April, 1865.1 A Gale. IGl 



eat seal ; his friends liad eaten seal, and must be content witli more 

 of the same for supper. Tlie next morning's comfort, however, was 

 improved by a sociable breakfast by all hands on boiled salmon. 

 Ebierbing- brought in during the day two Arctic 9-pound hares, 

 wliich Hall weighed by balancing them with bullets the weight of 

 which he ]s:new to be fift3^-two to the pound. A mutual instruction 

 class seems to have been then unintentionall}'- formed among the 

 party housed by the gale. Ou-e-la spent mucli time in confirming 

 what had been previously more than once asserted by his people, that 

 trees were certainly to be seen growing on Shar-too (Prince of Wales 

 Island), and that between Wager River and Boothia a species of soap- 

 stone used in making the native lamps and kettles (the Lapis ollaris) 

 is to be found in abundance. Hall, on his side, gained their attention 

 while correcting their crude ideas of the motions of tlie sun, moon, 

 and stars ; like all other Innuits, they believed that these moved 

 daily around the earth. 



On the 4th, the lowest reading of the thermometer was 57° 

 below freezing-point. A southeast gale, which prevailed from the 

 5th to the Sth, is noted in connection with expressions of sympath}- 

 for Franklin's men in the terrible sufferings which they must have 

 endured if in their weak state overtaken by sucli a storm on tlieir 

 fated way to Montreal Island. The thermometer during this gale 

 showed a mean temperature of — 18*^ and a minimum of — 30"^. For 

 ten hours, however, two of the natives remained out unflinchingly to 

 bring in reindeer-carcasses at nightfall. 



Hall's igloo was the headquarters for fresh meat. Tlie}^ were all 

 still living on an ook-gook which Ebierbing shot on the 16th of the 

 month previous ; and it is again to be noted that he was the chief 

 S. Ex. 27 11 



