March, 1867.1 VisU to Tcm Islatid. 303 



skins, making" them quite warm. Their beds were of the most com- 

 fortable kind, great pains being taken when making them to lay 

 down, first a netting of short sticks or whalebone; then walrus or ook- 

 <jroo/<; skins ; dried grass; then skins of some kind; then deer-skins. 

 Few walruses were taken, but Hall bought two rolls of /cow, weighing 

 in all about four thousand pounds, for which he gave some small pieces 

 of hoop-iron, an old meat-can, and a stick of wood.* 



A few days after, a visit was made with Ou-e-la to Tern Island, to 

 get the services of a native and more walrus meat and blubber. Nine 

 sledges, each drawn by from twelve to twenty dogs, accompanied 

 them, all bound for the sealing-grounds. They made a lively scene, 

 cracking their whips and racing. The sealers soon left the sledges, 

 and, with their seal-dogs, went off to find seal-holes. On the arrival 

 of Hall's party at the island, most of the men were found to be absent, 

 but in a few iqloos were wives and several widows. Some of these 

 were very dark colored. Every one of them wanted needles and 

 beads ; the wife of Ark-shank-u asking a needle for every child she had 

 and one more for a child she was expecting. In the evening, this 

 woman and the mother of the an-ge-ko entertained Hall with another 

 performance, the woman adding to her share in it the small matter of 

 finding in the head of her boy of fourteen years, a plentiful supply of 

 creepers which she promptly transferred to her mouth. While Hall 

 was witnessing this performance, the dogs ate up most of their harness 

 which Ow-e-Zahad carelessly left on them. 



Getting ready to return from the island \\\q next day, he found 

 that Ou-e-la, without asking leave, had here made arrangements to 



* Commander (now Admiral) McClintock, on bis final scarcli for Franklin, 1859, readily 

 bought reindeer outer coats for a knife eacb, and bired four Eskimos to buikl a snow-house for his 

 party at the rate of a needle apiece. (Voyage of the Fox, p. 204.) 



