so as to leave no hole for admitting the water. In

cutting out the clothes, the women do it after one regular and uniform

pattern, which probably descends unaltered from generation to

generation. The skin of the deer's head is always made to form the

_apex_ of the hood, while that of the neck and shoulders comes down the

back of the jacket; and so of every other part of the animal which is

appropriated to its particular portion of the dress. To soften the

sealskins of which the boots, shoes, and mittens are made, the women

chew them for an hour or two together and the young girls are often seen

employed in thus preparing the materials for their mothers. The covering

of the canoes is a part of the women's business, in which good

workmanship is especially necessary to render the whole smooth and

water-tight. The skins, which are those of the _neitiek_ only, are

prepared by scraping off the hair and the fleshy parts with an _ooloo,_

and stretching them out tight on a frame, in which state they are left

over the lamps or in the sun for several days to dry; and after this

they are well chewed by the women to make them fit for working. The

dressing of leather and of skins in the hair, is an art which the women

have brought to no inconsiderable degree of perfection. They perform

this by first cleansing the skin from as much of the fat and fleshy

matter as the _ooloo_ will take off, and then rubbing it hard for

several hours with a blunt scraper, called _si=ak~o~ot_, so as

nearly to dry it. It is then put into a vessel containing urine, and

left to steep a couple of days, after which a drying completes the

process. Skins dressed in the hair are, however, not always thus

steeped; the women, instead of this, chewing them for hours together

till they are quite soft and clean. Some of the leather thus dressed

looked nearly as well as ours, and the hair was as firmly fixed to the

pelt; but there was in this respect a very great difference, according

to the art or attention of the housewife. Dyeing is an art wholly

unknown to them. The women are very expert at platting, which is usually

done with three threads of sinew; if greater strength is required,

several of these are twisted slackly together, as in the bowstrings. The

quickness with which some of the women plat is really surprising; and it

is well that they do so, for the quantity required for the bows alone

would otherwise occupy half the year in completing it.

It may be supposed that, among so cheerful a people as the Esquimaux,

there are many games or sports practised; indeed, it was rarely that we

visited their habitations without seeing some engaged in them. One of

these our gentlemen saw at Winter Island, on an occasion when most of

the men were absent from the huts on a sealing excursion, and in this

Iligliuk was the chief performer. Being requested to amuse them in this

way, she suddenly unbound her hair, platted it, tied both ends together

to keep it out of her way, and then stepping out into the middle of the

hut, began to make the most hideous faces that can be conceived, by

drawing both lips into her mouth, poking forward her chin, squinting

frightfully, occasionally shutting one eye, and moving her head from

side to side as if her neck had been dislocated. This exhibition, which

they call _=ay=ok~it-t=ak-poke_, and which is evidently

considered an accomplishment that few of them possess in perfection,

distorts every feature in the most horrible manner imaginable, and

would, I think, put our most skilful horse-collar grinners quite out of

countenance.

The next performance consists in looking steadfastly and gravely

forward, and repeating the words _t~ab=ak-tabak, k~eib=o-keibo,

k~e-b=ang-~e-n=u-t~o-~e~ek, kebang-enutoeek, ~am=at~am=a-amatama_, in

the order in which they are here placed, but each at least four times,

and always by a peculiar modulation of the voice, speaking them in pairs

as they are coupled above. The sound is made to proceed from the throat

in a way much resembling ventriloquism, to which art it is indeed an

approach. After the last _amatama_ Iligliuk always pointed with her

finger towards her body, and pronounced the word _angetkook,_ steadily

retaining her gravity for five or six seconds, and then bursting into a

loud laugh, in which she was joined by all the rest. The women sometimes

produce a much more guttural and unnatural sound, repeating principally

the word _=ikk~er~ee-ikkeree_, coupling them as before, and staring in

such a manner as to make their eyes appear ready to burst out of their

sockets with the exertion. Two or more of them will sometimes stand up

face to face, and with great quickness and regularity respond to each

other, keeping such exact time that the sound appears to come from one

throat instead of several. Very few of the females are possessed of this

accomplishment, which is called _pitkoo-she-r=ak-poke_, and it is not

uncommon to see several of the younger females practising it. A third

part of the game, distinguished by the word _keit=ik-poke_, consists

only in falling on each knee alternately--a piece of agility which they

perform with tolerable quickness, considering the bulky and awkward

nature of their dress.

The last kind of individual exhibition was still performed by Iligliuk,

to whom in this, as in almost everything else, the other women tacitly

acknowledged their inferiority, by quietly giving place to her on every

occasion. She now once more came forward, and letting her arms hang down

loosely and bending her body very much forward, shook herself with,

extreme violence, as if her whole frame had been strongly convulsed,

uttering at the same time, in a wild tone of voice, some of the

unnatural sounds before mentioned.

This being at an end, a new exhibition was commenced, in which ten or

twelve women took a part, and which our gentlemen compared to

blind-man's buff. A circle being formed, and a boy despatched to look

out at the door of the hut, Iligliuk, still the principal actress,

placed herself in the centre, and after making a variety of guttural

noises for about half a minute, shut her eyes and ran about till she had

taken hold of one of the others, whose business it then became to take

her station in the centre, so that almost every woman in her turn

occupied this post; and in her own peculiar way, either by distortion of

countenance or other gestures, performed her part in the game. This

continued three quarters of an hour; and, from the precaution of placing

a look-out, who was withdrawn when it was over, as well as from some

very expressive signs which need not here be mentioned, there is reason

to believe that it is usually followed by certain indecencies, with

which their husbands are not to be acquainted. Kaoongut was present,

indeed, on this occasion, but his age seemed to render him a privileged

person; besides which, his own wife did not join in the game.

The most common amusement, however, and to which their husbands made no

objection, they performed at Winter Island expressly for our

gratification. The females being collected to the number of ten or

twelve, stood in as large a circle as the hut would admit, with Okotook

in the centre. He began by a sort of half howling, half singing noise,

which appeared as if designed to call the attention of the women, the

latter soon commencing the _Amna Aya_ song hereafter described. This

they continued without variety, remaining quite still while Okotook

walked round within the circle; his body was rather bent forward, his

eyes sometimes closed, his arms constantly moving up and down, and now

and then hoarsely vociferating a word or two, as if to increase the

animation of the singers, who, whenever he did this, quitted the chorus

and rose into the words of the song. At the end of ten minutes they all

left off at once, and after one minute's interval commenced a second act

precisely similar and of equal duration; Okotook continuing to invoke

their muse as before. A third act, which followed this, varied only in

his frequently, towards the close, throwing his feet up before and

clapping his hands together, by which exertion he was thrown into a

violent perspiration. He then retired, desiring a young man (who, as we

were informed, was the only individual of several then present thus

qualified) to take his place in the centre as master of the ceremonies,

when the same antics as before were again gone through. After this

description it will scarcely be necessary to remark, that nothing can be

poorer in its way than this tedious singing recreation, which, as well

as everything in which dancing is concerned, they express by the word

m~om=ek-poke. They seem, however, to take great delight in it; and

even a number of men, as well as all the children, crept into the hut by

degrees to peep at the performance.

