OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



211 



seemed particularly to attract her notice ; but in general she had no inclina- j^22. 

 tion to admit the inferiority of her own tribe to any other. She was always ^vv 

 extremely inquisitive about her own sex, whether Innuees * or Kabloonas, lis- 

 tening with eager attention to any account of their dress or occupations, and 

 in common, I believe, with all the rest of the Esquimaux, wondered how we 

 came to travel to their country without our wives. The assurance that many 

 among us were not married, they received with evident incredulity. 



We to-day cleared away the snow that had been banked against the ships' 

 sides, the use of which was proved a day or two after by the frost making a 

 large rent in the Fury's rudder and another in her stem. This covering 

 therefore should not have been removed so early. Mr. Fisher having now 

 concluded most of the observations and experiments for which the house 

 was built, it was taken down and the materials brought on board -, the 

 transit-instrument and meridian-mark remaining as before, to enable him to 

 commence a series of observations for the pendulum, whenever the weather 

 should become warm enough for the clock to be set up in a tent. The con- 

 tinuance of comparatively temperate weather, though it was much colder 

 than we had expected at this season, induced us also to begin clearing and 

 turning up a small piece of ground as a garden for each ship, in which we 

 hoped to produce something in the way of vegetable diet before our de- 

 parture, especially as we were now supplied with several glazed frames for 

 hot-beds. There was not at this time a bare spot of ground anywhere to 

 be seen, so that we had to clear away the snow, in some places two or three 

 feet deep, in order to find a space that would suit our purpose ; and it was 

 then so full of stones and frozen ground that it required great labour even 

 to prepare mould enough for the frames. These were however completed 

 in a few days and sown with mustard, cress, and pease, the latter having 

 been found to produce the greatest quantity of green substance at Melville 

 Island. 



On the 13th a number of the natives from the Winter Island huts formed Sat. 13. 

 a second detachment, and set off for the other village. They carried 

 their goods on sledges as before, even to the exclusion of poor old Hik- 

 keiera, whom some of our gentlemen overtook crawling after his com- 

 panions with a stick, and who, but for their timely and humane remon- 

 strances, might that day have finished his pilgrimage on earth. They insisted 

 however on his being placed on one of the sledges, which was accordingly 



# Esquimaux. 



2 E 2 



