OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



217 



sledge, and Iligliuk, who, as Mr. Bushnan told me, had scarcely taken her A ^* 

 eyes off her husband's face the whole time, seemed almost worn out with v -*"^-' 

 fatigue and anxiety. A bed of wolf-skins being prepared for him, Okotook 

 was soon placed upon it, and such remedies applied as Mr. Edwards judged 

 necessary for his complaint, which was inflammation of the lungs to a degree 

 that, if left to itself, or even to Ewerat, would soon have proved fatal, or at 

 best have terminated in consumption. 



On the 26th, a south-east wind brought a heavy fall of snow in flakes Frid, 26. 

 much larger than before. The thermometers on the ice at noon stood at 

 23° in both aspects. We heard from Illumea, who came to see her son 

 Okotook, that a part of the natives had gone still farther to the westward upon 

 the ice, one spot not affording sufficient subsistence for the whole of them. 

 Our patient felt much the better for a comfortable night's lodging, and now 

 submitted with great patience to the application of a blister, though I believe 

 his confidence in our mode of cure was afterwards shaken for a time by the 

 pain which it occasioned. Both he and Iligliuk, however, seemed very sensi- 

 bly to feel the comforts and advantages of their present quarters ; and a 

 "coyenna" (thanks) now and then fell from their lips. Nothing could 

 exceed the attention which the latter paid to her husband ; she kept her 

 eyes almost constantly fixed upon him, and seemed anxious to anticipate 

 every want. 



One of Okotook's brothers had arrived from the huts, bringing with him 

 some walrus-flesh to tempt the appetite of the invalid, whose stomach, how- 

 ever, very fortunately for his complaint, was not disposed to this kind of deli- 

 cacy. When his brother was about to return, Okotook took it into his head to 

 send his son away with him, probably because he heard they had the day be- 

 fore killed two seals, which afforded better feeding than we had to give him : 

 be this as it may, we were not sorry that he went, and the boy himself seemed 

 no less pleased ; for without playfellows or amusement of any kind, his time 

 hung very heavily on his hands while he remained on board. It was amusing 

 to see Okotook take a dose of physic for the first time in his life to-day. He 

 knew, its taste was not pleasant, but this was certainly not all that he 

 dreaded ; for before he put the cup to his lips with one hand, he held on by 

 his wife with the other, and she by him with both hers, as though they ex- 

 pected an explosion, or some such catastrophe, as the immediate effect of the 

 potion ; nor did he venture to relinquish his hold, till the taste began to 

 leave his mouth. The quantity of water which he drank in the course of 



2 F 



