480 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



The next morning, December 19th, while writing in the after- 

 cabin, Kooksmith came in, and I made farther inquiries relative 

 to the place at Tikkoon before written of in connection with the 

 ship's mast. He took from the table on which I was writing a 

 small memorandum-book, held it just beneath the edge of the ta- 

 ble to represent the ship, then took a pencil, one end of which 

 rested on the book and the other on the table, slightly inclined. 

 The edge of the table represented the bluff at Tikkoon. Then 

 Kooksmith raised up the pencil, which indicated the mast, and 

 thus all was simply and effectively explained.; the vessel, when 

 launched, was taken to the bluff of Tikkoon that the masts could 

 there be raised and set. 



Soon after Kooksmith had gone I called Tweroong into the cab- 

 in, and asked her, in Innuit, if she knew the story of the white 

 people taking the ship to Tikkoon from Kodlunarn. Tweroong 

 comprehended my question at once. She immediately took my 

 pen and a tobacco-pipe, then bade me hold a book down by the 

 table's edge, and placed on the book and table, at one end of the 

 former, the pen, and at the other the pipe, both inclining against 

 the table's edge,. just as in the illustration shown by Kooksmith. 

 She next raised one of the mimic masts to a perpendicular posi- 

 tion, I still holding the book, and then the other. Taking up a 

 pencil, I also raised that, and asked her if there were not three 

 masts. To my question she answered decisively "Argi" — No; 

 adding, u Muk-ko! rauk-'koP' 1 meaning Two. 



I then recalled to mind a remark made to me by Koojesse the 

 previous winter, when we were passing Oopungnewing at a dis- 

 tance from that bluff : " There," said he, " the place where kodlu- 

 nas make or put in masts." I thought the remark preposterous 

 at the time, and gave but little attention to it. 



Another curious point in connection with the matter of the 

 ship's masts was this : When conversing with some of the na- 

 tives after the discoveries above narrated, I learned that the name 

 u Ne-pou-e-tie sup-bing" had been given to the bluff spoken of. On 

 making closer inquiries, I found that this was a phrase coined for 

 the purpose of expressing a certain idea, as was the case with the 

 word Kodlunarn. Its translation is, " To set up masts." 



The significance of these discoveries with reference to Fro- 

 bisher's expedition, and the bearing they had, to my mind, on 

 more recent matters, will be seen by the following extract from 

 my diary at the close of December 19th : 



