380 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
the Fourth ; the piston of a steam engine; the admeasurement 
of Taglioni’s waist; or the most approved method of dressing a 
seal cutlet. It has been the fate of many deputations to return 
to those who sent them, without accomplishing the object of 
their mission; and no one ever ran a greater risk of experiencing 
that calamity, than the deputation from the Victory. It, how¬ 
ever, occurred to Commander Ross, to despatch Mr. Light, the 
steward, to the ship, for the Esquimaux Vocabulary, by means 
of which, it was confidently expected, that the desired informa¬ 
tion could be obtained ; nor were they disappointed in their 
expectations, for by degrees it was elicited from the natives; 
that so far from any intention on their part, to make their pre¬ 
sent residence a permanent one, it was merely a temporary 
station or stage, on their journey to more distant quarters. To¬ 
wards the latter end of March, or the beginning of April, the 
great body of the Esquimaux who have lived in community 
during the winte-r, separate in different tribes, or companies, 
some directing their course to one quarter, and some to another ; 
some for the salmon-fishing, or to be in readiness on the break¬ 
ing up of the frost, having an abundance buried in the ice 
since the preceding year. Others go away out to sea, the inlet 
being entirely frozen over, in search of seal; whilst others di¬ 
rect their course inland, in quest of musk oxen, or rein-deer ; 
and about the month of September they all meet again, at a 
place called Jsl'ichilli , there to pass their dreary winter. 
The party, which had been the cause of so much apprehen¬ 
sion to the Commander of the Victory, on account of their lo¬ 
cating themselves so near to the vessel, were on their journey 
inland in search of rein-deer; and as the construction of a snow 
house is, with these people, but the labor of a few hours, and 
its value nothing at all when it is built, they consider their 
removal from one place to another, as a matter of trifling mo¬ 
ment. Their goods and chattels are scarcely sufficient to load 
a sledge, and can all be packed up in half an hour, with no 
fear of a landlord, or a tax-gatherer at the door, to prevent their 
removal; no sheriff's officer with his writ of fieri facias ever 
intruded his odious visage within the dwelling of an Esquimaux. 