The Esquimaux women and children often amuse themselves with a game not

unlike our "skip-rope." This is performed by two women holding the ends

of a line, and whirling it regularly round and round, while a third

jumps over it in the middle, according to the following order. She

commences by jumping twice on both feet, then alternately with the right

and left, and next four times with the feet slipped one behind the

other, the rope passing once round at each jump. After this she performs

a circle on the ground, jumping about half a dozen times in the course

of it, which bringing her to her original position, the same thing is

repeated as often as it can be done without entangling the line. One or

two of the women performed this with considerable agility and

adroitness, considering the clumsiness of their boots and jackets, and

seemed to pride themselves, in some degree, on the qualification. A

second kind of this game consists in two women holding a long rope by

its ends, and whirling it round in such a manner, over the heads of two

others standing close together near the middle of the bight, that each

of these shall jump over it alternately. The art, therefore, which is

indeed considerable, depends more on those whirling the rope than on the

jumpers, who are, however, obliged to keep exact time, in order to be

ready for the rope passing under their feet.

The whole of these people, but especially the women, are fond of music,

both vocal and instrumental. Some of them might be said to be

passionately so, removing their hair from off their ears, and bending

their heads forward, as if to catch the sounds more distinctly, whenever

we amused them in this manner. Their own music is entirely vocal,

unless, indeed, the drum and tambarine before mentioned be considered an

exception.

The voices of the women are soft and feminine, and, when singing with

the men, are pitched an octave higher than theirs. They have most of

them so far good ears, that, in whatever key a song is commenced by one

of them, the rest will always join in perfect unison. After singing for

ten minutes, the key had usually fallen a full semitone. Only two of

them, of whom Iligliuk was one, could catch the tune as pitched by an

instrument, which made it difficult with most of them to complete the

writing of the notes; for if they once left off they were sure to

recommence in some other key, though a flute or violin was playing at

the time.

* * * * *

During the season passed at Winter Island, which appears to have been a

healthy one with the Esquimaux, we had little opportunity of becoming

acquainted with the diseases to which they are subject. Our subsequent

intercourse with a great number of these people at Igloolik having

unfortunately afforded more frequent and fatal instances of sickness

among them, I here insert Mr. Edwards's remarks on this subject.

"Our first communication with these people at Winter Island gave us

a more favourable impression of their general health than

subsequent experience confirmed. There, however, they were not free

from sickness. A catarrhal affection, in the month of February,

became generally prevalent, from which they readily recovered after

the exciting causes, intemperance and exposure to wet, had ceased

to operate. A solitary instance of pleurisy also occurred, which

probably might have ended fatally but for timely assistance. Our

intercourse with them in the summer was more interrupted; but at

our occasional meetings they were observed to be enjoying excellent

health. It is probable that their certain supplies of food, and the

nomade kind of life they lead in its pursuit during that season,

are favourable to health. Nutrition goes on actively, and an

astonishing increase of strength and fulness is acquired. Active

diseases might now be looked for, but that the powers of nature are

providentially exerted with effect.

"The unlimited use of stimulating animal food, on which they are

from infancy fed, induces at an early age a highly plethoric state

of the vascular system. The weaker, over-distended vessels of the

nose quickly yield to the increased impetus of the blood, and an

active hemorrhage relieves the subject. As the same causes continue

to be applied in excess at frequent intervals, and are followed by

similar effects, a kind of vicarious hemorrhage at length becomes

established by habit; superseding the intervention of art, and

having no small share in maintaining a balance in the circulating

system. The phenomenon is too constant to have escaped the

observation of those who have visited the different Esquimaux

people; a party of them has, indeed, rarely been seen, that did not

exhibit two or three instances of the fact.

"About the month of September, the approach of winter induced the

Esquimaux at Igloolik to abandon their tents and to retire into

their more established village. The majority were here crowded into

huts of a permanent construction, the materials composing the sides

being stones and the bones of whales, and the roofs being formed of

skins, turf, and snow; the rest of the people were lodged in snow

huts. For a while they continued very healthy; in fact, as long as

the temperature of the interior did not exceed the freezing point,

the vapours of the atmosphere congealed upon the walls, and the

air remained dry and tolerably pure; besides, their hard-frozen

winter stock of walrus did not at this time tempt them to indulge

their appetites immoderately. In January the temperature suffered

an unseasonable rise; some successful captures of walrus also took

place; and these circumstances, combined perhaps with some

superstitious customs of which we were ignorant, seemed the signal

for giving way to sensuality. The lamps were accumulated, and the

kettles more frequently replenished; and gluttony, in its most

disgusting form, became for a while the order of the day. The

Esquimaux were now seen wallowing in filth, while some, surfeited,

lay stretched upon their skins, enormously distended, and with

their friends employed in rolling them about, to assist the

operations of oppressed nature. The roofs of their huts were no

longer congealed, but dripping with wet and threatening speedy

dissolution. The air was, in the bone huts, damp, hot, and beyond

sufferance offensive with putrid exhalations from the decomposing

relics of offals or other animal matter permitted to remain from

year to year undisturbed in these horrible sinks.

"What the consequences might have been had this state of affairs

long continued, it is not difficult to imagine; but, fortunately

for them, an early and gradual dispersion took place, so that by

the end of January few individuals were left in the village. The

rest, in divided bodies, established themselves in snow huts upon

the sea-ice at some distance from the land. Before this change had

been completed, disorders of an inflammatory character had

appeared. A few went away sick, some were unable to remove, and

others taken ill upon the ice, and we heard of the death of several

about this period.

"Their distance from the ships at once precluded any effectual

assistance being rendered them at their huts, and their removal on

board with safety; the complaints of those who died at the huts,

therefore, did not come under observation. It appears, however, to

have been acute inflammation of some of the abdominal viscera, very

rapid in its career. In the generality, the disease assumed a more

insidious and sub-acute form, under which the patient lingered for

a while, and was then either carried off by a diarrhoea, or slowly

recovered by the powers of nature. Three or four individuals, who,

with some risk and trouble, were brought to the ships, we were

providentially instrumental in recovering; but two others, almost

helpless patients, were so far exhausted before their arrival, that

the endeavours used were unsuccessful, and death was probably

hastened by their removal.

