482 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



Movements of the Ship's Company. — Scarcity of Provisions. — A Man's Feet frozen 

 stiff. — Amputation necessary. — Dreadful Story of a Woman deserted. — Attempt 

 to Rescue her. — The Attempt a Failure. — A perilous Situation. — A second Effort. 

 — The Woman found dead. — Ebierbing at a Seal-hole. — Innuit Perseverance. — 

 The Author's Plans. 



Early in January of 1862 the men of the ship's company di- 

 vided themselves among the Innuits, trying the native life, such 

 a course being necessary by reason of the shortness of our provi- 

 sions on board. They were not steadily absent, however, but now 

 and then returned to the ship, finding the privations of Innuit 

 life harder to be borne than the scarcity on board the vessel. On 

 the 2d of January Robert Smith went with Annawa to Lincoln's 

 Bay, and, at the same time, Mate Lamb and one of the seamen 

 started for the reindeer plains at the head of Field Bay. A few 

 days before, a party of the men had gone to the Countess of War- 

 wick's Sound. On the day just mentioned they all returned, with 

 beds, bags, and baggage. They brought sad tales of want and 

 suffering, owing to the short supply of provisions among their In- 

 nuit friends. 



Ebierbing, on hearing of their return and the cause, said, laugh- 

 ingly, " They be all same as small boys." The Innuits are cer- 

 tainly a very different people from white men. They submit to 

 deprivation of food quite philosophically ; to all appearance, it is 

 the same to them whether they are abundantly supplied or on the 

 brink of starvation. No murmur escapes their lips ; they pre- 

 serve their calmness, and persevere till success rewards their ex- 

 ertions. 



On January 4th Sterry and " Fluker" (William Ellard) left the 

 ship for Jones's Cape, and on the 10th Eobert Smith came back, 

 having been unable to sustain the privation he was forced to en- 

 dure any longer. On the 12th an Innuit boy, called "Bone 



Squash," arrived from the plains, bringing to Captain B the 



following letter : 



