NORTH POLE. 
204 
about feventy miles of coaft. They could not tell whe¬ 
ther the fhore was inhabited beyond thefartheft northern 
point of which they had perfonal knowledge. 
“ We were greatly furprifed (fays Capt. Sabine) to find 
them without canoes, or any means of going on the ele¬ 
ment from whence the greater part of their fubfiftence is 
derived. All the Efquimaux who were known before, 
and indeed all the inhabitants of the coaft of North Ame¬ 
rica, from Prince William’s Sound, on the north-weft, to 
the Labrador and Greenland coafts inclufive, with the 
exception of thefe people, have been found with canoes 
of the fame peculiar and very remarkable conftruftion. 
We endeavoured to learn if they had any tradition that 
their anceftors had uied them ; but all that we could af- 
certain was, that their fathers could kill whales, which 
they cannot do now, but by what means they were un¬ 
able to explain. Neither of the Efquimaux words for 
canoes, liayah or umiak, was known to them; nor did 
they feem to have an idea of a canoe, until they faw 
the one belonging to Sackhoufe, which was on-board the 
(hip. It was unfortunate that the poor fellow had broken 
liis collar-bone, and had his arm in confequence in a fling, 
which prevented him from fhowing the dexterity with 
which he managed it, and the rapidity with which he could 
paddle ; it would have been a gratification to him, and an 
interefting and ufeful fight to them. They examined it, 
however, with great curiofity on-board, and feemed to 
enter very fully into its ufefulnefs; afking many quef- 
tions about the way in which it w'as made.” 
The fa£t of their having no canoes is indeed very ex¬ 
traordinary ; it is difficult to conceive that, if they had 
known their value, and had ever pofiefied the art of 
makingthem, it fliould have been loft. There is no defi¬ 
ciency of materials ; they have as many fkins as they can 
with for, and, although no wood, yet they have bone, 
which will anfwer nearly as well for the frame-work; at 
leaft the ingenuity of favage life would foon make it an- 
fwer with accommodation ; nor is their fituation lefs fa¬ 
vourable for the employment of canoes than many other 
of the Efquimaux l'ettlements : although lo far to the 
north, the lea was much freer from ice than we had found 
it. for many degrees to the fouthward ; the fhore efpeci- 
ally w-as quite clear to the north of Cape Dudley Diggs, 
and they told us that it was always fo in furamer. Wol- 
Itenholm Sound, which, as Baffin fays, contains many 
inlets and fmaller founds, mull be a remarkably fine place 
for the fifhery of feals and fea-unicorns. On the other 
hand, it feems very improbable that canoes were not 
known to their anceftors. In whatever manner, or by 
whatever route, the Efquimaux have fpread along the 
(bores of North America from their origin in the Weft, 
they muft undoubtedly have brought their canoes with 
them. The identity of thole in ufe from one end of this 
extenfive chain to the other, combined with their very in¬ 
genious and peculiar conftruftion, puts this point be¬ 
yond queftion ; how curious, therefore, to have found an 
intermediate link without them ! 
Having no means of going on the water, their only 
mode of killing the feals and unicorns, or fea horfes, is 
by getting fufficiently near on the ice to ftrike them with 
thefpear; this they accomplifh by ftratagems fimilar to 
thofe in general practice amongft the Efquimaux, but 
which they perform in great perfection. The procefs of 
luring feals is well known ; the animals have holes in the 
ice through which they come out to balk on its furface ; 
the Efquimaux places himlelf near the hole, and, as foon 
as a leal appears, he rolls himlelf on the ice, and imitates 
its motion and its cry; and, being moreover dreffed in 
feal-fkin, he fucceeds in deceiving the animal, which, 
joining its luppofed companion, meets its death. To 
excel in this mode of hunting is deemed a great accom- 
plilhment; accordingly Sackhoufe was very eager in per- 
fuading them to go through the motions before him, and 
acknowledged that they performed even better than the 
South Greenlanders. By fuch means they obtain an am¬ 
ple fupply of the animals which conftitute their principal 
food ; they have, befides, the eggs and young of fea-fowl, 
which they take from their nelts on the Ihore, and foxes 
which they entrap. When thefe refources fail during the 
winter, they have recourfe to their dogs ; but we could 
not learn that they made ufe of any vegetable production 
whatever. They brought us feveral pieces of unicorns’ 
flelh, in the dried ftate in which it is ufually eaten, called 
nicou both by them and by the South Greenlanders. 
