\HE INNUITS, OR ESQUIMAUX. 



99 



CHAPTEK V. 



Visited by the Natives. — Brief Account of some of them. — A very aged Woman. — 

 Oo-ki-jox-y Ni-noo. — A numerous Family. — Ugarng and his thirteen Wives. — 

 Ebierbing and Tookoolito. — Kudlago's Widow, Kok-er-jab-in. — "Blind George." 

 — Excursion on Shore. — Anecdote of the Greenland Dogs. — Beautiful Scenery.— 

 How Nature splits huge Rocks. — An Alabaster Cave. — Arctic Food. — First Taste 

 of Bear-meat. — Americanizing Kim-mi-loo. — A Blind Man threading a Needle 

 and mending Clothes. — Astonishment created by a Magnet. — Ugarng and the 

 Quicksilver. — Author's narrow Escape from Death. — Geological Character of the 

 Rocks. — Departure for and Arrival at Field Bay. — A Cruise in the Rescue. — Ar- 

 rival in new Waters. 



Previous to our anchoring, Captain Allen, Mates Lamb and 

 Gardner, joined us on deck, bringing with them an Esquimaux 

 named Ugarng, and others of his people. Several women were 

 also on board, dressed in the peculiar costume of the West Land 

 natives ; but not until we had dropped anchor could I do more 

 than give a passing glance at these strange-looking figures. The 

 excitement consequent upon arriving in a new place was naturally 

 great on my mind. The land around me — its inhabitants, its rug- 

 ged hills, its mountain tops covered with snow, all belonged to that 

 especial part of the northern regions connected with the ultimate 

 field of my labors. When, however, the vessel was made station- 

 ary, and the greatest excitement had abated, I could better exam- 

 ine our visitors, and never shall I forget the first impression they 

 made upon me. 



It has been said by a well-known witty writer, now deceased, 

 when referring to the Esquimaux, in an arctic book he was re- 

 viewing, that they are " singular composite beings — a link be- 

 tween Saxons and seals — hybrids, putting the seals' bodies into 

 their own, and then incasing their skins in the seals, thus walk- 

 ing to and fro, a compound formation. A transverse section 

 would discover them to be stratified like a rolly-polly pudding, 

 only, instead of jam and paste, if their layers were noted on a per- 

 pendicular scale, they would range after this fashion : first of all, 

 seal — then biped — seal in the centre with biped — and seal again 

 at the bottom. Yet, singular enough, these savages are cheerful, 

 and really seem to have great capacity for enjoyment. Though 



