OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



439 



ins: to observe that, in every case of doubt as to the situation of a place, 1 T 823 - 



° J . June. 



the best route, or the most advisable method of overcoming any difficulty, « — v — • 

 Toolemak invariably referred to his wife ; and a consultation of some minutes 

 was held by these two before they would determine on what was to be done, 

 or even return an answer to our questions respecting it. Pitching our tents 

 upon the banks of the river, we went upon the ice, which was still quite 

 solid except close to the shores, and soon made two or three holes for a hook 

 and line, the thickness of the ice in the middle being from six to seven feet. 

 The Esquimaux fish-hook is generally composed of a piece of ivory, having a 

 hook of pointed iron, without a barb, let into it. The ivory they consider useful 

 in attracting the salmon, but they also bait the hook with a piece of blubber 

 well cleared of its oil by chewing, and securely tied on Avith a thread of sinew 

 so as to cover nearly the whole of the hook. A small piece of bone, rein-deer's 

 horn, or wood, serves as a rod, and with this they keep the bait constantly 

 in motion up and down, the bait being from one to three feet below the 

 lower surface of the ice. Previously however to commencing the fishery, 

 the old lady, who took the principal part in this employment, muttered some 

 words, to me altogether incomprehensible, over the hole, to which Toolemak 

 in a formal manner, added something about fish and Kabloonas ; and the 

 whole of this preparatory ceremony seemed intended to propitiate the spirit, 

 to whose department the salmon particularly belonged. The lady (for it 

 seems she is a female) did not, however, appear to lend a very favourable ear 

 to our wants or Toolemak's rhetoric, for after many hours' patient trial on this 

 and the following day, only two fish were seen and one caught to repay Thur. 26. 

 our labour. 



On the 27th Toolemak and his wife went over to a small shallow lake Frid. 27. 

 on the opposite side of the river, where they caught three or four fish of 

 the salmon kind, but none more than one pound in weight. He then 

 came back to the tent, and made a small spear according to their own 

 fashion ; but with this, to his great disappointment, he could not strike a 

 single fish. A sort of fish-gig, which we made out of four large hooks lashed 

 back to back at the end of a light staff, succeeded much better, the bait 

 being played in the usual manner to attract the fish, which were then hooked 

 up with great ease and certainty by this instrument. In this manner we 

 soon caught a dozen of the same kind as before, and the rest of our party 

 had in the mean time killed a deer. 



Toolemak began now to be extremely impatient to return home, his prin- Sat, 2&, 