"That affection of the eyes known by the name of snow-blindness, is

extremely frequent among these people. With them it scarcely ever

goes beyond painful irritation, while among strangers inflammation

is sometimes the consequence. I have not seen them use any other

remedy besides the exclusion of light; but, as a preventive, a

wooden eye-screen is worn, very simple in its construction,

consisting of a curved piece of wood, six or seven inches long, and

ten or twelve lines broad. It is tied over the eyes like a pair of

spectacles, being adapted to the forehead and nose, and hollowed

out to favour the motion of the eyelids. A few rays of light only

are admitted through a narrow slit an inch long, cut opposite to

each eye.

"There are, upon the whole, no people more destitute of curative

means than these. With the exception of the hemorrhage already

mentioned, which they duly appreciate, and have been observed to

excite artificially to cure headache, they are ignorant of any

rational method of procuring relief. It has not been ascertained

that they use a single herb medicinally. As prophylactics, they

wear amulets, which are usually the teeth, bones, or hair of some

animal, the more rare apparently the more valuable. In absolute

sickness they depend entirely upon their Angekoks, who, they

persuade themselves, have influence over some submarine deities who

govern their destiny. The mummeries of these impostors, consisting

in pretended consultations with their oracles, are looked upon with

confidence, and their mandates, however absurd, superstitiously

submitted to. These are constituted of unmeaning ceremonies and

prohibitions generally affecting the diet, both in kind and mode,

but never in quantity. Seal's flesh is forbidden, for instance, in

one disease, that of the walrus in the other; the heart is denied

to some, and the liver to others. A poor woman, on discovering that

the meat she had in her mouth was a piece of fried heart instead of

liver, appeared horror-struck; and a man was in equal tribulation

at having eaten, by mistake, a piece of meat cooked in his wife's

kettle.

"Personal deformity from malconformation is uncommon; the only

instance I remember being that of a young woman, whose utterance

was unintelligibly nasal, in consequence of an imperfect

development of the palatine bones leaving a gap in the roof of the

mouth."

* * * * *

Whatever may be the abundance sometimes enjoyed by these people, and

whatever the maladies occasioned by their too frequent abuse of it, it

is certain that they occasionally suffer very severely from the opposite

extreme. A remarkably intelligent woman informed Captain Lyon, that two

years ago some Esquimaux arrived at Igloolik from a place near

_Akkoolee_, bringing information that, during a very grievous famine,

one party of men had fallen upon another and killed them; and that they

afterward subsisted on their flesh, while in a frozen state, but never

cooked or even thawed it. This horrible account was soon after confirmed

by Toolemak on board the Fury; and though he was evidently uneasy at our

having heard the story, and conversed upon it with reluctance, yet, by

means of our questions, he was brought to name, upon his fingers, five

individuals who had been killed upon this occasion. Of the fact,

therefore, there can be no doubt; but it is certain, also, that we

ourselves scarcely regarded it with greater horror than those who

related it; and the occurrence may be considered similar to those

dreadful instances on record, even among civilized nations, of men

devouring one another, in wrecks or boats, when rendered desperate by

the sufferings of actual starvation.

The ceremony of crying, which has before been mentioned as practised

after a person's death, is not, however, altogether confined to those

melancholy occasions, but is occasionally adopted in cases of illness,

and that of no very dangerous kind. The father of a sick person enters

the apartment, and, after looking at him a few seconds without speaking,

announces by a kind of low sob his preparation for the coming ceremony.

At this signal every other individual present composes his features for

crying, and the leader of the chorus then setting up a loud and piteous

howl, which lasts about a minute, is joined by all the rest, who shed

abundant tears during the process. So decidedly is this a matter of

form, unaccompanied by any feeling of sorrow, that those who are not

relatives shed just as many tears as those that are; to which may be

added, that in the instances which we saw there was no real occasion for

crying at all. It must, therefore, be considered in the light of a

ceremony of condolence, which it would be either indecorous or unlucky

to omit.

I have already given several instances of the little care these people

take in the interment of their dead, especially in the winter season; it

is certain, however, that this arises from some superstitious notion,

and particularly from the belief that any heavy weight upon the corpse

would have an injurious effect upon the deceased in a future state of

existence; for even in the summer, when it would be an easy matter to

secure a body from the depredations of wild animals, the mode of burial

is not essentially different. The corpse of a child observed by

Lieutenant Palmer, he describes "as being laid in a regular but shallow

grave, with its head to the northeast. It was decently dressed in a good

deerskin jacket, and a sealskin prepared without the hair was carefully

placed as a cover to the whole figure, and tucked in on all sides. The

body was covered with flat pieces of limestone, which, however, were so

light that a fox might easily have removed them. Near the grave were

four little separate piles of stones, not more than a foot in height, in

one of which we noticed a piece of red cloth and a black silk

handkerchief, in a second a pair of child's boots and mittens, and in

each of the others a whalebone pot. The face of the child looked

unusually clean and fresh, and a few days could only have elapsed since

its decease."

These Esquimaux do not appear to have any idea of the existence of One

Supreme Being, nor indeed can they be said to entertain any notions on

this subject which may be dignified with the name of Religion. Their

superstitions, which are numerous, have all some reference to the

preternatural agency of a number of _to=orng~ow_ or spirits, with

whom, on certain occasions, the _Angetkooks_ pretend to hold mysterious

intercourse, and who, in various and distinct ways, are supposed to

preside over the destinies of the Esquimaux. On particular occasions of

sickness or want of food, the Angetkooks contrive, by means of a

darkened hut, a peculiar modulation of the voices and the uttering of a

variety of unintelligible sounds, to persuade their countrymen that they

are descending to the lower regions for this purpose, where they force

the spirits to communicate the desired information. The superstitious

reverence in which these wizards are held, and a considerable degree of

ingenuity in their mode of performing their mummery, prevent the

detection of the imposture, and secure implicit confidence in these

absurd oracles. Some account of their ideas repecting death, and of

their belief in a future state of existence, has already been introduced

in the course of the foregoing pages, in the order of those occurrences

which furnished us with opportunities of observing them.

NARRATIVE

OF

AN ATTEMPT TO REACH THE

NORTH POLE,

IN BOATS FITTED FOR THE PURPOSE, AND ATTACHED

TO HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP HECLA,

IN THE YEAR 1827.

NARRATIVE

INTRODUCTION.

In April, 1826, I proposed to the Right Honourable Viscount Melville,

first lord commissioner of the Admiralty, to attempt to reach the North

Pole by means of travelling with sledge-boats over the ice, or through

any spaces of open water that might occur. My proposal was soon

afterward referred to the president and council of the Royal Society,

who strongly recommended its adoption; and an expedition being

accordingly directed to be equipped for this purpose, I had the honour

of being appointed to the command of it; and my commission for his

majesty's ship the Hecla, which was intended to carry us to Spitzbergen,

was dated the 11th of November, 1826.

