OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
285 
weapons, except a little one five or six inches long, the bow being made of 
whalebone, and the arrow of fir, with a feather at one end and a blunt point 
of bone at the other, evidently appearing to be a child’s toy, and intended, 
perhaps, to teach the use of it at an early age. 
The runners of the only sledge we saw were composed of the right and 
left jaw-bones of a young whale, being nine feet nine inches long, one foot 
seven inches apart, and seven inches high from the ground. They are con- 
nected by a number of parallel pieces, made out of the ribs of the whale, 
and secured transversely with seizings of whale-bone, so as to form the 
bottom of the sledge, and the back is made of two deer’s horns placed in an 
upright position. The lower part of the runners is shod with a harder kind 
of bone, to resist the friction against the ground. The whole vehicle is 
rudely executed, and, being nearly twice the weight of the sledges we saw 
among the northern Esquimaux, is probably intended for carrying heavy 
burdens. The dogs were not less than fifty or sixty in number, and had 
nothing about them different from those on the eastern coast of Baffin’s Bay, 
except that they do not stand near so high as those of the latitude of 76°. 
They are very shy and wild, and the natives had great difficulty in catching 
them while we were by, as well as holding them in when caught. Some 
of them have much more of the wolf in their appearance than others, having 
very long heads and sharp noses, with a brushy tail, almost always carried 
between the legs ; while the bodies of others are less lank, as well as 
their noses less sharp, and they carry their tails handsomely curled over their 
backs : their colour varied from quite dark to brindled. The ravenous 
manner in which they devour their food is almost incredible. Both the old 
and young ones, when a bird is given them, generally swallow feathers and 
all ; and an old dog that I purchased, though regularly fed while on board by a 
person appointed for that purpose, eat up, with great avidity, a large piece of 
canvass, a cotton handkerchief, which one of the men had just washed and laid 
down by his side, and part of a check shirt. The young dogs will at any 
time kill themselves by over-eating, if permitted. The children appeared to 
have some right of property in the smaller puppies, or else their parents are 
very indulgent to them, for several bargains of this kind were made with 
them, without any objection or interference on the part of the parents, who 
were standing by at the time. 
Within a few stones, irregularly placed in a corner of each tent, was a lamp 
of oil and moss, and over each of these was suspended a small stone vessel 
1820. 
Sept. 
