40 



POLAR REGIONS. 



I'oiar some, surfeited, lay stretched upon their skins enor- 

 Regions. mou sly distended, and with their friends employed in 

 1 rolling them about to assist the operations of oppressed 

 nature." An experiment was made by Captain Parry 

 on a lad, scarcely full grown, to ascertain how much 

 he would, without inconvenience, eat. In twenty 

 hours he consumed, by weight, of sea-horse flesh, hard 

 frozen, 4 Ib. 4 oz. the same quantity of boiled flesh, 

 and of bread and bread-dust 1 Ib. 12 oz. amounting to 

 10 Ib. 4 oz. of solids. Besides this he took If pint of 

 rich gravy soup, 3 wine-glasses of raw spirits, 1 tumbler 

 of strong grog, and 1 gallon and a pint of water ! Not- 

 withstanding this immense load of food, the lad did 

 not seem to consider the quantity extraordinary. The 

 quantity of water they drank was quite in proportion 

 to their eating; it was so great, indeed, that Captain 

 Parry could by no means furnish them with half as 

 much as they desired. 



These people employed the usual canoe ; and had, 

 indeed, the general apparatus of the Greenlanders. In 

 their frail Kaijaks, and with so imperfect apparatus, 

 they sometimes attack the whale, and occasionally with 

 success. They were found to be very tolerably in the 

 use of the bow and arrow. 



In their dealings and intercourse with our voyagers, 

 these people were more than ordinarily honest, that is, 

 for Esquimaux ; and in their barter they were general- 

 ly fair and upright. They received the most unceas- 

 ing kindness from both officers arid sailors, and were 

 perpetually receiving benefits from them ; but their 

 gratitude was very rarely at all excited by it. They 

 in fact, seemed exceedingly deficient in this interesting 

 and important virtue. In the few instances, however, 

 in which the voyagers had occasion to draw upon their 

 hospitality, they had every reason to be pleased with 

 them. Both as to food and accommodation, the best 

 that was to be had were always at their service; and 

 their attention was every thing that hospitality and 

 even good breeding could dictate. 



Twelve of the men Captain Parry had met with had 

 each /too wives, and some of the younger had two be- 

 trothed. Children were found to be betrothed in 

 their infancy ; a practice rare in Greenland. 



The women of this tribe, like the Esquimaux race 

 generally, are not remarkable for their chastity; nor 

 are the husbands at all delicate about it. It is not un- 

 common, when two of them are together on a sealing 

 excursion, to exchange wives as a friendly accommoda- 

 tion; and they were as little scrupulous of offering their 

 wives to the sailors, at least many of them, as they would 

 have offered for sale a knife or a jacket. In the absence 

 of the men, the women manifested an utter disregard to 

 connubial fidelity. In such a state of society, the curious 

 circumstances that occurred, with the voyagers and 

 Esquimaux, will not be considered surprising. Cap- 

 tain Lyon humorously records a case that happened to 

 himself. In one of his excursions overland, he had oc- 

 casion to lodge in an Esquimaux tent, where a portion 

 was screened off for him by a seal's skin. Here wrap- 

 ped in his blanket bag, he retired to rest alone ; but, 

 at midnight, was awakened by a feeling of great 

 warmth, and, to his surprise, found himself covered by 

 a large deer skin, under which lay his Esquimaux host, 

 with " his two wives and their favourite puppy, all fast 

 asleep, and stark naked. Supposing this was all ac- 

 cording to rule," he quietly resigned himself to sleep. 



There was a considerable degree of talent evinced 

 by several of these people. Besides manufacturing all 

 necessary articles of clothing, and some of their appa- 

 ratus, with great ingenuity and neatness, they readily 



Polar 

 Regions. 



comprehended the nature of charts, and some of them 

 drew plans on paper of the contiguous coasts, with ex- 

 traordinary accuracy. A female of the name of Ili- 

 gliuk was very remarkable for this talent, and, indeed, 

 in all respects, seemed to be a person of vury good, if 

 not superior understanding. From this young wo- 

 man, the first notice respecting the North-East Cape of 

 America was derived, which she pointed out by tracing 

 it with the contiguous coasts on a map in the presence 

 of Captain Parry. 



" In their behaviour to old people, where age or 

 infirmities render them useless, and therefore burthen- 

 some to the community, the Esquimaux betray a de- 

 gree of insensibility bordering on inhumanity." Cap- 

 tain Parry was witness of a very distressing example 

 of the same inhumanity to the widow of an Esquimaux 

 who died at Igloolik during their stay there. This 

 poor destitute woman was shamefully treated by her 

 tribe, and even kinsmen, and was discovered by Cap- 

 tain Parry in a dying condition, owing apparently to 

 desertion, robbery, and want. But their whole cha- 

 racter was yet considered by our voyagers as much 

 superior to that of persons in general in savage life. 

 Devoid of religion, and particularly of the humanizing 

 and elevating principles of Christianity, they were under 

 the influence only of sensual and selfish principles; and 

 under such principles it is not surprising that they were 

 not better. The stay of Captain Parry, and his con- 

 stant intercourse with them, afforded an admirable op- 

 portunity of giving them some knowledge of the great 

 truths of religion ; but we are not informed by him 

 whether or not this object was undertaken, and the 

 opportunity improved. 



The expedition, under the command of Captain Bel- Second 

 lingshausen, has added to our knowledge of the south Appendix, 

 polar regions by the discovery of two islands within 

 the Antarctic circle, the only land hitherto known to 

 exist so far to the southward. Both these islands lie in 

 about 69 south latitude ; one of them, named Alex- 

 ander I. Island, in 73 west longitude, and the other 

 Peter Island, in 91 west. Both of them were so close- 

 ly enveloped in ice, that no particular examination of 

 them could be made. This expedition, consisting of 

 two ships, the Wostok and the Mirni, sailed on the 3d 

 of July, 1819- They touched at Copenhagen to im- 

 prove their equipment, and at Portsmouth to take on 

 board the astronomical instruments which had been or- 

 dered for them in London, and from thence proceeded 

 to Teneriffe and Rio Janeiro on their way to the south- 

 ward. The leading object of the voyage was to explore 

 the Antarctic regions, and perform a circuit of the 

 southern pole as near to it as the ice would permit ; and 

 avoiding the track of Captain Cook, to make their high- 

 est penetration where this navigator had kept at a dis- 

 tance from the ice, and on the contrary to retire into a 

 more northerly parallel, in the meridian where the ad- 

 venturous Cook had made the most particular exami- 

 nations. On this judicious plan they succeeded in the 

 discovery of the two islands we have mentioned ; but 

 they could not approach within thirty miles of them for 

 ice, and that only on the west side. The ice was gene- 

 rally found to lie so far from the pole, that their high- 

 est latitude was only 70, being short of the point 

 reached by Cook. Within the Antarctic circle they 

 traversed a distance of near 30 of longitude ; and tak- 

 ing the latitude of 60, we find that 300 degrees of 

 longitude were traced in the two voyages by Cook and 

 Bellingshausen within this parallel, leaving only 6'0 of 

 longitude unexplored at this elevation 



