54 TESSUISS'AK. 



many of the icebergs which troubled us so much, and 

 which have suppHed materials for this too long de- 

 scription. 



At length a strong breeze came moaning among 

 the bergs, and sent us on our way rejoicing. In the 

 evening of August 21st we were moored in a little 

 harbor scarcely large enough for the schooner to turn 

 round. We lay abreast of a rocky slope on which 

 were j^itched a few seal-skin tents, inhabited by a set 

 of well-to-do-looking Esquimaux. I noticed two or 

 three native huts, overgrown with moss and grass, and 

 one, better looking than the rest, in which Jensen, my 

 interpreter, informed me that he had resided. The 

 place is called Tessuissak, which means "the place 

 where there is a bay." Sonntag went ashore with his 

 sextant and "horizon," to find out its exact position 

 in the world, an event which had not before come to 

 pass in its history, and which I fear was not duly ap- 

 preciated by its inhabitants. 



We should have been away in a couple of hours ; 

 but Jensen discovered that his team was scattered, 

 and many of the animals could not be found until 

 after much searching. Meanwhile some ice drifted 

 across the mouth of the harbor, and hermetically 

 sealed us up. 



At last the dogs were all aboard, something over 

 thirty in number. The poor ones I had either given 

 aw^ay or exchanged, and we had four superb teams 

 Thirty wild beasts on the deck of a little schooner ! 

 Think of it, ye who love a quiet life and a tidy ship ! 

 Some of them were in cages arranged along the bul- 

 warks ; others running about the deck ; all of them 

 badly frightened, and most of them fighting. They 

 made day and night hideous with their incessant 

 hcwlinfc. 



