734 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



His provisions had run very low, and to keep from absolute star- 

 vation he had to open trade with the neighboring Esquimaux, 

 with whom he managed to barter knives, needles, pieces of wood 

 and iron for meat, but it was not always that even these highly- 

 prized articles would obtain food, on account of its extreme 

 scarcity. He was occupying a hut with fourteen companions, 

 and these fairly crowded it to its capacity ; nevertheless, when an 

 Esquimau hunter, with wife and two children, chancc'd to visit 

 him, Hayes courteously invited the family to share his meagre 

 quarters. With this increase of occupants, the temperature in 

 the hut rose from 29 to 60, and the ice walls melted so that 

 droppings of soot-black water soon covered the entire party, and 

 rendered their condition extremely disagreeable. During this 

 friendly visit of the hunter and his family, another Esquimau 

 brought to the hut a walrus flipper, weighing nearly fifty pounds, 

 and several lumme birds ; he also brought with him the dashing 

 widow already referred to, with the intention of having a joyous 

 feast, for the Esquimaux think of very little save hunting and 

 eating. Dr. Hayes describes the happy scene in the following 

 felicitous manner : 



" If the reader will follow me into the hut he will see there a 

 succession of tableaux which may be novel to him. The two 

 above-mentioned hunters sit facing each other, and facing the 

 lump of frozen meat which lies upon the ground. Kalutunah 

 has the sentimental widow at his left, and the visiting hunter has 

 his wife at his right. The children are crawling about over the 

 brecks (raised platforms of ice-blocks, used for sleeping pur- 

 poses) ; the rest of us are mixed up indiscriminately, white men 

 and red men ; some sitting on the edge of the breck ; some lying 

 at full length upon it ; all leisurely eating leisurely, I say, for 

 the meat is so icy that it is chipped off with difficulty, and we 

 obtain it only in little crisp pieces, which make the teeth ache 

 with cold. 



" An hour later scarcely any impression had been made upon the 

 wulrus flipper ; but the warmth of the hut had partially thawed 

 jt, and the knives penetrated it more readily, while strips were cut 



