118 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



to enclose it like a wall. A similar casing was placed over 

 our deck, and a small tunnelled entry the tossut of the Es- 

 quimaux contrived to enter from below. We adopted as 

 nearly as we could the habits of the natives, burning lamps 

 for heat, dressing in fox-skin clothing, and relying for our 

 daily supplies on the success of organized hunting-parties. 



" The upper tribes of these Esquimaux had their nearest 

 winter settlement at a spot distant, by dog-journey, about 

 seventy-five miles. We entered into regular communication 

 with this rude and simple-minded people, combining our 

 efforts with theirs for mutual support, and interchanging 

 numerous friendly offices. Bear-meat, seal, walrus, fox, and 

 ptarmigan, were our supplies. They were eaten raw, with a 

 rigorous attention to their impartial distribution. With the 

 dark months, however, these supplies became very scanty. 

 The exertions of our best hunters were unavailing, and my 

 personal attempts to reach the Esquimaux failed less on 

 account of the cold (minus 52) than the ruggedness of the 

 ice, the extreme darkness, and the renewal of tetanic diseases 

 among our dogs. Our poor neighbors, however, fared worse 

 than ourselves : famine, attended by frightful forms of dis- 

 ease, reduced them to the lowest stages of misery and emaci- 

 ation. Our own party was gradually disabled. Mr. Brooks 

 and Mr. Wilson, both of whom had lost toes by amputation, 

 manifested symptoms of a grave character. William Morton 

 was severely frozen ; and we were deprived of the valuable 

 services of the surgeon by the effects of a frost-bite, which 

 rendered it necessary for him to submit to amputation. 

 Scurvy with varying phases gradually pervaded our company, 

 until Mr. Bonsall and myself only remained able to attend 

 upon the sick and carry on the daily work of the ship, if that 

 name could still appropriately designate the burrow which we 

 inhabited. Even after this state of things had begun to iin- 