They lay by a ftore of provisions for the winter in holes 
under ground, as is the cuftom in the fouth. Their feafts 
are of the fame defeription ; feveral families are invited 
to partake of what they efteem their greateft luxury ; it is 
a leal which has been kept in one of thefe under-ground 
repofitories until it is a little beyond tender, when it is 
eaten without the addition of cooking of any fort. They 
prefer meat undrelfed, unlefs it is very frefh; this is ge¬ 
neral amongft Efquimaux. Sackhoufe often fpoke with 
great animation of the fports and diverfions wdiich take 
place at thefe meetings, and by which they contrive to 
pafs away their long winter very merrily. He fully con¬ 
firmed all that Crantz fays of the thorough good-humour 
which prevails uninterruptedly. In fpite of the abfence 
of almoft every thing which we confider to conftitute en¬ 
joyment in life, the Efquimaux are a happy people ; happy 
even in companion with thofe who are far better oft’; and 
they are fo, becaufe they are generally good-tempered, 
and a difpofition to quarrel or to injure another is very 
rare.. 
Our voyagers were furprifed to find thefe people unac¬ 
quainted with the Efquimaux name for rein-deer, iiiktun; 
and, on further inquiry, there appeared reafon to believe 
that the animal itfelf was unknown in this part of Green¬ 
land, as they did not recognife it by Sackhoufe’s deferip¬ 
tion. They knew but of two large animals on the land, 
befides thole which have been enumerated in the account 
of their food, namely, the amarolt and the umimnk ; but faid 
that they had no means of killing either of them. The 
amarok has been known byname to writers on Greenland, 
but has not been yet defcribed on the perfonal knowledge 
of any naturalift. Sackhoufe laid it is not uncommon 
about Jacob’s Bight and Difco Bay, where its cry is fre¬ 
quently heard at night; but, being a Ihy and very fierce 
animal, it is feldom killed by the natives. It refembles 
a cat, excepting in its fize, which is about three times as 
large. Its ficin is ftriped ; it lives in holes in the rocks, 
and feeds on hares, and groufe, which it lies in wait for, 
and catches by fpringing on them. What the umimnk is, 
appears yet more doubtful. Fabricius, in the Fauna 
Groenlandica, deferibes an animal under this name, the 
head and part of a carcafe of which he had feen, having 
been found on a piece of ice in the Greenland lea. Be¬ 
lieving that no fuch animal inhabited.the weftern coaft, 
he conceived that it had been drifted with the ice, either 
from Eaft Greenland, or more probably from the northern 
coaft of Afia. The Ikull was injured,and one of the horns 
broken off; but from the other, which was fmooth and 
bent outwards, and from the hoofs and hair, the latter of 
which was long, black, and woolly, he confidered it as 
identified with the Bos grunniens of Linnaeus. What¬ 
ever may have been the original animal, the name of 
umimnk has been fince applied to the breed of cattle 
which the Danes introduced from Europe. It appears, 
however, that there a&ually is a large land-animal (and 
horned, for fo they deferibe it), inhabiting Greenland, 
and called umimnk by Efquimaux who have never had 
communication with Danes. Whether it is the fame 
which Fabricius faw may be doubted ; but it feems very 
improbable that either Ihould be the Bos grunniens. 
Sackhoufe repeated to th&m the names of the various 
kind of filh which are caught on South Greenland, but 
they had never heard of them ; and, when defined to enu¬ 
merate what they obtained from the fea, they mentioned 
only feals, fea-horfes, unicorns, and whales. Capt. Cook 
remarks, that in the Pacific- “ the lea is diftitute of fmall 
i filh 
