December. 1S64.1 Cofiversations with Innuits. 595 



and bad a long cliain to go around tlie neck and a key ; and tlie old lady, wlio had 

 it, told her (Ook-bar-loo) that it once belonged to one of the many Kob-lu-nas 

 that had died near Neitchille." I need not say that I was an attentive listener to 

 this. At once I left my " tripod " (seat of three legs), and set myself flat down on 

 the far-bed deer-skins beside both Too-koo-li-too and Ook-bar-loo, and requested 

 the old lady to tell me all about this watch. 



Through Too-koo-li-too she said : " When she was at Ok-kee-bee-jee (Pelly 

 Bay), which was in the winter of 1853-4), she saw a woman who had a watch, with 

 chain and key, which she always kept very carefully by her. This mother was 

 mother-in-law of In-nook-poosh-ee-jook, the man who told her (Ook-bar-loo) what 

 she related to me the other day. This mother of In-nook-poosh-ee-jook told her all 

 about where and how she got the watch. She and her husband went to a big tent 

 not very far from N^eitchille, and among the frozen mass of human bones and 

 bodies that were lying around in it she saw one Kob-lu-na body that had a 

 bright white (jirobably silver) chain around the neck. She knew at once what 

 the chain was for, as some of the other Neitchille Innuits had just come into pos- 

 session of several watches and chains, which she saw." 



'' The body of this man was lying on one side, and was half imbedded in solid 

 ice from head to feet. The way the chain was about the neck and running down 

 one side of the body indicated that the watch was beneath it; and therefore, to 

 get at the watch, she found a difficult and disagreeable task before her. Neither 

 she nor her husband had any instrument with them that they would use for any 

 such purpose as was desired ; therefore, while the husband was seeking around, 

 in and about the tent, collecting such things as he fancied would best suit him, 

 she procured a heavy sharp stone, and with this chipped away the ice from all 

 round the body till it was released. Continued old mother Oohhar-loo, in a truly 

 sorrowful tone of voice : This woman told her that she could never forget the 

 dreadful, fearful feelings she had all the time while engaged doing this; for, 

 besides the tent being filled with frozen corpses — some entire and others muti- 

 lated by some of the starving companions, who had cut off much of the flesh 

 with their knives and hatchets and eaten it — this man who had the watch she sought 

 • seemed to her to have been the last that died, and his face was just as though 

 he was only asleep. All the while she was at work breaking the ice near the head, 

 especially the ice about the face, she felt very, very bad, and for this reason had 

 to stop several times. She was very careful not to touch any part of the body 

 while pounding with the sharp stone. At last, after having pounded away the 

 ice from around and under the body, her husband helped her to lift it out of its 



