108 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



mens; but these latter I unfortunately lost. On my way down, 

 a good snow-slide, for about a quarter of a mile, on an angle of 

 50°, carried me swiftly on, and, in due time, I got back to the 

 tents, where a score of Esquimaux at once kindly greeted me. 

 Away from all the rest, seated alone among the rocks, I saw Kud- 

 lagds widow, weeping for the loss she had sustained. Her son at 

 once went and tried to console her, but she would not be comfort- 

 ed, and her grief was allowed to have vent unrestrained. 



The next day we had for dinner salmon, venison, and bear- 

 meat ! It was then I took my first lesson in eating the latter. 1 

 found it passable, with a taste somewhat akin to lamp-oil, but yet, 

 on the whole, good. 



A few days afterward I made another excursion ; and as I pass- 

 ed on my way up the mountain steeps, flowers greeted me at ev- 

 ery step I took, lifting their beautiful faces from behind the gray 

 old rocks over which I was passing. At length I reached a 

 height beyond which I could mount no farther. Under the 

 friendly shelter of a projecting cliff, I sat myself down amid the 

 most luxurious bed of sorrel that I ever saw. I made a good 

 feast upon it, and in ten minutes I could have gathered a bushel, 

 it was so plentiful. 



While here I had a look around. What a magnificent picture 

 was before me ! The bold mountains across the bay, with higher 

 snow-capped ones behind them ; the waterfall of 500 feet ; the 

 George Henry, the Rescue, and Black Eagle, lying at anchor be- 

 neath the shadow of those mountains, and the Esquimaux village 

 low at my feet, was an admirable subject for a sketch. 



I seized my pencil, but paper I had left behind. Still I was 

 not to be balked. I had a new clay pipe in my mouth. I took 

 this pipe and inspected the bowl. A little fancy-line ran down 

 its centre opposite the stem. This line would serve to represent 

 the dashing, foaming waterfall before me; the plain surface on 

 each side would do for the sketch. This I made ; and such as it 

 then was is here presented to the reader, even as I hoped I might 

 be able to do, under the title of the " Pipe Sketch." 



After this I gathered a bouquet of flowers, some geological 

 specimens, and returned. 



On my way I again met Kudlago's widow and another Esqui- 

 maux woman. As we passed a place where some tents had for- 

 merly stood, Koh-er-jab-in called my attention, with tears in her 

 eyes, to the spot where her husband had his tent when he bade 



