60 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



itself on both sides, and many of our party went back to the 

 ship to gather trading material which they had brought with 

 them. They came back bearing bags of every description 

 filled with knickknacks and old clothes. The place looked 

 as if it were being overrun with Hebrew peddlers, and the scene 

 was comical in the extreme. Some stood up on rocks, sur- 

 rounded by an excited crowd of Eskimos, mostly women, and 

 auctioned their goods to the highest bidders, or to those who 

 displayed the articles they wished, while others made a regu- 

 lar house-to-house canvass, and had great times dickering 

 with the residents thereof ; for bargaining had to be carried on 

 by signs not always rightly interpreted. Such a babel of 

 tongues as arose, such shouts of laughter, had probably never 

 before been heard in Sukkertoppen. One of our party, who 

 had read Mark Twain's story of the " Eskimo Maiden's Eo- 

 mance," had purchased a supply of twenty-five hundred large 

 and shining fish-hooks with which to dazzle the eyes of the 

 natives : nay, he thought almost to blind them with his dis- 

 play of wealth. But alas for him, fish-hooks seemed to be a 

 drug on the market in this particular settlement, and though 

 he pulled whole handfuls of them out from his bag, he pro- 

 duced no curiosity or interest. Now I had been led to be- 

 lieve by several Arctic explorers whom I had questioned 

 before starting that nothing was dearer to the heart of the 

 Eskimo than a needle, and the bigger the better. Conse- 

 quently, I had purchased a lot of needles so large that as I 

 carried them through New York I was in fear of being ar- 

 rested for carrying concealed deadly weapons ; but thoughts 

 of the fine lot of furs I should bring back in exchange con- 

 soled me for the risk. I hummed to myself the song of the 

 magnet in " Patience," slightly altered to suit the occasion : 



" For if I can wheedle 

 A knife or a needle, 

 O why not an Eskimo ? " 



