GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



with the sun shining on its white wings and disappeared into 

 the horizon. 



Ross's visit to the simple and unprepared Eskimos certainly 

 caused a stir, and I will therefore supplement the above phan- 

 tastic narrative with something of that which is related in the 

 Record of the Expedition. 



It is told that the ship was lying alongside the edge of the 

 ice when suddenly, to the surprise of everybody on board, on 

 the ice were discovered beings in human likeness, dressed in 

 pelts and with long, black hair flowing from their heads. With 

 strange gestures they ran by the side of their dog-sledges. 

 They were quite close to the ship when the big white sails were 

 manoeuvred ; and the result of this was a sudden about-turn and 

 a scampering towards land in apparent fright. 



A couple of days elapsed, during which every possible effort 

 was made from the ship for getting into communication with 

 the Eskimos, but without success. In his despair Ross at last 

 had a huge standard erected by an ice-mountain between the 

 coast and the ship ; from this he hung a flag, whereon the sun 

 and moon were painted above a hand which held out a heather 

 plant. Furthermore, a bag of gifts hung from the staff. 



This clever trick was, unfortunately, not well received. If 

 the Eskimos had been frightened before, they were now terror- 

 stricken with this mystic staff and its fluttering flag, which they 

 obviously considered to be some dangerous ruse of war. Out 

 of curiosity they circled round it for awhile, but having scanned 

 for a sufficiently long period the strange signs and the friendly 

 outstretched hand, they disappeared hurriedly towards land. 



When this attempt miscarried a white flag was hoisted on 

 the mainmast of the ship, and at the same time Sachaeus was 

 sent out on the ice with a small white flag in his hand. But 

 the Eskimos did not appear to have any understanding of the 

 peaceful purport of these manoeuvres, and the probability is 

 that these sagacious experiments, which would merely have 

 frightened and confounded the Eskimos still more, would have 

 continued if Sachaeus had not shown himself a master of the 

 situation and asked Ross for permission to go to the kinsmen 

 2 