Two boats were constructed at Woolwich, under my superintendence, after

an excellent model suggested by Mr. Peake, and nearly resembling what

are called "troop-boats," having great flatness of floor, with the

extreme breadth carried well forward and aft, and possessing the utmost

buoyancy, as well as capacity for stowage. Their length was twenty feet,

and their extreme breadth seven feet. The timbers were made of tough ash

and hickory, one inch by half an inch square, and a foot apart, with a

"half-timber" of smaller size between each two. On the outside of the

frame thus formed was laid a covering of Macintosh's water-proof

canvass, the outer part being covered with tar. Over this was placed a

plank of fir, only three sixteenths of an inch thick; then a sheet of

stout felt; and, over all, an oak plank of the same thickness as the

fir; the whole of these being firmly and closely secured to the timbers

by iron screws applied from without. The following narrative will show

how admirably the elasticity of this mode of construction was adapted to

withstand the constant twisting and concussion to which the boats were

subject.[013] On each side of the keel, and projecting considerably

below it, was attached a strong "runner," shod with smooth steel, in the

manner of a sledge, upon which the boat entirely rested while upon the

ice; and, to afford some additional chance of making progress on hard

and level fields, we also applied to each boat two wheels, of five feet

diameter, and a small one abaft, having a swivel for steering by, like

that of a Bath chair; but these, owing to the irregularities of the ice,

did not prove of any service, and were subsequently relinquished. A

"span" of hide-rope was attached to the forepart of the runners, and to

this were affixed two strong ropes of horse-hair, for dragging the boat:

each individual being furnished with a broad leathern shoulder-belt,

which could readily be fastened to or detached from the drag-ropes. The

interior arrangement consisted only of two thwarts; a locker at each

end for the nautical and other instruments, and for the smaller stores;

and a very slight framework along the sides for containing the bags of

biscuit and our spare clothes. A bamboo mast nineteen feet long, a

tanned duck sail, answering also the purpose of an awning, a spreat, one

boat-hook, fourteen paddles, and a steer-oar, completed each boat's

equipment.

Two officers and twelve men (ten of the latter being seamen, and two

marines) were selected for each boat's crew. It was proposed to take

with us resources for ninety days; to set out from Spitzbergen, if

possible, about the beginning of June; and to occupy the months of June,

July, and August in attempting to reach the Pole and returning to the

ship; making an average journey of thirteen miles and a half per day.

Our provisions consisted of biscuit of the best wheaten flour; beef

_pemmican_;[014] sweetened cocoa-powder, and a small proportion of rum,

the latter concentrated to fifty-five per cent. above proof, in order to

save weight and stowage. The proper instruments were provided, both by

the Admiralty and the Board of Longitude, for making such observations

as might be interesting in the higher latitudes, and as the nature of

the enterprise would permit. Six pocket chronometers, the property of

the public, were furnished for this service; and Messrs. Parkinson and

Frodsham, with their usual liberality, intrusted to our care several

other excellent watches, on trial, at their own expense.

Annexed is a list of the different articles composing the equipment of

the boats, together with the actual weight of each.

Enter- Endeav-

prise our

lbs. lbs.

Boat . . . . . . . . . 1539 1542

Bamboo mast, 1 spreat, 1 boat-hook, 1 steer-oar. . 46-1/2 46-1/2

Fourteen paddles . . . . . . . 41 41

Sail (or awning) . . . . . . . 22 22

Spare rope and line . . . . . . 6 6

Small sounding line (750 fathoms in all) . . . 8 10

Carpenters' tools, screws, nails, &c. . . . 10 10

Copper and felt for repairs . . . . . 19 19

Four fowling pieces,with 2 bayonets. . . . 15 15

Small articles for guns. . . . . . -- 4

Ammunition . . . . . . . . 17-1/2 17-1/2

Instruments. . . . . . . . 29 29

Books. . . . . . . . . 7 5-1/2

S {

p {Fur Suits for sleeping in (14 in each boat) . . 162 162

a {Thick-nailed boots (14 in each boat) . . . 47 47

r {Esquimaux do., with spare soles (14 in each .

e { boat . . . . . . . . 33 33

C {Flannel shirts (7 in each boat) . . . . 8-3/4 8-3/4

l {Guernsey frocks (do. do.) . . . . . 11-1/2 11-1/2

o {Thick drawers (do. do.) . . . . 14 14

t {Mittens (28 in each boat) . . . . . 5 5

h {Comforters (14 in each boat) . . . . 1 1

e {Scotch caps (do. do.) . . . . . 4 4

s {

A bag of small articles for the officers, .

including soap, &c., &c. . . . . . 4 4

Do. do. for the men do. . . . . . 12 12

Biscuit . . . . . . . . 628 628

Pemmican . . . . . . . . 564 564

Rum . . . . . . . . 180 180

Cocoa powder, sweetened. . . . . . 63 63

Salt . . . . . . . . . 14 14

Spirits of Wine . . . . . . . 72 72

Cooking apparatus. . . . . . . -- 20

Tobacco . . . . . . . . 20 20

Medicine chest . 19 --

Pannikins, knife, fork, and spoon (14 in each boat) . 5 5

Weighing-dials and measures . 2 2

Various small articles for repairs, &c., not mentioned

above 14 --

Packages for provisions, clothes, &c 110 116

---- ----

14)3753 1/4 3753 3/4

Weight, per man 268 lbs.

Exclusive of four sledges, weighing 26 lbs. each.

I have not thought it necessary, in the course of this volume, to enter

into any examination of the question respecting the approaches to the

North Pole which had already been effected previous to our late attempt.

I shall, therefore, only add that, after carefully weighing the various

authorities, from which every individual interested in this matter is at

liberty to form his own conclusions, my own impartial conviction, at the

time of our setting out on this enterprise, coincided (with a single

exception) with the opinion expressed by the Commissioners of Longitude

in their memorial to the king, that "the progress of discovery had not

arrived northward, according to any well-authenticated accounts, so far

as eighty-one degrees of north latitude." The exception to which I

allude is in favour of Mr. Scoresby, who states his having, in the year

1806, reached the latitude of 81° 12' 42" by actual observation, and 81°

30' by dead reckoning. I therefore consider the latter parallel as, in

all probability, the highest which had ever been attained prior to the

attempt recorded in the following pages.

* * * * *

The Hecla being ready to proceed down the river, she was taken in tow,

at ten A.M. on the 25th of March, 1827, by the Lightning steam-vessel;

and having received and returned the cheers of the Greenwich pensioners,

the children of the Naval Asylum, and of various ships in the river, she

made fast to the moorings at Northfleet at three P.M. The following day

was occupied in swinging the ship round on the various points of the

compass, in order to obtain the amount of the deviation of the magnetic

needle produced by the attraction of the ship's iron, and to fix Mr.

Barlow's plate for correcting it.[015] On the 3d of April the ship's

company received three months' wages in advance, together with their

river-pay; and on the following morning, at half past four, we weighed

and made sail from the Nore.

