OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



363 



of it is dragged into the enclosure, where some of the men are employed in 1322. 

 cutting it up and throwing the pieces over the wall to the rest, who stand J^J!^, 

 ready to receive them outside ; while the women range themselves in a 

 circle around the whale within, and continue singing during the operation. 

 One of these walls, which was built with more neatness and regularity than 

 the others, had the inner oval larger in proportion than usual, and consisting 

 of heavy stones evidently laid as seats. Each of these structures, (which 

 were placed at the distance of thirty or forty yards apart,) was the distinct 

 property of a particular individual ; and had probably, in its turn, been the 

 seat of feasting and merriment either to the present owner, or those from 

 whom he had inherited it. The inner circles, however, appeared to be 

 made use of as common summer habitations, either from the convenience 

 and superior shelter they , afford, or possibly from some superstitious rever- 

 ence entertained for this particular site. On a rising ground above, were 

 several large stones set upright in a line three or four hundred yards in 

 length ; with what intention we did not learn. Most of these people had now 

 returned to their winter station at the south-east end of the island. A sick 

 man with his family took up his quarters in our neighbourhood, for the 

 benefit of medical assistance ; and building a snow-hut near the ships, con- 

 tinued Mr. Skeo ch's patient for a short time, and then joined the rest of the 

 natives at the village. 



The snow continued to fall during most of the 29th, on the evening of Sun. 29. 

 which day the weather cleared up and the thermometer fell to 15° at mid- 

 night. Some young ice now formed near us, but for this and the two fol- 

 lowing days, when the temperature oscillated between 16° and 19°, it was 

 only of the " pancake " kind, being the softest of any that assumes an ap- 

 pearance of continuity. From the 2d to the 4th of October, however, when October, 

 the thermometer fell to 10° during the nights, the ice formed into a more rrid ' 4> 

 solid sheet ; but being kept too constantly in motion by the wind to attach 

 itself to the land, still drove rapidly past the ships, which easily cut for 

 themselves a passage, as it were, through it, to the discomfiture only of the 

 buoys on the anchors, which were frequently pressed under the ice, but 

 would occasionally, by their buoyancy, force themselves up through some 

 thin part. The rapidity with which ice will form upon the surface of the 

 sea, even at no very low temperature of the atmosphere, was rendered 

 particularly apparent by what occurred for several days about this period, 

 when a continuous sheet, from three quarters of an inch to an inch and 



3 A 2 



