278 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
but they talked so much, that it was impossible to 
say for certain what their names for them were. 
With respect to the musk ox we are not sure 
that they are acquainted with him, and if they 
are, it is doubtful what their name for him is; for 
although a good drawing, and, afterwards, a head 
of one of these animals were shown them, they 
said nothing that appeared to be expressive of his 
name, until some person pointing to the head, said, 
umimack, which word they immediately repeated, 
but pronounced it as if spelt oomingmack. It 1s 
doubtful, therefore, whether they understood that 
we were informing them, that umimack was our 
name for the animal, or that they were telling us 
that oomingmack was their name for him. There 
is one circumstance, however, which may be men- 
tioned, that tends to strengthen the latter opinion, 
which is, that the tribe of esquimaux we fell in 
with near the top of Baffin’s Bay two years ago, 
told Saccheuse (our Esquimaux interpreter) that a 
large animal, which they called umimack, frequented 
that country. ‘They described it as having a horn. 
on its back, but this would be so extraordinary a 
thing, that it is more reasonable to suppose that 
they meant a hunch, although from the paucity of 
words in their language they might not have a 
term to express it. But this is a subject which 
our present knowledge does not enable us to say 
much about, with any degree of certainty ; though 
I think we may take it for granted, that all the 
Esquimaux tribes scattered along the shores of 
Greenland, North America, and its adjacent 
islands, are the same race of people, and, as far 
as our observations go, their appearance, dress, 