We had at this time remarkably fine weather for the season of the year,

and such a continuance of southerly winds that we arrived off the island

of Soroe, within which Hammerfest lies, on the 17th, without having had

occasion to make a tack till we entered the fiord which forms the

northern entrance.

The wind becoming light from the southward, and very variable, we were

occupied the whole of the 18th in beating up towards Hammerfest. In the

evening a Lapland boat came on board, and one of the men undertook to

pilot the ship to the anchorage, which, after beating all night against

an ebb tide, we reached at three A.M. on the 19th. Finding that our

reindeer had not arrived, I immediately despatched Lieutenant Crozier,

in one of our own boats, to Alten, from whence they were expected--a

distance of about sixty English miles. At the same time, we landed our

observatories and instruments at Fugleness, near the establishment of

Messrs. Crowe and Woodfall, the British merchants residing here; and

Lieutenant Foster and myself immediately commenced our magnetic and

other observations, which were continued during the whole of our stay

here. We completed our supply of water, and obtained a small quantity of

venison, with abundance of good fish (principally torsk and cod), and

some milk. We also purchased a set of snow-shoes for our travelling

party, together with the Lapland shoes of leather (called Kamooga[016]),

which are the most convenient and comfortable for wearing with them; and

we practised our people in the manner of walking in them in deep snow,

which afforded them fine exercise and amusement.

On the 23d, Lieutenant Crozier returned in the boat from Alten, and was

followed the next day by Mr. Wooodfall, who brought with him eight

reindeer for our use, together with a supply of moss for their provender

(_cenomyce rangiferina_). As, however, the latter required a great deal

of picking, so as to render it fit to carry with us over the ice, and

as it was also necessary that we should be instructed in the manner of

managing the deer, I determined on remaining a day or two longer for

these purposes. Nothing can be more beautiful than the training of the

Lapland reindeer. With a simple collar of skin round his neck, a single

trace of the same material attached to the "pulk" or sledge, and passing

between his legs, and one rein, fastened like a halter about his neck,

this intelligent and docile animal is perfectly under the command of an

experienced driver, and performs astonishing journeys over the softest

snow. When the rein is thrown over on the off side of the animal, he

immediately sets off at a full, trot, and stops short the instant it is

thrown back to the near side. Shaking the rein over his back is the only

whip that is required. In a short time after setting off, they appear to

be gasping for breath, as if quite exhausted; but, if not driven too

fast at first, they soon recover this, and then go on without

difficulty. The quantity of _clean_ moss considered requisite for each

deer per day is four pounds; but they will go five or six days without

provender, and not suffer materially. As long as they can pick up snow

as they go along, which they like to eat quite clean, they require no

water; and ice is to them a comfortable bed. It may well be imagined,

with such qualifications, how valuable these animals seemed likely to

prove to us; and the more we became accustomed, and, I may say, attached

to them, the more painful became the idea of the necessity which was

likely to exist, of ultimately having recourse to them as provision for

ourselves.

Our preparations were completed on the 27th, but the wind continuing

fresh from the northwestern quarter in the offing, we had no prospect of

making any progress till the morning of the 29th, when we weighed at six

A.M.

On the 5th of May, being in latitude 73° 30', and longitude 7° 28' E.,

we met with the first straggling mass of ice, after which, in sailing

about 110 miles in a N.N.W. direction, there was always a number of

loose masses in sight; but it did not occur in continuous "streams" till

the morning of the 7th, in latitude 74° 55', a few miles to the eastward

of the meridian of Greenwich. On the 10th several whalers were in sight,

and Mr. Bennett, the master of the Venerable, of Hull, whom we had

before met in Baffin's Bay in 1818, came on board. From him I learned

that several of the ships had been in the ice since the middle of April,

some of them having been so far to the westward as the island of Jan

Mayen, and that they were now endeavouring to push to the northward.

They considered the ice to offer more obstacles to the attainment of

this object than it had done for many years past.[017] None of the ships

had yet taken a single whale, which, indeed, they never expect to do to

the southward of about 78°.

In the afternoon, after waiting for some time for the ice to open, we

again entered it, in company with all the whalers, and by the following

morning had succeeded in pushing about fifty miles farther to the

northward, though not without some heavy blows in "boring" through the

ice.

At five A.M. on the 14th we passed Magdalena Bay, and by ten o'clock had

arrived off Hakluyt's Headland, round which we hauled to the

southeastward, to look, for anchorage in Smerenburg Harbour. In this,

however, we were disappointed, the whole place being occupied by one

unbroken floe of ice, still firmly attached to the land on each side.

Here we made fast, though not without considerable difficulty; the wind,

which was now freshening from the southward, blowing in such violent and

irregular gusts off the high land that the ship was scarcely manageable.

Walruses, dovekies, and eider-ducks were very numerous here, especially

the former; and four reindeer came down upon the ice near the ship.

We now prepared a quantity of provisions and other stores to land at

Hakluyt's Headland, as a supply for my party on our return from the

northward; so that, in case of the ship being obliged to go more to the

southward, or of our not being able at once to reach her, we should be

furnished with a few days' resources of every kind. Our intentions were,

however, frustrated for the present; for we had scarcely secured our

hawsers, when a hard gale came on from the southward, threatening every

moment to snap them in two, and drive us from our anchorage. We held on

for several hours, till, at nine P.M., some swell having set in upon the

margin of the ice, it began to break off and drift away. Every possible

exertion was instantly made to shift our stream cable farther in upon

the floe; but it broke away so quickly as to baffle every endeavour,

and at ten the ship went adrift, the wind blowing still harder than

before. Having hauled in the hawsers and got the boats on board, we set

the close-reefed topsails, to endeavour to hang to windward; but the

wind blew in such tremendous gusts from the high land as almost to lay

the ship on her beam-ends; so that we were obliged to reduce our canvass

to the main topsail and stormsails, and let her drive to leeward.[018]

The situation of the ship now appeared a very precarious one, the wind

still blowing with unabated violence, and with every appearance of a

continuance of stormy weather. Under these circumstances, it was the

general opinion of the officers, as well as my own, that it was

advisable to take advantage of the comparatively smooth water within the

stream of ice, and to run the ship into the pack, rather than incur the

risk of having to do the same thing in a heavy sea. This plan succeeded

remarkably well; a tolerably smooth and open part of the margin being

selected, the ship was forced into it at three A.M., when, after

encountering a few severe blows from the heavy washed pieces which

always occur near the sea-edge, she was gradually carried onward under

all sail, and at four A.M. we got into a perfectly smooth and secure

situation, half a mile within the margin of a "pack."

