274 



AECTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



On the 3d of May, which was a beautiful and warm day, Ebi- 

 erbing and Tookoolito arrived, with all their effects, intending to 

 stay with me until I was ready, as previously arranged, to leave 

 for King William's Land. They were well, and had got through 

 the interval since I had last seen them in the usual precarious 

 manner, sometimes with, sometimes without success in sealing, 

 so alternately with or without food. 



The following morning we had another snow-storm, which con- 

 tinued with slight intermissions for several days. 



On the 6th of May, Captain B , wishing the dogs to be well 



fed previous to being employed in transporting the whale-boats, 

 stores, etc., over to the whaling depot at Cape True, asked several 

 of the Innuits to take them over to Oopungnewing, where there 

 was plenty of walrus skin and meat; but one and all refused. 

 They said "the weather was too bad;" whereupon I volunteered 

 to go with any Innuit that would accompany me ; but, finally, the 

 gale having abated, Captain B himself determined to go, tak- 

 ing with him two of the Esquimaux, who at last consented to ac- 

 company him. 



There were twenty -five dogs, and these we had harnessed to a 

 sledge by the Innuits Charley and Jim Crow, who were ready to 



start. Captain B went ahead, and I, following with the sledge, 



soon overtook him, but not until I had seen a good specimen of 

 dog-driving. 



At the beginning it was slow work to get the dogs under way, 

 but, once on the start, away they went, pell-mell together, and swift- 

 ly, over the fair white snow. It was amusing to see my Green- 

 land dogs, with the others, weaving and knitting, braiding and 

 banding their traces into knots and webs that apparently would 

 defy human devices to unravel. One dog would leap over the 

 backs of a dozen others ; another dog, receiving the snap of the 

 thirty -feet lash in the driver's hands, thinking it the work of his 

 nearest neighbor, would seize him, as if to repay it by a ten -fold 

 severer snap ; then the rest would join in the fray, till all became 

 involved in a regular dog-fight. It was a picture to see these 

 twenty -five dogs flying almost with the speed of wind over the 

 frozen surface of the deep snow. But, after joining the captain 

 and resigning to him my place, it was not quite so pleasant for 

 me to return. I had but light garments on, and the weather was 

 still severe. However, the distance was not far, and I reached 

 the ship without much difficulty. 



