HIS DEXTERITY. 
481 
yack. On these occasions the express consists of two, 
traveling together for assistance and fellowship. They 
are expeditious, and proverbially reliable. They travel 
only during the day. At night they land upon some 
well-remembered solitude ; the kayack is carried up, 
and laid beside the leeward face of some protecting 
rook, and, after a scanty meal, the Hosky seats him- 
self once more in its closely-fitting hole ; then, draw- 
ing over him his water-tight hood, he leans for sup- 
port against the naked stone, and sleeps. One of these 
messengers arrived at Holsteinberg while we were 
there from Fredericshaab, three hundred and sixty 
miles in ten days ; traveling along a tempestuous coast, 
with varying winds and currents, at a mean rate of 
thirty-six miles a day. 
It is said the expertness of the kayacker increases 
as you proceed south. If the natives of Julianshaab 
and Lichtenfels surpass those of Egedesminde and 
Holsteinberg, their feats are unnecessarily wonderful. 
Here are some of them, not performed as such, but 
illustrating the accomplishments of a well-trained 
man. 
Extending out from an offsetting mountain-ridge to 
the north of Holsteinberg, is a rocky reef or ledge, over 
which the sea breaks heavily, and the currents run 
with perplexing caprice and force. In almost all sorts 
of weather, if there be only light enough to see, the 
kayacks may be met playing about these surf-beaten 
passages, regardless of wind, swell, or tides. When 
our vessel was entering port, we were boarded by a 
kayack pilot. In spite of the heavy seaway, he ap- 
proached fearlessly to the side of the brig, then, pois- 
ing himself on the slope of the waves, he avoided the 
trough, and, passing a running bovv^line fore and aft 
H H 