It was impossible not to consider ourselves highly fortunate in having

thus early, and with no great difficulty, succeeded in reaching the

highest latitude to which it was our object to take the ship. But, from

what we had already seen at Smerenburg, it was also impossible not to

feel much anxiety as to the prospect of getting her into any secure

harbour before the proper time of my departure to the northward should

arrive. However, we could only wait patiently for the result of a few

more days; and, in the mean time, everybody was busily employed in

completing the arrangements for our departure, so that, if an

opportunity did offer of securing the ship, we might have nothing else

to attend to. Our deer were in good order, having been thriving well

ever since they came on board; they make excellent sailors, and do not

seem to mind bad weather, always lying down quite comfortable whenever

there is any sea.

In order to try what our chances were, at the present low temperature,

of procuring water upon the ice without expense of fuel, we laid a black

painted canvass cloth, and also a piece of black felt, upon the surface

of the snow; the temperature of the atmosphere being from 18° to 23°.

These substances had, in a couple of hours, sunk half an inch into the

snow, but no water could be collected. I was desirous, also, of

ascertaining whether any part of the real sea-ice was so entirely fresh

when melted as to be drunk without injury or inconvenience. For this

purpose we cut a block of ice from a large hummock, about ten feet high

above the sea; and having broken, pounded, and melted it, without any

previous washing, we found it, both by the hydrometer and by the

chemical test (nitrate of silver), _more_ free from salt than any which

we had in our tanks, and which was procured from Hammerfest. I

considered this satisfactory, because, in the autumn, the pools of water

met with upon the ice generally become very brackish, in consequence of

the sea-water being drawn up into them by capillary action as the ice

becomes more "rotten" and porous; and we might, therefore, have to

depend chiefly on melted ice for our daily supply.

No change took place till the 21st, when, on the weather clearing up, we

found that the open water we had left to the westward was now wholly

closed up, and that there was none whatever in sight. It was now also so

close in-shore, that on the 22d, Lieutenant Ross, with a party of

officers and men, succeeded in landing without difficulty. They found a

small floe of level ice close to the beach, which appeared very lately

formed. Walking up to a little conspicuous eminence near the eastern end

of the beach, they found it to be composed of clay-slate, tinged of a

brownish red colour. The few uncovered parts of the beach were strewed

with smooth schistose fragments of the same mineral, and in some parts a

quantity of thin slates of it lay closely disposed together in a

vertical position. On the little hillock were two graves, bearing the

dates of 1741 and 1762 on some of the stones which marked them, and a

considerable quantity of fir driftwood lay upon the beach.

I now clearly saw that there was, for the present, no reasonable

prospect of our getting towards any harbour; and I could not but feel

confident that, even if we did get to the entrance of any, some time

must be occupied in securing the ship. It may be well imagined how

anxious I had now become to delay no longer in setting out upon the

main object of the expedition. I felt that a few days at the

commencement of the season, short as it is in these regions, might be of

great importance as to the result of our enterprise, while the ship

seemed to be so far secure from any immediate danger as to justify my

leaving her, with a reduced crew, in her present situation. The nature

of the ice was, beyond all comparison, the most unfavourable for our

purpose that I remember to have ever seen. It consisted only of loose

pieces, scarcely any of them fifteen or twenty yards square; and when

any so large did occur, their, margins were surrounded by the smaller

ones, thrown up by the recent pressure into ten thousand various shapes,

and presenting high and sharp angular masses at every other step. The

men compared it to a stone-mason's yard, which, except that the stones

were of ten times the usual dimensions, it indeed very much resembled.

The only inducement to set out over such a road was the certainty that

floes and fields lay beyond it, and the hope that they were not _far_

beyond it. In this respect, indeed, I considered our present easterly

position as a probable advantage, since the ice was much less likely to

have been disturbed to any great extent northward in this meridian than

to the westward clear of the land, where every southerly breeze was sure

to be making havoc among it. Another very important advantage in setting

off on this meridian appeared to me to be, that, the land of Spitzbergen

lying immediately over against the ice, the latter could never drift so

much or so fast to the southward as it might farther to the westward.

Upon these grounds it was that I was anxious to make an attempt, at

least, as soon as our arrangements could be completed; and the officers

being of the same opinion as myself, we hoisted out the boats early in

the morning of the 27th, and, having put the things into one of them,

endeavoured, by way of experiment, to get her to a little distance from

the ship. Such however, were the irregularities of the ice, that, even

with the assistance of an additional party of men, it was obvious that

we could not have gained a single mile in a day, and, what was still

more important, not without almost certain and serious injury to the

boats by their striking against the angular masses. Under these

circumstances, it was but too evident to every one that it would have

been highly imprudent to persist in setting out, since, if the ice,

after all, should clear away, even in a week, so as to allow us to get a

few miles nearer the main body, time would be ultimately saved by our

delay, to say nothing of the wear and tear, and expense of our

provisions. I was, therefore, very reluctantly compelled to yield to

this necessity, and to order the things to be got on board again.

Immediately after we had, on the 27th, proved experimentally the extreme

difficulty of transporting our boats and stores over the ice which now

surrounded us, I made up my mind to the very great probability there

seemed to be of the necessity of adopting such alterations in our

original plans as would accommodate them to these untoward circumstances

at the outset. The boats forming the main impediment, not so much on

account of their absolute weight as from the difficulty of managing so

large a body upon a road of this nature, I made preparations for the

possible contingency of our having to take only one, continuing the same

number of men in our whole party. All that I saw reason to apprehend

from having only a single boat on our outward journey, was some

occasional delay in ferrying over spaces of water in two trips instead

of one; but we considered that this would be much more than compensated

by the increased rate at which we should go whenever we were upon the

ice, as we expected to be nine days out of ten. The principal

disadvantage, therefore, consisted in our not all being able to sleep in

the boat, and this we proposed to obviate in the following manner.

We constructed out of the Lapland snow-shoes fourteen sledges, each

sledge consisting of two pairs well fastened together. Upon these we

proposed dragging almost all the weight, so as to keep the boat nearly

without any cargo in her, as we found by experiment that a man could

drag about three hundred pounds on one of the sledges with more facility

than he could drag the boat when his proportion did not exceed one

hundred pounds. Upon these sledges we proposed lodging half our party

alternately each night, placing them under the lee of the boat, and then

stretching over them, as a sloped roof, a second awning, which we fitted

for the purpose. Upon this plan we likewise could afford to make our

boat considerably stronger, adding some stout iron knees to the supports

of her runners, and increasing our store of materials for repairing her.

The weight reduced by this arrangement would have been above two

thousand pounds, without taking away any article conducive to our

comfort, except the boat and her gear. I proposed to the officers and

men who had been selected to accompany me this change in our equipment;

and I need scarcely say that they all clearly saw the probable necessity

of it, and cheerfully acquiesced in its adoption, if requisite.

