454 THE FRANKLIN SEARCH— 18'i8-51. 



often saw them sleeping on their thwarts, and seized the opportunity, when 

 passing close to ice, of bringing their oars in contact with it and rousing 

 them by the shock." Few of the party were now free from colds, and one 

 of the men was seriously ill. Meantime all the medicine that had been 

 brought away from the " Plover " had been completely destroyed by wet. 

 After a miserable day of rain and fog, the weather cleared on the 20th, and 

 the boats began to make way satisfactorily. At two p.m. PuUen landed on 

 the western part of Icy Eeef, and was visited by a family of natives, the 

 women of which wore their hair in the immense top-knots described by 

 Franklin. These natives had neither seen nor heard anything of the missing 

 expedition. 



In the course of his voyage eastward along the Arctic shores. Lieutenant 

 PuUen had many opportunities of noting the thievish propensities of the 

 Eskimos, and the perfect good-humour with which, on detection, they give 

 up the article they have stolen. These traits he thus illustrates : " The 

 morning of the 21st set in with a very thick fog and a light north-west 

 air. After I had examined the thermometer, which stood at 35°, I 

 put it down outside the tent, and turned my back on it for a moment. 

 When I looked towards the place where I had left it, I immediately missed 

 it. Several Eskimos were about at the time — one or two very near me — 

 and, thinking one fellow looked more satisfied than the others, I taxed him 

 with the theft. He very quietly took the instrument from under his arm 

 and handed it to me with a smile, thinking it a matter of course, I suppose, 

 that he should take anything he saw about, if it could be done without 

 detection. This, I believe, is their general idea ; and it was not the only 

 time in the course of our voyage that I missed things, and had them returned 

 in the same way by the thief, who invariably assumed a perfect unconscious- 

 ness of any wrong. The women are the worst on these occasions ; whether 

 they are urged on by the men I cannot say, but I think so ; at all events, if the 

 husbands, having got the article away, are suspected, and taxed, their better 

 halves are always sent for it, as in the following instance, which occurred 

 one morning when we landed by Stokes Point. While the men were pre- 

 paring breakfast, I had a pewter cup and basin filled for the purpose of 

 performing my ablutions, but I changed my mind as to the locality where 

 I should wash myself, in order to have a more refreshing purification at the 

 lagoon, which was near. The kettle was filled from a part not far off, but 

 in consequence of the muddy shores I gave up the attempt to bathe, and 

 retiu-ned to my original place, when I missed the cup. A family had joined 

 us on landing, and I charged them forthwith with the theft, appealing to the 

 eldest man for the restitution of the missing article. After a little talk, he 

 spoke to one of the women, who walked to their oomiak, which lay about 

 two hundred yards off, and returned, bringing the missing cup, and laying it 



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