218 SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



j^22. the f our anc [ twenty hours is beyond conception ; and the cabin fire could 

 v-*vw scarcely, by the melting of snow, furnish enough for their consumption. 

 These people are extremely particular as to the purity of the water they 

 drink. Some that had been melted in our steamer, and which I thought 

 very good, neither of them would touch, or at least always spat out again. If 

 the water was much above the temperature of 32°, they also disliked it, and 

 immediately put snow into it to cool it down. Iligliuk, who came on board 

 with one side of her hair loose, loosened the other also to-day, in conse- 

 quence of her fancying Okotook worse, though it was only the annoyance of 

 the blister that made him uneasy ; for even in this sequestered corner of the 

 globe, dishevelled locks bespeak mourning. It was not however with her 

 the mere semblance of grief, for she was really much distressed throughout 

 the day, all our endeavours not availing to make her understand how one 

 pain was to be removed by inflicting another. 



Sat. 27. The wind still continuing to the southward and eastward, and the weather 

 extremely mild, on the 27th, pools of water were, by the melting of the snow, 

 formed on our upper deck. The northern thermometer stood as high as 32|° 

 at two P.M., being the first instance this season of its rising above the 

 freezing point in the shade. The first snow-bunting was also seen to-day. 

 The mildness of the atmosphere did not long continue, for the wind backing 



Sun. 28. to the W.N.W. on the 28th, the thermometer gradually fell till it had reached 

 zero at midnight, and — 6° soon after. The westerly wind, as usual, caused 

 a great deal of open water in the offing, within a few hours after its shifting 

 to that quarter. Another snow-bunting or two were seen on the 29th, and 

 these little birds increased almost daily in numbers from this time. Snow fell 



Mon. 29. very thick on the 29th, and it Avas generally remarked that we had more of it 

 about this period than during the whole of the winter-months. Our garden- 

 plots, from which two or three feet of snow had at first been removed, were 

 now more deeply covered by the fall of a single day. I may here notice that 

 our standing rigging did not slacken during any part of this winter as at Mel- 

 ville Island ; neither on the other hand did it tighten so as in the slightest 

 degree to injure the rope, the hounds of the masts, or any of the iron work 

 of the dead-eyes. 



Captain Lyon being desirous of having some little clothes made as models 

 of the Esquimaux costume, and thinking Iligliuk's present leisure afforded 

 her a good opportunity of making them, had yesterday obtained her promise 

 that she would do so. Okotook being now very much better, and she having 



