LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 275 
the idea had entered into the minds of the natives, that the 
Kabloonas, or Europeans, attach some value to it, and therefore 
had buried it, or taken it away with them. On the following 1 
day, however, three women came to the ship, with the information 
that the new settlement was about twenty seniks to the south east, 
and on being questioned respecting the corpse, they all agreed 
that it -was left in one of the huts, and they described the particular 
one, in which it was to be found. These women brought the 
head of a bear, but no further use could be made of it, than 
sinking it in the sea, and reducing it to a skeleton by the 
shrimps eating off the flesh. The distance not being very great 
to the new station of the Esquimaux, Mr. Thoms and Mr. 
Mc'Diarmid set out on an expedition to discover them, and they 
found them exactly as the women had described them. At the 
same time Commander Ross went in one of the sledges obtained 
from the Esquimaux, and drawn by his own dogs to Yakkee Hill , 
so called as being the place from which the huts of the Yaks, or 
Esquimaux could be seen ; the distance was three miles and a 
half, and the dogs performed it in twenty-seven minutes. His 
purpose was to try the velocity of sound. He returned in 
twenty eight minutes. 
Although from the state of the weather, it was not supposed 
that the corpse of Illictu would be speedily decomposed, yet as 
authentic information had been received of the exact hut in 
which was to be found, a party was sent to ascertain the truth 
of it, and on entering the hut it was actually found with the 
chest cut open, as far down as the navel, and so thick was the 
layer of fat, that with the skin it measured f of an inch: His 
funeral couch was a bed of snow, and it spoke but little for the 
filial affection of his sons, of whom he had five, that they should 
leave their aged parent, like a beast that had died in his den, to 
be gradually decomposed by the elements, or to fall a prey to the 
savage animals of the country. Literally speaking there is very 
little difference between a grave of snow and a grave of gravel, 
indeed by some the former would be preferred, who have a squeam¬ 
ish dislike about them, that the worms should riot and revel 
over a form, which, whilst in life, had cost them so much trouble 
