100 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



our hunting-party, and had much the same kind of an ex- 

 perience. For six days they were pinned to their camp by the 

 fury of the elements, and only short excursions were taken in 

 the immediate neighborhood. On Sunday, the third day out, 

 the storm abated somewhat, and in rambling in the vicinity 

 of the camp Mr. Kersting came across an Eskimo girl en- 

 gaged in pulling the skins from a number of ducks that had 

 evidently been killed several days, for the flesh was black and 

 covered with maggots. She scraped these from one of the 

 ducks, and offered it to the stranger with true Eskimo hos- 

 pitality. But he refused the generous offer : so she laugh- 

 ingly took her ducks where they Avould be appreciated, and 

 soon the entire little settlement fell upon tlie birds and de- 

 voured them, without either cooking or cleaning. De gtisti- 

 hus non est disputandum. 



In front of the camp ran a little brook, and here the party 

 performed their ablutions, and here the Eskimos would gather 

 to watch them go through these strange and novel perform- 

 ances. The process of brushing the teeth filled them with 

 unbounded wonder, but when one of the party removed a set 

 of artificial teeth and washed them there was almost a terrified 

 stampede, and he became an object of superstitious awe and 

 veneration. Surely a man who could remove his teeth could 

 remove mountains. 



On Sunday morning a simple service was held by the 

 natives in one of the huts ; it consisted mostly of the singing 

 of hymns. In the afternoon Professor Wright held service in 

 the tent, and all the Eskimos attended. 



On the following day members of the party tried their 

 hands at fishing, but did not have much success until a couple 

 of little Eskimo girls came along and set the pace for them. 

 They carried a short stick with a sealskin line attached about 

 five feet in length. They threw these lines by the rocks and 

 pulled them up and down, and soon had a mess of cod. The 



