OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



407 



ing of his stomach being empty, his cheeks fallen in, and in short, if his story p* 1 ^ 3 * 

 could be told in plain English, that he was in a fair way to be starved. His "-^y^ 

 daily established allowance of solid meat was at this time from four to five 

 pounds, to which was generally added from one to two or three pounds more 

 as presents from his friends ; but even this was not enough to satisfy the 

 cravings of his appetite. Finding, however, that no plea of his could induce 

 Mr. Hooper to depart from the regular system, and that the rest of the Ka- 

 bloonas received his piteous tale with a laugh, in which by-the-by his wife 

 invariably joined, he at length ceased his unjust and needless solicitations. 



Some of our people going out to the huts on the 12th, found that Nuyakka Wed. 12. 

 had so ill performed his promise respecting Kaga, that he had already dis- 

 missed her from his own apartment and, either from decency's or conscience 

 sake, had built her a small one communicating with the passage of his own. 

 Whether the perverse humours of Kaga, or the caprice or inhumanity of 

 Nuyakka had been the occasion of this change, we could not discover ; but 

 perhaps each of these had some share in her removal. As, however, she 

 was well clothed with the things she had received from the Hecla, and 

 Nuyakka, as it appeared, still continued to feed her, we could only look on 

 and see how she was to be disposed of. 



On the 15th, some remarkable clouds were hanging over the open water Sat. 15. 

 to the eastward, appearing like vast volumes of smoke, curling into rounded 

 and almost circular forms. This peculiarity we never observed at any other 

 time, though there was constantly a " water-sky " in that direction, consist- 

 ing of a general and diffused darkness, varied occasionally by numerous 

 vertical columns of " frost-smoke." 



On the 19th, Mr. Edwards, on paying a visit to the huts, found a young Wed. 19. 

 man named Kooeetseearioo so ill, that he thought it better to risk bringing 

 him in, than to incur, what now appeared almost certain, his dying if he 

 remained at the village. Mr. Edwards afterwards inquired for Kaga, and 

 was shewn into her hut, in which however there was so little light and so 

 contaminated an atmosphere, that he could neither see any person nor 

 breathe the air of the apartment. Having at length succeeded in getting 

 the wretched inmate to look up, though without being able to draw from her 

 any answer to his questions, he found it impossible to continue longer in the 

 hut, and could not therefore ascertain whether she laboured under any 

 specific complaint, though her appearance seemed to indicate that she was 

 now ill, if not utterly abandoned. On the following day, therefore, when I Thur. 20. 



