378 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1822. stan t intercourse, was nevertheless too great to allow of our continuing the 



Novemb. , . ,.-, ,» • ii, • i 



theatrical entertainments, by which our lormer winters had been consider- 

 ably enlivened. This was however the less requisite, and indeed entirely 

 unnecessary, on account of our neighbourhood to the Esquimaux, whose 

 daily visits to the ships throughout the winter afforded, both to officers and 

 men, a fund of constant variety and never-failing amusement, which no re- 

 sources of our own could possibly have furnished. Our people were, how- 

 ever, too Well aware of the advantage they derived from the schools, not to 

 be desirous of their re-establishment, which accordingly took place soon 

 after our arrival at Igloolik ; and they were glad to continue this as their 

 evening occupation during the six succeeding months. 



The ordinary occupations and occurrences of the winter having now lost 

 the novelty which could alone have imparted to them at first any interest 

 or amusement in the relation, I shall perhaps be readily excused for passing 

 them over in silence ; and for confining myself principally to an account of 

 the natural phenomena observed during the winter, and to a few occasional 

 remarks on the means of preserving health in these regions. 

 Frid. 1. During the first week in the month of November, the weather for this 

 climate continued tolerably mild, and the temperature then fell to 30° below 

 zero, which change we felt very sensibly. Open water was still observed 

 at the distance of two or three miles in the offing, with columns of frost- 

 smoke over it and a bluish " water-sky " about that part of the horizon. 

 A grouse (Utrao albus) was killed at the huts on the 16th, having, besides 

 the black near the tip of the tail-feathers, two speckled feathers not far from 

 the end of the tail. 



About this time, a number of the Esquimaux sent sledges and dogs for 

 several of their relatives coming from Amitioke, among whom were many of 

 our old acquaintance and some also who were strangers to us. Among 

 others was our young friend Toolooak, who arrived in company with another 

 remarkably fine young man named Oo-too-gu-ak. The former, as we now 

 found, had come for the very important purpose of entering on the cares of 

 the marriage-state, though his own age was only from seventeen to eighteen, 

 and that of his wife, a very pretty girl named Eerktua, not more than sixteen. 

 These youthful marriages are quite common among the Esquimaux of Igloo- 

 lik, and in some instances take place even at a still earlier age than that just 

 mentioned ; for a girl named Ang-oot, who had been the wife of Kongolek 

 for several months, could not possibly have passed the age of thirteen at this 



