CONCLUSION OF SECOND VOYAGE 133 



do? (or, literally, Be ye strong?), and Aila, yes, and 

 a few other every-day expressions. When, there- 

 fore, I was set down on a low box in the tent, 

 with a space in front of me for the patients to 

 squat, and the rest of the ground available densely 

 packed with Esquimaux, I was confronted with the 

 difficulties of a veterinary surgeon. Among other 

 things a toe, frost-bitten last winter, had to be re- 

 moved; apparently not such a painful operation as 

 one might have supposed at first, and one in which 

 the patient appeared to take a personal interest, from 

 the proud fact that she occupied on that account 

 the position of most importance. 



At Hopedale I left the Albert again, and, joined 

 by one of the Moravian Brethren a Dane (Rev. P. 

 Hansen), proceeded at once further north. Together 

 we visited as far as Okkak, though the entire ab- 

 sence of charts, and the innumerable islands and 

 labyrinths, made us more than once end up in a 

 blind tickle. At Zoar we deposited our deck cargo 

 of coal, piling up wood on our cabin top instead, 

 and lashing a ladder against our foremast, from the 

 top of which in the clear ^water it was possible to 

 see rocks in time to avoid them. We passed on our 

 way immense flocks of water-fowl. While in places 

 the rocks shine with the beautiful blue or yellow 

 sheen of the Labrador felspar, the trees get perceptibly 

 fewer and smaller as Okkak is approached, the 

 shrubs more stunted, and the berries more scarce, 

 until north of Hebron no trees at all are found. 



