REVIEW OF OUR POSITION. 71 



which lay between us and our homes, and of the 

 strange people we were now among. 



In our first interview with the Tuski, after the 

 immediate surprise and novelty had passed, we were 

 too much employed with our own affairs to pay parti- 

 cidar attention to each peculiarity upon its primary 

 exhibition, and thus many points of striking interest 

 had become familiar, while we neglected to notice 

 them with due attention. But this incident recalled 

 all the strangeness of om' position to mind; one 

 view of the tableau presented renewed the fresh- 

 ness and interest of this phase of oiu" lives. Lofty 

 rugged mountains, majestic and snow-bewi*apped, 

 surrounded the ice-bound harbom-, now clad in a 

 smooth, almost unbroken mantle of dazzhng white; 

 the Atwoit resting upon its bosom like a bird upon 

 the water, now long located in her icy home, and 

 with snow upon the roof and masts, and a ridge 

 of broken ice around her, added to the strangeness 

 of the scene; while the crew, clad in all varieties 

 of costume, from the semi-military to a close proxi- 

 mity with the dresses of our friends, minghng with 

 the Tuski in their curious habihments, now also 

 beginning to evidence their intercourse with us by 

 scraps of European manufacture, intermixed with 

 then' own di-csses — nearly a huncb'ed dogs, with 



