THE "BROADWAY BELLE. 



181 



other people, his abode being at an island called Oo-pung-ne-wing, 

 in the Countess of Warwick's Sound, on the north side of Fro- 

 bisher's Bay. It was his son who had now arrived, with a view 

 of doing a little trade, if he could. 



Many of the Esquimaux came to me, not only as ordinary vis- 

 itors and to see what they could get in way of presents, but also 

 to do some trading. At the same time, several of the younger 

 ones gladly received instruction from myself in the civilized 

 tongue. As regards trading with them, it was generally done for 

 articles of use, reindeer-skin dresses especially being necessary for 

 me for winter, and no one could be more expert or more tasteful - 

 than the Innuit women in making them. 



On one of my visits to the upper village, a daughter-in-law of 

 Artarkparu was just finishing off her winter coat with a long tail, 

 the universal fashion there among the ladies. It was prettily or- 

 namented (?) with federal coin of the United States — old copper 

 cents — eight in number, arranged in rows, and fixed as pendents 

 to the tail. 



On another occasion, when Kokerzhun came on board with her 

 husband, she had on a beautiful iuldoo (reindeer) fur dress, having 

 a skirt standing out hoop fashion ! The variety of colors of the 

 tuktoo was most prettily arranged, and so well did she appear, 

 that it was said by some of us she would pass at home for a 

 "Broadway belle." 



So excellent were the dresses made for me by these Innuit wom- 

 en, that I did not hesitate paying tolerably "liberal" for them, par- 

 ticularly as they were rather scarce. I obtained a native jacket 

 for a knife, two small skins for another knife and some powder, 

 and a good deerskin for more powder, buckshot, and caps. Many 

 of the natives had guns, obtained from the whalers of Northum- 

 berland Inlet either by barter or as returns for services rendered. 

 I could not, at that time, get all I desired in the way of Innuit ap- 

 parel, though it was useless to attempt traveling in any other cos- 

 tume, as nothing but that could withstand the cold ; but from my 

 first arrival I had been obtaining several articles, and thus I was 

 now tolerably well supplied. 



About this time, and toward the end of December, I was much 

 astonished at the changes in the temperature. On the 19th the 

 thermometer, on this gloriously fair and calm morning, was mi- 

 nus 20°, barometer 30.175. Cold indeed ; by thermometer, 52° be- 

 low the freezing point. Yet so calm was the weather, that to my 



