132 



AKCTIC EE SEARCH EXPEDITION. 



ing thin pieces of ligament that looked white and delicious as the 

 breast of a Thanksgiving turkey ! At once I made up my mind 

 to join in partaking of the inviting (?) viands actually smoking in 

 my sight. Taking from the hands of Ugarng his seal-knife, I 

 peeled off a delicate slice of this spinal ligament, closed my eyes, 

 and cried out " Turkey !" But it would not go down so easy. 

 Not because the stomach had posted up its sentinel to say " no 

 whale can come down here!" but because it was tougher than any 

 bull beef of Christendom / For half an hour I tried to masticate 

 it, and then found it was even tougher than when I began. At 

 length I discovered I had been making a mistake in the way to 

 eat it. The Esquimaux custom is to get as vast a piece into their 

 distended mouths as they can cram, and then, boa constrictor- 

 like, first lubricate it over, and so swallow it quite whole t 



" When you are in Eome, do as the Eomans do." Therefore 

 I tried the Esquimaux plan and succeeded, but that one trial was 

 sufficient at the time. 



A day or two afterward I again went on shore to where a por- 

 tion of the whale's carcass remained. 



The natives were so careful of the prize that numerous piles 

 of stones, covering deposits of krang and blubber, were seen on 

 the islands around. This would seem to bespeak a provident in- 

 stead of an improvident trait in their character; but I am in- 

 clined to think the former is more the exception than the rule. 



One old woman kindly came to me and offered a generous 

 slice of the " whale-gum" she was feasting on. Reaching out my 

 hand, with one stroke of her "ood-loo" (a woman's knife — an in- 

 strument like a mincing-knife) she severed the white, fibrous 

 strip quick as thought. It cut as old cheese. Its taste was like 

 unripe chestnuts, and its appearance like cocoa-nut meat. But I 

 can not say this experiment left me a very great admirer of 

 whale's gum, though, if the struggle was for life, and its preserva- 

 tion depended on the act, I would undoubtedly eat whale's gum 

 until I got something better to my liking. 



On September 5th, while taking a walk on Look-out Island, 

 half a mile south of the ship, I discovered a large piece of what 

 I supposed to be iron mineral, weighing 19 pounds, and " in shape 

 and appearance resembling a round loaf of burned bread." Cir- 

 cumstances afterward furnished me with many interesting par- 

 ticulars of this piece of iron, and ultimately I ascertained it to be 

 an undoubted relic of Frobisher's Expedition. 5 



