OF THE POLAR SEA. 



45 



Divine Service during his residence at the 

 fort, behaving with the utmost decorum. 



This leader, indeed, and many others of 

 his tribe, possess a laudable curiosity, which 

 might easily be directed to the most impor- 

 tant ends ; and I believe that a well-con- 

 ducted Christian mission to this quarter 

 would not fail of producing the happiest 

 effect. Old Keskarrah alone used boldly 

 to express his disbelief of a Supreme Deity, 

 and state that he could not credit the exist- 

 ence of a Being, whose power was said to 

 extend everywhere, but whom he had not 

 yet seen, although he was now an old man. 

 The aged sceptic is not a little conceited, 

 as the following exordium to one of his 

 speeches evinces : " It is very strange that 

 I never meet with any one who is equal in 

 sense to myself." The same old man, in 

 one of his communicative moods, related 

 to us the following tradition. The earth 

 had been formed, but continued enveloped 

 in total darkness, when a bear and a squirrel 

 met on the shores of a lake ; a dispute 

 arose as to their respective powers, which 



