138 PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 



and partly skipping, they speedily reached the vessels > 

 where a striking congeniality of spirit was soon found 

 to exist between them and the sailors ; boisterous fun 

 forming to each the chief source of enjoyment. A 

 fiddle and drum being produced, the natives struck up 

 a dance, or rather a succession of vehement leaps, ac- 

 companied with loud shouts and yells. Seeing the 

 Kabloonas, or Whites, as they called our countrymen, 

 engaged in the game of leap-frog, they attempted to 

 join ; but not duly understanding how to measure their 

 movements, they made such over-leaps as sometimes 

 to pitch on the crown of their heads ; however, they 

 sprang up quite unconcerned. Their attention was spe- 

 cially attracted to the effects of a winch, by which one 

 sailor drew towards him a party of ten or twelve of their 

 number, though grinning and straining every nerve in 

 resistance ; but, finding all in vain, they joined in the 

 burst of good-humored laughter till tears streamed from 

 their eyes. 



One intelligent old man followed Captain Lyon to the 

 cabin, and viewed, with rational surprise, various objects 

 which were presented. The performance of a hand-organ 

 and a musical snuff-box struck him with breathless ad- 

 miration ; and, on seeing drawings of the Esquimaux 

 in Hudson's Strait, he soon understood them, and point 

 ed out the difference between their dress and appear- 

 ance and that of his own tribe. On viewing the sketch 

 of a bear, he raised a loud cry, drew up his sleeves, and 

 showed the scars of three deep wounds recived in en- 

 counters with that terrible animal. 



As spring advanced, the attention of the officers was 

 almost wholly engrossed by the prospects of discovery 

 during the approaching summer. The Esquimaux, by 

 no means destitute of intelligence, and accustomed to 

 shift continually from place to place, were found to 



