December, 1864.1 ^' TJic Arc-IaJ^ 105 



assistance even of doj^s. He liad seen a bear kill a walrus by using a 

 piece of ice weighing more than any one man could lift. The bear 

 rounds the ice into a ball, and stealthily runs on his hind legs toward 

 his sleeping victim ; if the first blow on the head of the walrus fails 

 to kill, he finishes his work by repeated blows on the thick skull. He 

 contents himself with the blubber only, leaving the mass of meat for 

 the fox, or for other animals which may follow his tracks. 



A peculiar animal was described to Hall, an account of which is 

 scarcely to be found in Arctic books. The natives speak of it as 

 being larger than the bear, and as very ferocious and much more diffi- 

 cult to be killed. It has grayish hair, a long tail, and short, thick 

 legs, its fore feet being divided into three parts like the partridge's; 

 its hind feet are like a man's heels. When resting, it sits upright like 

 a man. A Neitchille Innuit, crawling into a hole for shelter in the 

 night, had found one sound asleep and quickly dispatched it with his 

 knife. It may be added here that Ebierbing, now residing in the 

 United States, confirms such accounts of the '■'■Arc-la,'''' and says that 

 the animal once inhabited his native country on Cumberland Sound. 



On the morning of the 10th, Ebierbing, Oii-e-Ia, Ar-too-a, Ar- 

 moii, Oon-goo-too, and Nu-ker-2'hoo, accompanied by Rudolph, started 

 on two sledges with full dog-teams to visit the whaling-vessels winter- 

 ing in Depot Island — a contemplated trip which had been deferred 

 only till the walrus season should commence. Rudolph was the hap- 

 piest of the party. He had proved of little service to Hall, having 

 early become dissatisfied with the strange mode of life to which his 

 employer had habituated himself. Yet he was at times a voracious 

 eater, consuming as much as 8 pounds of solid food at a meal, and then 

 complaining of a feeling of "gone-ness," and fearing he would starve 



