A WINTER BIVOUAC. 431 



scious that they were moving in an element for which nature had admirably- 

 adapted them. Their step was firm, their movements graceful, their dread 

 of the white man had vanished, and they appeared to communicate with us 

 on the footing of perfect equality. Whenever they arrived, their sledges were 

 well laden with venison, fish, and furs. The latter were brought in in great 

 quantities, for the eagerness with which they were purchased led them pro- 

 bably to suppose that we were traders. Even after they had comprehended 

 the reason of our wintering in Kotzebue Sound, they continued to supply us 

 with sable, ermine, beaver, fox, and other furs of more or less value. 

 The fish were excellent in flavour, and occasionally of considerable size; 

 one mullet, for instance, bought for an ordinary blue bead, was thirty- 

 three inches in length, and weighed twenty-one pounds." It is unfor- 

 tunate that Mr Pim does not give us the name of the exceedingly 'cute 

 person who " acquired " twenty-one pounds of fish of " excellent flavour " 

 for the value of a fraction of a farthing. The mercantile genius deserves to 

 be immortalised. 



In 1848 a report had been brought to Captain Kellett to the effect that 

 a number of white men were travelling in the interior, and again, in November 

 1849, the natives further reported that two ships had been seen to the east- 

 ward of Point Barrow. It was considered that if the story was true, the 

 ships in question could scarcely be other than the " Erebus " and " Terror." 

 But there were reasons for believing that the rumour was false, and 

 that the story was fabricated by the natives with the view of adding to 

 their own importance — a practice not unheard of in regions nearer home 

 than North- West America. For the purpose, however, of ascertaining how 

 much truth there might be in these reports, Mr Pim proposed to travel 

 to Michaelovski, a Russian fort on the south shore of Norton Sound, where 

 constant communication with the tribes of the interior was maintained. 

 For some time Commander Moore refused to sanction this journey ; on 

 the 10th March 1850, however, he yielded to Mr Pim's solicitations, and 

 gave that officer instructions to set out on the expedition, and to take 

 "Bosky " the interpreter with him. On the following morning Pim started 

 with a guide and the interpreter, and followed the beaten track to the 

 Spafarief Eiver, taking with him a dog- sledge laden with provisions, 

 arms, ammunition, etc. On the 18th, leaving the beaten track, he pushed 

 on in a south-east direction, but began to discover that his dogs were 

 worthless, " When night was approaching, a halt was called among some 

 pine-trees, where a fire was kindled and some tea and soup prepared. 

 The scene of a winter bivouac is indeed curious, The travellers grouped 

 around the fire are variously employed — one is melting snow, another 

 bringing fuel, while a third unpacks the sledge, spreads the deerskin to 

 sleep upon, or prepares the provisions for cooking. The dogs, secured to 



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