MY TALLOW-BALL. 
143 
edging along the coast about thirty miles to the east¬ 
ward. Here Shanghu burrowed into a snow-bank and 
slept, the thermometer standing at —30°. The rest of 
us turned in to lunch; the sledge was turned over, and 
we were cutting away at the raw meat, each man for 
himself, when I heard an exclamation from Tatterat, 
an outlandish Esquimaux, who had his name from the 
Kittywake gull. He had found a tallow-ball, which 
had been hid away without my knowledge by my com¬ 
rades for my private use. Instantly his knife entered 
the prized recesses of my ball, and, as the lumps of liver 
and cooked muscle came tossing out in delicate succes¬ 
sion, Kalutunah yielded to the temptation, and both of 
them picked the savory bits as we would the truffles 
of a “ Perigord pat6.” Of necessity I joined the 
group, and took my share; but Hans, poor fellow, 
too indignant at the liberty taken with my provender, 
refused to share in the work of demolishing it. My 
ten-pound ball vanished nevertheless in scarcely as 
many minutes. 
The journey began again as the feast closed, and we 
should have accomplished my wishes had it not been 
for the untoward influence of sundry bears. The tracks 
of these animals were becoming more and more nume¬ 
rous as we rounded one iceberg after another; and we 
could see the beds they had worn in the snow while 
watching for seal. These swayed the dogs fiom their 
course: yet we kept edging onward; and when in 
sight of the northern coast, about thirty miles from the 
central peak of the “Three Brothers,” I saw a deep 
