of their cleanliness which now occurred, deserves, perhaps, to be noticed, both because this is justly considered rather a rare quality among Esquimaux, as well as to show in what way they do sometimes exercise it.  When leaving the tent to return to our boats, I desired one of the seamen to tie the articles we had purchased into a single bundle, for the convenience of carrying them; but the elder of the two male Esquimaux, who watched the man thus employed, would not permit it to be done without excluding a pot, which, as he explained by wiping the lampblack off with one of his fingers, would soil a clean sealskin jacket that formed part of the bundle.

Among the few domestic utensils we saw in the tent was the woman’s knife of the Greenlanders described by Crantz, and resembling, in its semicircular shape, that used by shoemakers in England.  The most interesting article, however, was a kind of bowl, exactly similar to that obtained by Captain Lyon from the natives of Hudson’s Strait, being hollowed out of the root of the musk-ox’s horn.  As soon as I took the cup in my hand, the boy who was our first companion, and had since been our constant attendant, pronounced the word oomingmuk, thus affording an additional confirmation to that obtained on the former voyage, of the musk-ox being the animal described by the natives of the west coast of Greenland as having occasionally, though rarely, been seen in that country.

As soon as the Esquimaux became a little more familiar with us, they repeatedly asked for sowik (iron), in answer to which we gave them to understand that they must accompany us to our boats if they wished to obtain any of this precious article.  Accordingly, the whole group set off with us on our return, the males keeping up with us, and the women a short distance behind.  The whole of the children carried bundles of the branches of ground willow, which we had just before seen them bring in for their own use, and which they seemed to consider an article of barter that might be acceptable to us.  As we returned I noticed a quantity of the ledum palustre, and, having plucked some of it, gave it to the boy to carry; after which, though he very much disliked its smell, he gathered every root of it that we came to, and deposited it at our tents.  This lad was uncommonly quick and clever in comprehending our meaning, and seemed to possess a degree of good-humour and docility which, on our short acquaintance, made him a great favourite among us.

We had hitherto been much pleased with our new acquaintance, who were certainly a good-humoured, decent sort of people.  We therefore loaded them with presents, and endeavoured to amuse them by showing them the manner of rowing our boats, which were hauled up on the beach.  While the men and children were occupied in observing this, the women were no less busily employed, near the tents, in pilfering and conveying into their boots some of our cups, spoons, and other small articles,