424 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



killed tuktoo, and the answer, given in a very serious tone, was 

 that it had always been so. 



On the previous day, when Charley killed the deer at our eight- 

 eenth encampment, I noticed that, on its being skinned, there was 

 a greenish appearance about the legs and lower parts of the body. 

 This made me remark to Koojesse that I thought the tuktoo must 

 have been sick. He said "no;" but that the peculiar look was 

 from the deer's having been swimming much of late in the cold 

 water of the bay, during his passage from point to point. 



The following day, September 16th, we resumed our voyage, 

 but could not get far, owing to severe stormy weather, which com- 

 pelled us to make our twentieth encampment on Mary's Island,* 

 on the west side, and at the entrance of the inlet which I crossed 

 on the morning of August 19th (vide page 383). Here we were 

 detained two days, and I was now so enfeebled by sickness that 

 it was difficult for me even to write. The Innuit women, particu- 

 larly Tweroong, were very attentive to me, but the men seemed 

 to consider my sufferings as of little importance. Their demoniac 

 yells, during a continuation of the same kind of exorcisms al- 

 ready described, were truly frightful, and to one sick as I was all 

 but maddening. 



Fortunately, the next morning, September 18th, we were again 

 under way on the homeward trip. A fair wind sent us rapidly 

 along, and we passed our late encampments, as also many other 

 places familiar to me from our visits when coming up. At one 

 place — west side Waddell Bay — Koojesse and the other Innuits 

 landed to go in chase of some deer seen in the distance. We 

 slowly followed in the boat, and came to a cove in the coast, where 

 we saw them with a prize in hand. This deer — which made up 

 the number thirty-nine now killed by my three hunters — was a 

 very fine one, and in a short time we were all feasting on portions 

 of its meat. When this deer was opened, old Toolookaah, with 

 his broad hand, scooped up the warm blood and drank it, to the 

 quantity of nearly two quarts. I joined in the eating, and par- 

 took of some toodnoo and marrow, the latter blood-warm, from 

 the mashed bones of the tuktoo's legs. The most delicious part 

 of the deer is the toodnoo or fat which is on the rump, and it is 

 this part the Innuits first seek. After our feast, we packed up the 

 remains and again started, arriving about dark at the place of our 



* So named by me, after one of the daughters of Augustus H. Ward, of New 

 York City. Mary's Island is in lat. 63° 22' N., long. 67° 38' W. 



