WITH THE ESQUIMAUX. 251 



On June 16th their boats were at the open water. " We sec," says Kane, "its 

 deep indigo horizon, and hear its roar against the icy beach. Its scent is in our nostrils 

 and our hearts/ 7 They had their boats to prepare now for a long and adventurous 

 navigation. They were so small and heavily laden as hardly to justify much confidence 

 in their buoyancy ; but, besides this, they were split with frost and warped by sunshine, and 

 fairly open at the seams. They were to be caulked, and swelled, and launched, and stowed, 

 before they could venture to embark in them. A rainy south-wester too, which had met 

 them on arrival, was now spreading with its black nimbus over the sky as if they were to 

 be storm-stayed on the precarious ice-beach. It was a time of anxiety. 



Kane writes on July 18th, " The Esquimaux are camped by our side the whole 

 settlement of Etah congregated around the ' big caldron ' of Cape Alexander, to bid us 

 good-bye. There are Meteh and Mealik his wife, our old acquaintance Mrs. Eiderduck, 

 and their five children, commencing with Myouk my body-guard, and ending with the 

 ventricose little Accomadah. There is Nessark and Auak his wife ; and Tellerk, ' the 

 right-arm/ and Amannalik his wife ; and Sip-see, and Marsumah, and Aniugnah and 

 who not? I can name them every one, but they know us as well. We have found 

 brothers in a strange land. 



For many days after leaving their Esquimaux friends they were more or less beset 

 with broken floating ice, and the weather was often extremely bad. Kane describes a 

 gale, during which the boats were nearly swamped. At length they reached a cleft or 

 cave in the cliff, and were shoring up their boat with blocks of ice, when they saw the 

 welcome sight of a flock of eider ducks, and they knew that they were at their breeding 

 grounds. 



" We remained almost three days in our crystal retreat, gathering eggs at the rate of 

 1,200 a day. Outside the storm raged without intermission, and our egg-hunters found 

 it difficult to keep their feet ; but a merrier set of gourmands than were gathered within 

 never surfeited in genial diet." It was the 18th of July before the ice allowed them to 

 depart. In launching the Hope she was precipitated into the sludge below, carrying 

 away rail and bulwark, tumbling their best shot-gun into the sea, and, worst of all, their 

 kettle soup-kettle, paste-kettle, tea-kettle, water-kettle, all in one was lost overboard. 

 For some days after they made fair progress. 



A little later and matters had not improved. The ice was again before them in an 

 almost unbroken mass. "Things grew worse and worse with us," says Kane; "the old 

 difficulty of breathing came back again, and our feet swelled to such an extent that we 

 were obliged to cut open our canvas boots. But the symptom which gave me most 

 uneasiness was our inability to sleep. A form of low fever which hung by us when at 

 work had been kept down by the thoroughness of our daily rest. All my hopes of 

 escape were in the refreshing influences of the halt. 



" It must be remembered that we were now in the open bay, in the full line of the 

 great ice-drift to the Atlantic, and in boats so frail and unseaworthy as to require constant 

 baling to keep them afloat. 



"It was at this crisis of our fortunes that we saw a large seal floating as is the 

 custom of these animals on a small patch of ice, and seemingly asleep. It was an ussuk, 



