A Journey performed across Winter Island.—­Sufferings of the Party by Frost.—­Departure of Some of the Esquimaux, and a separate Village established on the Ice.—­Various Meteorological Phenomena.—­Okotook and his Wife brought on board.—­Anecdotes relating to them.—­Ships released from the Ice by sawing.

Our intercourse with the Esquimaux continued, and many occasions occurred in which they displayed great good humour, and a degree of archness for which we could have scarcely given them credit.

On the 12th Okotook came, according to an appointment previously made, with a sledge and six dogs, to give me a ride to the huts, bringing with him his son Sioutkuk, who, with ourselves, made up a weight of near four hundred pounds upon the sledge.  After being upset twice, and stopping at least ten times, notwithstanding the incessant bullying of Okotook, and, as it seemed to me, more bodily labour on his part to steer us clear of accidents than if he had walked the whole way, we at length arrived at the huts; a distance of two miles, in five-and-twenty minutes.  Of this equipment and their usual modes of travelling, I shall have occasion to speak more fully in another place.

I found that several fresh alterations had been made in the huts since my last visit, all, however, of the same, kind, and having in view the same object as those last described.  In these alterations they seem to consult the convenience of the moment, and to do it all by such unanimous consent, that no consultation or difference of opinion ever appears to exist about it.  So much snowdrift had now collected about the huts, that their external appearance was as much altered as that of the interior, and it was difficult to trace any resemblance to the original village, or even to perceive its present limits.  The snow was now as high as the roofs on every side, so that one might walk completely over them, and, but for the round plates of ice composing the windows, without suspecting the little hive of human beings that was comfortably established below.  This, however, was not always done with impunity, when the thawing within had too much weakened the roofs, in which case a leg sometimes made its way through, and discovered in what parts repairs were become necessary.  The natives were at this time extremely well furnished with seals’ flesh for food and oil for their lamps, and all they would accept from us (except meat, which we could not afford to give) was water, and this they swallowed in such quantities whenever they came to the ships, that it was impossible to furnish them with half as much as they desired.