26 IM'Keevor's Voyage to Hudson* $ Say. 



Canine teeth, solitary. 



Grinders, five or six on each side, the first approx- 

 imated to the canine teeth. 



Tongue - smooth. 



Snout - prominent. 



Eyes furnished with a militating membrane. 



The hair is of a great length, and the limbs are of an enor- 

 mous size, and of a very unseemly shape. I have tasted the 

 flesh of the one we killed, and think it by no means bad eating; 

 it had, however, rather a fishy taste. The paw, when dried 

 and smoked, is considered a delicious morsel. Among the 

 Chinese the flesh is considered as one of the greatest rarities, 

 insomuch, that, as Du Halde informs us, the emperor will 

 send fifty or a hundred leagues into Tartary to procure them 

 for a great entertainment. At the approach of winter they be- 

 come extremely fat; a hundred pounds have been taken from 

 a single beast at this time of the year. Their skins are used 

 for a variety of purposes. By the Esquimeaux they are used 

 for the purpose of making boots, shoes, and other articles of 

 dress. In this country they are sold principally for covers of 

 coach-boxes. The length of the one, whose history I have 

 related, measured thirteen feet. The tendons, when split, 

 are used by the Esquimeaux as a substitute for thread ; for 

 which purpose, if we might judge by the neatness of their work- 

 manship, it answers admirably. They appear to be confined to 

 the coldest parts' of our globe, being found as far north as any 

 navig-ators nave yet been able to penetrate. 



July the 28th, we continued to force our way through the 

 ice ; weather uncommonly fine j atmosphere quite clear, and 

 of a pure azure tint. 



July 29th. This day, about two o'clock P. M., we first 

 got sight of Upper Savage Island, situated in N. lat. 62. 25'. 

 W. long. 70'. 



This island is about two miles in circumference, and con- 

 sists merely of a vast lofty perpendicular rock, rising like a 

 cone, in an easy ascent from the sea. It had not the least ap- 

 pearance of verdure, or vegetation of any kind. 



On the back part of this island we met with a large commo- 

 dious harbour, surrounded in part by vast mountains and 

 numerous fields of ice. We expected to get a passage in this 

 direction ; but, after tacking about between land and ice the 

 entire night, we were obliged to give up the attempt. 



This is the bay to which Captain Wales, in his interesting* 

 account of these regions, alludes : " It may," he says, " be 

 worthy of remark, that the island of God's Mercies; or, as 

 some call it, Upper Savage Island, lies in the mouth of an 



