CHAPTER III. 



THIRD VOYAGE DANCING WITH THE ESQUIMAUX A MELAN- 

 CHOLY ACCIDENT FUNERAL OF ONE OF THE CREW BLACK 



LEAD ISLAND. 



ON the i2th March, 1851, we were once more fitted 

 out for the Arctic seas, and left Hull under very 

 favourable circumstances. At Stromness, the principal 

 harbour in the Orkney Islands, we took in our full 

 complement of men. The seamen belonging to these 

 islands are similar to the Shetland men. At the period 

 of which I write, a great many had been in the Hudson 

 Bay Company's service, and were adapted for the work 

 through the many privations they had experienced in the 

 Company's employ. They were a nice, quiet, and 

 temperate people, and amenable to good discipline. 

 Those who had been in Hudson's Bay, particularly, were 

 older and better men. We always had to take many young 

 hands, but all were good boatmen as well as farmers, a 

 patient hardy race of men. Articles were signed and all 

 came on board. There was not a single case of drunken- 

 ness among them, nor have I ever seen one, either from 

 Shetland or the Orkneys. We got under weigh, proceeded 

 through Hoy Sound, and were soon in the Western Ocean. 

 We passed the outer islands with a fine fair wind which 

 carried us well across the ocean towards Cape Farewell. 



The first ice was made by us in what is now called 

 the old S.W. Lat. about 62% N. Long. 54 W. We 

 went along the ice edge until we arrived off Holsteinberg 

 or Weideford, as it is commonly called. There the ice led us 



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