February 



OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 165 



of the island. One of the women named Illgliuli, a sister of tlie lad Toolooak, „ ^82-2 

 who favoured us with a song, struck us as liavi^g a remarkably soft voice, an 

 excellent ear, and a great fondness for singing, for there was scarcely any 

 stopping her when she had once begun. We had, on their first visit to the 

 ships, remarked this trait in Iligliuk's disposition, when she Avas listening for 

 the first time to the sound of the organ, of which she seemed never to have 

 enough ; and almost every day she now began to display some symptom of that 

 superiority of understanding for which she was so remarkably distinguished. 

 A few^ of the women learned several of our names to-day, and I believe all 

 thought us Angekoks * of a very superior class, when we repeated to them 

 all round, by the assistance of our books, the names of all their husbands 

 obtained on board the preceding day. On our way back to the ships we 

 saw a party of them^ with their dogs, returning over the hill from the north- 

 eastAvard ; and we afterwards met another of eight or ten who had walked 

 round by the south-east point on the ice, all alike unsuccessful, after being 

 out in the wind for six hours with the thermometer from eighteen to twenty- 

 two degrees below zero. Thus hardly did these people obtain their daily 

 subsistence at this severe season of the year ! 



A wolf being caught in one of the traps this evening which was so close as 

 to be easily watched from the ship, a party of the officers ran out to secure 

 the depredator, and fired two balls into the trap at once to despatch him. 

 Finding after this that he continued to bite a sword that was thrust in, a third 

 shot Avas fired at him. The trap Avas then sufficiently opened to get his hind 

 legs firmly tied together, after Avhich being considered tolerably secure he 

 Avas pulled out of the trap, Avhich, hoAvever, his head had scarcely cleared 

 AA hen he furiously flcAv at Mr. Richards throat, and Avould certainly liave done 

 him some serious mischief had not that gentleman, with great presence of 

 mind, seized the animal in his turn by the throat, squeezing him Avith all his 

 force between both hands. This made the AAolf relinquish his first attempt, 

 and ISIr. Richards only suffered by a bite in his arm and another in his knee, 

 Avhich, on account of the thickness of his clothes, Avere happily not scAcrc 

 ones. As for the Avolf he prudently took to his heels, though two of them 

 Avere still tied together, and being favoured by the momentary confusion occa- 

 sioned by his late rencontre Avith Mr. Richards, succeeded in escaping his pur- 



* Sorcerers, or wizards, pronounced as Avritten aboAe in Greenland ; but at Winter Island 

 Ang-et-kook ; and by the people at Igloolik An-nat-ko. 



