214 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



igloo had been erected. He had found us out, and stated that he 

 left behind, at the stopping-place, Mingumailo the angeko, with 

 his two wives. They had started for that spot a short time pre- 

 ceding us, but now, having been a long while without food, he 

 came to see if we could supply him. The lad had an abundance 

 given him, and never before did I see such an amount of gorging 

 as I did then by that boy. 



Next day Ugarng departed on a visit to the ship, and with 

 sundry presents of seal-meat, etc., from Ebierbing to his aged 



grandmother and friends. I also sent a letter to Captain B- , 



preferring to remain until I had completed all my observations. 

 While taking some of these, however, I " burned" my fingers most 

 sadly by laying hold of my brass pocket sextant with my bare 

 hand. I say burned them, because the effect was precisely the 

 same as if I had touched red-hot iron. The ends of my finger- 

 nails were like burnt bone or horn ; and the fleshy part of the 

 tips of my fingers and thumbs were, in appearance and feeling, as 

 if suddenly burnt by fire. 



On the 3d of February we caught sight of some reindeer on the 

 ice, making their way slowly in single file northward, and eventu- 

 ally coming within a quarter of a mile of our igloos. I had given 

 my rifle to Ebierbing on the first sight of them, that he might 

 try his skill in killing one ; but, owing to the charge of powder 

 being too small, he missed, and the reindeer, alarmed, darted off 

 with the speed of the wind, much to our regret. 



That night, about 12 o'clock, we were aroused by a call from 

 some one evidently in distress. The cry came from the passage- 

 way just without the igloo, and was at once responded to by Ebi- 

 erbing telling the stranger to come in. He did so, and who should 

 stand before us but Mingumailo the angeko ! He spoke feebly, 

 and said that he was very ill, thirsty, and hungry ; and that he, 

 with his family, had had nothing to eat for nearly one month / Im- 

 mediately a pile of frozen seal-meat was pointed out to him, with 

 permission to eat some, and, quick as lightning, the famished man 

 sprang to it like a starving bear. But how he did gorge ! He 

 swallowed enough, 1 thought, to have hilled six white men, yet 

 he took it without any apparent discomfort. Water was supplied 

 to him, and of this he drank copiously — two quarts went down 

 his camel stomach without drawing breath ! Seeing his tremen- 

 dous attack upon our precious pile of fresh provisions, I really felt 

 alarmed lest he meant to demolish the whole, and leave us with- 