On the 29th I sent Lieutenants Foster and Crozier, with the greater part

of the ship's company, and with a third or spare travelling-boat, to

endeavour to land her on Red Beach, together with a quantity of stores,

including provisions, as a deposite for us on our return from the

northward, should it so happen, as was not improbable, that we should

return to the eastward. It is impossible to describe the labour

attending this attempt. Suffice it to say, that, after working for

fourteen hours, they returned on board at midnight, having accomplished

about four miles out of the six. The next day they returned to the boat,

and, after several hours' exertion, landed her on the beach with the

stores. What added to the fatigue of this service was the necessity of

taking a small boat to cross pools of water on their return, so that

they had to drag this boat both ways, besides that which they went to

convey. Having, however, had an opportunity of trying what could be done

upon a regular and level floe which lay close to the beach, everybody

was of opinion, as I had always been, that we could easily travel twenty

miles a day on ice of that kind.

It will not be wondered at if the apparent hopelessness of getting the

ship free for the present again suggested the necessity of my own

setting out: and I had once more, on the 1st of June, after an anxious

consultation with my officers, resolved on making a second attempt, when

the ice near us, which had opened at regular hours with the tide for

three or four days past, began to set us much more rapidly than usual to

the eastward, and towards a low point which runs off from Red Beach,

near its western end, causing us to shoal the water in a few hours from

fifty-two to twenty fathoms, and on the following morning to fourteen

and a half. By sending a lead-line over the ice a few hundred yards

beyond us, we found ten fathoms water. However unfavourable the aspect

of our affairs seemed before, this new change could not fail to alter it

for the worse. The situation of the ship now, indeed, required my whole

attention; for the ice occasionally opened and shut within twenty or

twenty-five yards of us on the in-shore side, the ship herself was still

very firmly imbedded by the turned up masses which pressed upon her on

the 19th, and which, on the other side, as well as ahead and astern,

were of considerable extent. Thus she formed, as it were, part of a

floe, which went drifting about in the manner above described. This was

of little importance while she was in sixty fathoms of water, as she was

for the first fourteen days of our besetment, and a distance of five or

six miles from the land; but now that she had shoaled the water so

considerably, and approached the low point within two or three miles, it

became a matter of importance to try whether any labour we could bestow

upon it would liberate the ship from her present imbedded state, so as

to be at least ready to take advantage of slack water, should any occur,

to keep her off the shore. All hands were therefore set to work with

handspikes, capstan-bars, and axes, it being necessary to detach every

separate mass, however small, before the larger ones could be moved. The

harassing and laborious nature of this operation is such as nothing but

experience can possibly give an idea of, especially when, as in this

case, we had only a small pool of clear water near the margin in which

the detached pieces could be floated out. However, we continued at work,

with only the necessary intermissions for rest and meals, during this

and the two following days, and on the evening of the 3d had

accomplished all that the closeness of the ice would permit; but the

ship was still by no means free, numberless masses of ice being doubled

under her, even below her keel, which could not be moved without more

space for working.

Painful as was this protracted delay in setting out upon the principal

object of the expedition, the absolute necessity of it will scarcely, I

think, be doubted by any person conversant in such matters. So long as

the ship continued undisturbed by the ice, nearly stationary, and in

deep water, for several days together, I had, in my anxiety to lose not

a moment's time, ventured to flatter myself with the hope that, in a

case of such unlooked-for emergency, when every moment of our short and

uncertain season was of importance, I might be justified in quitting my

ship at sea; and in this opinion the zeal of my officers, both those who

were to accompany me and those who were to remain on board, induced them

unanimously to concur. But the case was now materially altered; for it

had become plain to every seaman in the ship, first, that the safety of

the Hecla, if thus left with less than half her working hands, could not

be reckoned upon for an hour; and, secondly, that no human foresight

could enable us to conjecture, should we set out while she was thus

situated, when or where we should find her on our return. In fact, it

appeared to us at this time, as indeed it was, a very providential

circumstance, that the impracticable nature of the ice for travelling

had offered no encouragement to persevere in my original intention of

setting out a week before this time.

For the two following days we continued closely beset, but still driving

to the eastward across the mouth of Weyde Bay, which is here six or

seven miles in breadth, and appeared to be very deep, the land in the

centre receding to a distance of full eight leagues. In the afternoon of

the 6th, we had driven within five miles of a point of land, beyond

which, to the eastward, it seemed to recede considerably; and this

appearing to answer tolerably to the situation of Muscle or Mussel Bay,

as laid down in most of the charts, I was very anxious to discover

whether we could here find shelter for the ship. A lane of water leading

towards the land at no great distance from us, I hauled a boat over the

ice and then rowed on shore, accompanied by Lieutenant Foster and some

of the other officers, taking with me another small store of provisions,

to be deposited here, as a future resource for my party, should we

approach this part of the coast.

Landing at half past six P.M., and leaving Mr. Bird to bury the

provisions, Lieutenant Foster and myself walked without delay to the

eastward, and, on ascending the point, found that there was, as we had

supposed, an indentation in the coast on the other side. We now began to

conceive the most flattering hopes of discovering something like a

harbour for the ship, and pushed on with all possible haste to examine

the place farther; but, after three hours walking, were much mortified,

on arriving at its head, to find that it was nothing but an open bay,

entirely exposed to the inroads of all the northern ice, and therefore

quite unfit for the ship. We returned to the boat greatly disappointed,

and reached the Hecla at 1.30 A.M. on the 7th.

I do not remember to have ever experienced in these regions such a

continuance of beautiful weather as we now had, during more than three

weeks that we had been on the northern coast of Spitzbergen. Day after

day we had a clear and cloudless sky, scarcely any wind, and, with the

exception of a few days previous to the 23d of May, a warm temperature

in the shade, and quite a scorching sun. On the 3d of June we had a

shower of rain, and on the 6th it rained pretty hard for two or three

hours. After the 1st of June we could procure abundance of excellent

water upon the ice, and by the end of the first week the floe-pieces

were looking blue with it in some parts, and the snow had everywhere

become too soft to bear a man's weight.

On the 7th, the ship, still closely beset, had drifted much more to the

eastward, being within a mile of the spot where the provisions had been

deposited the preceding evening. There was now no other ice between us

and the land except the floe to which we had been so long attached; and

round this we were occasionally obliged to warp, whenever a little

slackening of the ice permitted, in order to prevent our getting too

near the rocks. In this situation of suspense and anxiety we still

remained until the evening of the 8th, when a breeze at length springing

up from the southward began to open out the ice from the point near

which we lay. As soon as the channel was three or four hundred yards

wide, we warped into the clear water, and, making sail, rounded the

point in safety, having no soundings with twenty fathoms, at one third

of a mile from a small rocky islet lying off it. In the mean time the

wind had been driving the ice so fast off the land as to form for us a

clear communication with the open water before seen to the eastward; and

thus we were at length liberated from our confinement, after a close and

tedious "besetment" of twenty-four days.

