OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



397 



The week they had passed on board was sufficient time to have gained them 1823 - 

 the esteem of every one, for they were the most quiet inoffensive beings I ever J ^£2" 

 met with, and to their great creditj^they never once begged. The man was 

 remarkable for his extraordinary fondness for treacle, sugar, salt, acids, and 

 spruce-beer, which the others of the tribe could not even smell without 

 disgust ; and he walked about to the different messes in hopes of being 

 treated with these delicacies. Shega was a timid well-behaved girl, and 

 generally remained eating in my cabin, for I am confident of speaking far 

 within bounds when I say she got through eight pounds of solids per diem. 

 As far as gratitude could be shewn by Esquimaux, which is saying ' koyenna' 

 on receiving a present, my friends were sensible of the attentions I had 

 shewn them." 



We were to-day informed that the corpse of Picooyak had fared even 

 worse than that of Keimooseufc. The same snow-covering being put over the 

 body, a second disinterment was as easily effected a day or two afterwards, 

 and another meal made by the hungry dogs. In relating this story, at 

 which every feeling of common humanity revolts, the Esquimaux pretended 

 to be very much enraged at the dogs, and to let some of our gentlemen 

 know that they wished the Kabloonas would shoot them. As however it 

 was not the owners of the dogs who expressed this wish, and as we con- 

 sidered a knife quite as effectual in killing a dog as a gun would be, if 

 applied with equal good will, we did not think proper to inflict such a 

 punishment, which, if due at all, would more properly have fallen on those 

 who made the complaint. It is most certain indeed, that none but the 

 immediate relatives of the deceased cared a jot about the matter ; nor 

 did the other individuals among them hesitate to laugh as they heard or 

 told the story. On some of our people going out to the village they found 

 that Piccoyak's child had died, owing probably to the misery and consequent 

 inattention of its mother Kaga, who now lived as before with the infirm and 

 aged parents of her late husband. 



From the morning of the 24th till midnight on the 26th, the mercury in 

 the barometer was never below 30.32 inches, and at noon on the latter day 

 had reached 30.52 inches, which was the highest we had yet observed it 

 in the course of this voyage. This unusual indication of the barometer was 

 followed by hard gales on the 27th and 28th, first from the S.W. and after- 



