DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 499 



laughing heartily at our ignorance in not understanding 

 them, and then talking away, as before. They were in- 

 cessantly in motion, going everywhere, trying doors, 

 and squeezing themselves through dark passages, round 

 casks and boxes, and out into the light again, anxious to 

 touch and handle everything they saw, and asking for 

 or else endeavoring to steal, everything they touched. 

 It was the more difficult to restrain them, as I did not 

 wish them to suppose that we were at all intimidated. 

 But there were some signs of our disabled condition, 

 which it was important they should not see ; it was 

 especially necessary to keep them out of the forecastle, 

 where the dead body of poor Baker was lying ; and, as 

 it was in vain to reason or persuade, we had, at last, to 

 employ the ' gentle laying-on of hands/ which, I believe, 

 the laws of all countries tolerate, to keep them in order. 



" Our whole force was mustered, and kept constantly 

 on the alert ; but, though there may have been some- 

 thing of discourtesy in the occasional shoulderings and 

 hustlings that enforced the police of the ship, things 

 went on good-humoredly. Our guests continued run- 

 ning in and out and about the vessel, bringing in pro- 

 visions, and carrying them out again to their dogs on 

 the ice ; in fact, stealing all the time, until the after- 

 noon, when, like tired children, they threw themselves 

 down to sleep. I ordered them to be made comfortable 

 in the hold ; and Morton spread a large buffalo-robe for 

 them not far from a coal-fire in the galley-stove. 



t{ They were lost in barbarous amaze at the new fuel, 

 too hard for blubber, too soft for fire-stone, but 

 they were content to believe it might cook as well as 

 seal's fat. They borrowed from us an iron pot, and 

 some melted water, and parboiled a couple of pieces of 

 walrus-meat ; but, the real piece de resistance, some five 

 pounds c head, they preferred to eat raw. Yet there 