The weather continued so thick, that, impatient as we were to stand in

towards the eastern land, we could not venture to do so till eleven A.M.

on the 10th, when we made sail towards Brandywine Bay, the wind being

now from the W.S.W., or nearly dead upon that shore. The weather

clearing up at 1.15 P.M., we saw the eastern land, and soon after

discovered the grounded ice off Low Island; Walden's Island was also

plainly in sight to the N.E. The bay seemed deeply indented, and very

likely to afford nooks such as we wanted; and where so large a space of

open water, and, consequently, some sea, had been exerting its influence

for a considerable time, we flattered ourselves with the most sanguine

hopes of now having access to the shores, sufficiently near, at least,

for sawing into some place of shelter. How, then, shall I express our

surprise and mortification in finding that the whole of the coast, from

the islands northward to Black Point, and apparently also as far as

Walden's Island, was rendered inaccessible by one continuous and heavy

floe, everywhere attached to the shores, and to the numberless grounded

masses about the island, this immense barrier being in some places six

or seven miles in width, and not less than twelve feet in thickness near

the margin.

The prospect from our masthead at this time was certainly enough to cast

a damp over every sanguine expectation I had formed, of being _soon_

enabled to place the Hecla in security; and more willingly than ever

would I, at this period, have persuaded myself, if possible, that I

should be justified in quitting her at sea. Such, however, was the

nature of this navigation, as regarded the combined difficulties arising

from ice and a large extent of shoal and unsurveyed ground, that, even

with our full complement of officers and men on board, all our strength

and exertions might scarcely have sufficed, in a single gale of wind, to

keep the ship tolerably secure, and much less could I have ensured

placing her ultimately in any proper situation for picking up an absent

party; for, if once again beset, she must, of course, be at the mercy of

the ice. The conclusion was, therefore, irresistibly forced upon my

mind, that thus to leave the ship would be to expose her to imminent and

certain peril, rendering it impossible to conjecture where we should

find her on our return, and, therefore, rashly to place all parties in a

situation from which nothing but disaster could reasonably be expected

to ensue.

After beating through much ice, which was all of the drift or broken

kind, and had all found its way hither in the last two days, we got into

an open space of water in-shore, and about six miles to the northward of

Low Island; and on the morning of the 13th stretched in towards Walden

Island, around which we found, as we had feared, a considerable quantity

of fixed ice. It was certainly much less here, than elsewhere; but the

inner, or eastern side of the island was entirely enveloped by it.

Having from twenty-six to twenty-four fathoms at the distance of four

miles from Walden Island, I was preparing two boats, with the intention

of going to sound about its northern point, which was the most clear of

ice, and not without a faint hope of finding something like shelter

there; but I was prevented by a thick fog coming on. Continuing,

therefore, to beat to the northward, we passed occasionally a good deal

of drift ice, but with every appearance of much clear water in that

direction; and the weather clearing about midnight, we observed in

latitude 80°43'32". The Seven Islands were in sight to the eastward, and

the "Little Table Island" of Phipps bore E.N.E. (true) distant about

nine or ten miles. It is a mere craggy rock, rising, perhaps, from four

to five hundred feet above the level of the sea, and with a small low

islet lying off its northern end. This island, being the northernmost

known land in the world, naturally excited much of our curiosity; and

bleak, and barren, and rugged as it is, one could not help gazing at it

with intense interest.

At midnight on the 14th we had reached the latitude 81°5'32" Our

longitude by chronometers at this time was 19° 34' E., Little Table

Island bearing S. 26° E. (true), distant six or seven leagues, and

Walden Island S. 4° E.[019] The depth of water was ninety-seven fathoms,

on a bottom of greenish mud; and the temperature at ninety-five fathoms,

by Six's thermometer, was 29.8°, that at the surface being 31°, and of

the air 28°. All that could here be seen to the northward was loose

drift-ice. To the northeast it was particularly open, and I have no

doubt that we might have gone many miles farther in that direction, had

it not been a much more important object to keep the ship free than to

push her to the northward.

We now stood back again to the southward, in order again to examine the

coast wherever we could approach it; but found, on the 15th, that none

of the land was at all accessible, the wind having got round to the

W.N.W., and loaded all the shores with drift-ice.

Walden Island being the first part clear of the loose ice, we stretched

in for it on the 16th, and, when within two miles, observed that about

half that space was occupied by land-ice, even on its northwestern side,

which was the only accessible one, the rest being wholly enclosed by it.

However, being desirous of obtaining a better view than our crow's-nest

commanded, and also of depositing here a small quantity of provisions,

I left the ship at one P.M., accompanied by Lieutenant Foster in a

second boat, and, landing upon the ice, walked over about three quarters

of a mile of high and rugged hummocks to the shore. Ascending two or

three hundred feet, we had a clear and extensive view of the Seven

Islands, and of some land far beyond them to the eastward; and the whole

sea was covered with one unbroken land-floe, attached to all the shores

extending from the island where we stood, and which formed an abutment

for it each way along the land as far as the eye could reach. After this

discouraging prospect, which wholly destroyed every hope of finding a

harbour among the Seven Islands, we returned to the place where the men

had deposited the provisions, and, after making the necessary

observations for the survey, returned immediately on board.

Observing from the island that the sea was perfectly clear to the

northward, we now stood for Little Table Island, with some slight hope

that the rock off its northern end might afford shelter for the ship; at

all events, being the most exposed, on account of its situation, it was

the most likely to be free from ice. A thick fog prevented our getting

near it till the morning of the 17th, when, having approached it within

a mile and a half, I sent Lieutenant Ross on shore to a little islet,

which was quite free from ice, where he deposited another small store of

provisions, but found nothing like shelter for the ship.

Having no farther business here, and the easterly wind still continuing,

I thought the best thing we could do would be to run again to the

southward of Low Island, and try once more to approach the shores about

the entrance of the Waygatz Strait. We therefore bore up under all sail

to the southwest.

It would be vain to deny that I had lately begun to entertain the most

serious apprehensions as related to the accomplishment of our principal

object. The 17th of June had now arrived, and all that we saw afforded

us the most discouraging prospect as to our getting the Hecla into

harbour; while every day's experience showed how utterly rash a measure

it would be to think of quitting her in her present situation, which,

even with all her officers and men, was one of extreme precariousness

and uncertainty.

On the evening of the 18th, while standing in for the high land to the

eastward of Verlegen Hook, which, with due attention to the lead, may be

approached with safety, we perceived from the crow's-nest what appeared

a low point, possibly affording some shelter for the ship, and which

seemed to answer to an indentation of the coast laid down in an old

Dutch chart, and there called _Treurenburg Bay_.