174 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



Febmary and tllGn told me that if he Went aWa ^ his father would cr y« This simple 

 v^w, but irresistible appeal to paternal affection, his decisive manner of making it, 



and the feelings by which his reply was evidently dictated, were just what 



could have been wished. No more could be necessary to convince those who 



witnessed it, that these people may justly lay equal claim with ourselves to 



these common feelings of our nature ; and having once satisfied myself of this, 



I determined never again to excite in Toolooak's mind another disagreeable 



sensation, by talking to him on this subject. 



Besides the toys and models I have mentioned above, as articles of barter 

 with these people, we also employed them more usefully in making wooden 

 shades for the eyes, after their own method, as the time was fast approaching 

 when some such precaution would become necessary to guard the eyes from 

 the excessive glare of reflected light. There was also a considerable trade 

 established in mittens, which being made of prepared seal-skin, and nearly 

 water-tight, were particularly serviceable to our men when constantly handling 

 the lead-lines in the summer. In this manner we contrived to turn our new 

 acquaintance to some little account. 

 Tues. 19. On the morning of the 19th, the thermometer, for the second and last time 

 this winter, fell to — 39° on the ice, being within one degree of the lowest 

 temperature we here experienced. It was curious to see how clearly about 

 this period a space continued to be marked out in the sky by the frost 

 smoke, shewing where there was still clear water, though in some parts too 

 distant for us to distinguish. This phenomenon consisted of a dark cloud- 

 like appearance, rising from a very fine point at the horizon, about S.W.b.W., 

 thence increasing in altitude to about 3° in the S.b.E., where it was highest, 

 and again coming to a point about N.N.E. The contrast between this cloud 

 of vapour and the white snowy sky was often peculiarly striking, particularly 

 at night and when the moon shone bright. Whenever the clear water was 

 near us, the frost-smoke that issued from it obscured from our sight the more 

 distant appearance I have now described ; in the first case it resembled a 

 fog when close at hand, and in the second precisely what seamen understand 

 by the name of " fog-bank." 



Among the natives who visited the Fury to-day was Ewerat, of whom I 

 have already spoken as Ang-et-kook, or chief-sorcerer of the tribe, a dis- 

 tinction with which he had made some of our gentlemen acquainted at one 

 of their earliest visits to the huts. Being desirous of seeing him perform 

 some of the tricks, which had acquired for him this pre-eminence, I requested 



