444 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



INNUIT STONE LAMP. 



She places them in a net hung over the 

 lamp and attends to them through the 

 night, meanwhile mending all articles 

 of clothing that need repairs. Presently 

 our evening meal was ready. It con- 

 sisted of Cincinnati ' crackling ' soup, 

 a bit of raw salt pork, half a biscuit for 

 each, and coffee." 



A snow-house, built in an hour, is 

 abandoned when the use for it is over. 

 The dogs are suffered to enter, and ap- 

 propriate any thing that is left which 

 suits their taste. Nothing comes amiss to them. On the third night Hall had 

 his hair cut by Tookoolito, and the clippings were left on the floor. The dogs 

 swallowed these, among other things. Stormy weather soon came on. There 

 was no hunting or sealing, and the party had nothing to eat except some bits of 

 raw, frozen whale's-skin which they found in a cache, which a party from the 

 ship had made a few weeks before. Not far off was an igloo belonging to an 

 Innuit named Ugarng, whom they knew. Hall went to it hoping to find some- 

 thing to eat. Ugarng had just come in, having spent two whole days and a 

 night in watching over a seal-hole without success. He had heard the seal 

 blow, and that was all. He bore his disappointment coolly. " Away I go to- 

 morrow again," he said. He went next day, remained all night over the seal' 

 hole, and came back with nothing. " This was very bad for the whole of us," 

 says Hall. How bad it was for the poor wife of Ugarng and her children may 

 be inferred from her own words. They were without food or light ; her infant 

 was restless from hunger. She said simply, " Me got no milk, meat all gone, 

 blubber too ; nothing to eat, no heat ; must wait till get seal." 



Hall was about as near starvation as were the Innuits. All he had to eat 

 was a bit of the " black skin " of a whale, and this he relished ; he could have 

 eaten any thing which would have gone to keep up internal heat, and make bone 

 and flesh. Ebierbing was away hunting. At length Tookoolito managed to 

 extemporize a w^arm dinner. From the black skin she tried out enough oil to 

 fill the lamp and heat some snow-water. This was thickened with a couple of 

 ounces left of a quart of meal which formed a part of the stores with which 

 they set out. The pair shared the " pudding," and thought it excellent. The 

 cold was severe. Within the dark igloo the thermometer stood at about zero; 

 outside, 25° to 52°below zero. Under these circumstances Hallkeptat his journal, 

 sitting wrapped in furs to keep from freezing. So passed ten days. Ebierbing 

 had gone back to the vessel in order to bring back some food. Day by day 

 Hall went to the top of a hill, straining his eyes over the snowy waste in hope 

 of seeing the approach of the messenger. On the evening of the 24th of Jan- 

 uary, fourteen days after their starting upon the expedition, they were reduced 

 to their last ration of food, which was a piece of black skin two inches long, an 

 inch and a half wide, and three-quarters of an inch thick. 



At midnight footsteps were heard approaching ; Hall sprang from his bed 



