CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 



433 



SURVEYING IN GREENLAND. 



CHAPTER XLIT. 



CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 



Hall's Expedition. — His early Life. — His reading of Arctic Adventure. — His Resolve. — His Arctic Out- 

 lit.— Sets Sail on the "George Henr}'." — The Voyage.— Kudlago.—Holsteinborg, Greenland.— Pop- 

 ulation of Greenland. — Sails for Davis's Strait. — Character of the Innuits. — Wreck of the "Rescue." 

 — Ebierbing and Tookoolito. — Their Visit to England. — Hall's first Exploration. — European and Iii- 

 nuit Life in the Arctic Regions. — Building an Igloo. — Almost Starved. — Fight for Food with Dogs. 

 — Ebierbing arrives with a Seal. — How he caught it. — A Seal-feast. — The Innuits and Seals. — The 

 Polar Bear. — How he teaches the Innuits to catch Seals. — At a Seal-hole. — Dogs as Seal-hunters. — 

 Dogs and Bears. — Dogs and Reindeers.— Innuits and Walruses. — More about Igloos. — Innuit Imple- 

 ments. — Uses of the Reindeer. — Innuit Improvidence. — A Deer-feast. — A frozen Delicacy. — Wliale- 

 skin as Food. — Whale-gum. — How to eat Whale Ligament. — Raw Meat. — The Di'ess of the Innuits. 

 — A pretty Style. — Religious Ideas of the Innuits. — Their kindlv Character. — Treatment of the 

 Aged and Infirm. — A Woman abandoned to die. — Hall's Attempt to rescue her. — The Innuit Nomads, 

 without any form of Government. — Their Numbers diminishing. — A Sailor wandei's away. — Hall's 

 Search for him. — Finds him frozen to denth. — The Ship free from Tc^.— Preparations to return. — 

 Reset in the Ice-pack. — Another Arctic Wintei'. — Breaking up of the Ice. — Departure for Home. — 

 Tookoolito and her Child ' Butterfly." — Death of " Butterfly." — Arrival at Home. — Results of Hall's 

 Expedition. — Innuit Traditions. — Discovery of Frobisher Relics. — Hall undertakes a second Expedi- 

 tion. — His Statement of its Ol>ject and Prospects — Last Tidings of Hall. 



AMONG the most remarkable expeditions ever undertaken in the Polar world 

 is that of Charles Francis Hall, performed during the years 1860, 1861, and 

 1862. Its primary object was to discover the survivors of Sir John Franklin's 

 party; for at this time there was good reason to believe that out of the 105 who 

 were known to be living on the 25th of April, 1848, some were still surviving. 

 Towards the main purpose of the undertaking nothing was indeed accomplished. 

 Hall came upon no traces of Franklin and his men ; but he acquired a more ac- 

 curate knowledge of the Esquimaux— or rather as they c?ll themselves, and as 

 we shall call them, the Innuits — a word meaning simply " men " or " people" — 

 and their mode of life than was ever before, or is likely to be hereafter, gained 



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