LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
279 
aversion, like all others, which have not a natural origin, but 
are acquired bv circumstances, might have been easily overcot 
if thev would for a moment have taken it into their consideration, 
that the shrimps and in fact, many other fish, which they eat with 
so much relish in their native country, nourish themselves on the 
putrid carcases, human and animal, which casualties have thrown 
in their way. One hundred lobsters have been known to reduce 
a plump human corpse to the state of a complete skeleton in a 
few hours, and yet the alderman or the vestryman, who might 
praise the extraordinary sweetness of the sauce which has been 
made of one of these lobsters, little dreams that the superiority of 
the flavour is perhaps owing to its having fed lately on human 
flesh, which is known to surpass all others in its sweetening and 
fattening qualities. 
The party, who had repaired to Yakkee Hill for the purpose 
of ascertaining the new situation of the Esquimaux, had so sta¬ 
tioned themselves that by means of their telescopes, they could 
observe the motions that were going forward on board the Victory, 
as well as the actions of the Esquimaux about their huts. They 
saw the women, who had been to the ship with their peltry, shap¬ 
ing their course homewards, and they had no sooner wound round 
a small promontory from which they could be seen from the huts, 
than the men were seen running to and fro, as if to report the 
approach of the women, and some of them hastened forward to 
give them their meeting, evidently for the purpose of obtaining 
from them the proceeds of their traffic. 
In general the Esquimaux build their huts in the snow on ac¬ 
count of the great facility of obtaining the materials, for the con¬ 
struction of them, but in the present instance they deviated from 
their usual custom, and built them on the ice, which occasioned 
them an extra degree of trouble, as they had to convey the slabs 
of snow from some distance, with the risk of them breaking in 
the transportation. The cause of this change of site was repre¬ 
sented to be, a desire to be more contiguous to the seal-holes, as 
they could almost sit before the entrance of the hut, and kill the 
animals as they emerged from the ice. 
The names of the men and their wives who constituted this 
little colony were, 
