OF THE POLAR SEA. 



169 



whose bad success in hunting, had reduced him to the necessity of 

 feeding on moose leather for three weeks, when he was compas- 

 sionately relieved by the Warrior. I was an unwilling witness of 

 the preparation of my dinner by the Indian women. They cut into 

 pieces a portion of fat meat, using for that purpose a knife and 

 their teeth. It was boiled in a kettle, and served in a platter made 

 of birch bark, from which, being dirty, they had peeled the surface. 

 However, the flavour of good moose meat will survive any process 

 that it undergoes in their hands, except smoking. 



Having provided myself with some drawing materials, I amused 

 the Indians with a sketch of the interior of the tent and its inha- 

 bitants. An old woman, who was relating with great volubility an 

 account of some quarrel with the traders at Cumberland House, 

 broke off from her narration when she perceived my design ; sup- 

 posing, perhaps, that I was employing some charm against her ; for the 

 Indians have been taught a supernatural dread of particular pic- 

 tures. One of the young men drew, with a piece of charcoal, a 

 figure resembling a frog, on the side of the tent, and by significantly 

 pointing at me, excited peals of merriment from his companions. 

 The caricature was comic ; but I soon fixed their attention, by 

 producing my pocket compass, and affecting it with a knife. They 

 have great curiosity, which might easily be directed to the attain- 

 ment of useful knowledge. As the dirt accumulated about these 

 people was visibly of a communicative nature, I removed at night 

 into the open air, where the thermometer fell to 15° below zero, 

 although it was the next day 60° above it. 



In the morning the Warrior and his companion arrived ; 1 found 

 that, instead of hunting, they had passed the whole time in a 

 drunken fit, at a short distance from the tent. In reply to our 

 angry questions, the Warrior held out an empty vessel, as if to de- 

 mand the payment of a debt, before he entered into any new nego- 

 tiation. Not being inclined to starve his family, we set out for 



