THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 731) 



October 28th, 1858, when he selected Port Kennedy for his per- 

 manent station, and then started by sledge for King William's 



** C O 



Land. About March 1st, following, while encamped very near 

 the position of the magnetic pole, he saw four Esquimaux ap- 

 proaching in a friendly manner, and upon meeting them received 

 the first intimation of the fate which had befallen Franklin's 

 party. These Esquimaux conducted him to their village, several 

 miles distant, and entertained him en route with information con- 

 cerning the lost explorers. One of the Esquimaux wore a naval 

 button sewed upon his skin coat, and in reply to inquiries freely 

 confessed that the button, together with many other things, was 

 obtained from the bodies of several white men who had starved 

 to death upon an island in Repulse Bay. One of them counted 

 upon his fingers seven, representing the number of bodies he had 

 seen. 



Ten miles further travel brought McClintockto Cape Victoria, 

 where the four Esquimaux built for him and his men a commo- 

 dious snow-hut, occupying little more than half an hour in its con- 

 struction, and here he was visited by nearly fifty more Esquimaux, 

 who came to barter relics of Franklin's party for knives and 

 needles. In this exchange McClintock secured six silverspoons 

 and forks, a silver medal, part of a gold chain, several buttons, 

 and pieces of wood taken from the wreck of the boats belonging 

 to the vessel in which Franklin had sailed. The Esquimaux told 

 him that one of the vessels had been crushed in the ice and sunk, 

 but they did not know what had become of the other. McClin- 

 tock, writing of this traffic, says: "Esquimau mothers carry 

 their infants on their backs within their large fur dresses, and 

 where the babes can only be got at by pulling them out over the 

 shoulder. Whilst intent upon my bargaining for silver spoons 

 and forks belonging to Franklin's expedition, at the rate of a 

 few needles or a knife for each relic, one pertinacious old dame, 

 after having obtained all she was likely to get from me for her- 

 self,-pulled out her infant by the arm, and quietly held the poor 

 little creature (for it was perfectly naked) before me in the 

 breeze, the temperature at the time being 60 below freezing 



