440 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



PREPARING BOOT-SOLES. 



boot-soles, others were sewing, while one was tending a cross baby. It is rare 

 to find an Innuit child who is not very quiet, but this little fellow had eaten a 

 piece of raw blubber, which had disordered him. Some of the amusing tricks 

 played by these Esquimaux women are especially deserving of notice. The va- 

 riety of games performed by a string tied at the ends, similar to a ' cat's cra- 

 dle,' completely throws into the shade our adepts at home. I never before wit- 

 nessed such a number of intricate ways in which a simple string could be used. 

 One arrangement represented a deer ; another, a whale; a third, the walrus ; a 

 fourth, the seal ; and so on without end." 



The short Arctic summer soon came to a close. On the morning of the 

 26th of September came light winds from the north-west ; by noon it began to 

 snow, the wind increasing to a gale. The whaling-boats all came in, and prep- 

 arations were made for bad weather. During the night the storm grew hourly 

 fiercer. The " Rescue " dragged her anchor, and was dashed upon the rocks an 

 \itter wreck. Hall's little boat, upon which he had so much relied, was torn 

 from its moorings and lost, " dooming me," says Hall, " to a wreck of disap- 

 pointment in the hopes I had cherished concerning her. The ' George Hen- 

 ry' was also in imminent peril, but outrode the tempest; but on her next 

 voyage, eighteen months later, was lost at a point hardly a hundred miles dis- 

 tant/' 



The " George Henry " was soon after laid up in winter-quarters, fairly blocked 

 in by ice. Hall in the mean time had made himself acquainted with the Es- 



