PREPARING TO START. 293 



whom I had taken from Upernavik, could throw the 

 lash anywhere else than about their legs, or into the 

 face of whomsoever might happen to sit upon the 

 sledge. As for hitting a dog, they could scarcely do 

 it by any chance. 



My recent journey had decided my course of ac- 

 tion. The last view which 1 had from the top of the 

 lofty cliff behind Cairn Point convinced me that my 

 only chance for the season was to cross the Sound 

 from that place, for my observations up the Greenland 

 coast had shown me, as has been already observed, the 

 impracticability of reaching the Polar Sea by that 

 route. McCormick had immediate charge of the work 

 of preparation, and pushing every thing forward with 

 his customary energy, we were ready to start before 

 the close of March. But the temperature still contin- 

 ued to range too low for safety, and I only awaited a 



rise of the thermometer. Our Httle communitv was 



t/ 



now full of life and business. 



The Esquimaux were not an unimportant element 

 in the^hive. The most useful service came, however, 

 from the ancient dames who presided over the domes- 

 tic affairs of the snow house and the hut at Etah. 

 They were sewing for us constantly, and were proba- 

 bly the first women in the world who ever grew rich 



" Plying the needle and thread." 



But misfortune fell at length within the snow-hut. 

 Poor old Kablunet, the voluble and kind-hearted and 

 industrious wife of Tcheitchenguak, took sick. Her 

 disease was pneumonia, and it ran its course with 

 great rapidity. All my medicines and all my efforts 

 to save her were of no avail, and she died on the 

 fourth day. This unhappy event had nearly de- 



