It was not till the afternoon of the 30th that the whole was completed, and the Fury placed in the best berth for the winter that circumstances would permit.  An early release in the spring could here be scarcely expected, nor, indeed, did the nature of the ice about us, independently of situation, allow us to hope for it; but both these unfavourable circumstances had been brought about by a contingency which no human power or judgment could have obviated, and at which, therefore, it would have been unreasonable, as well as useless, to repine.  We lay here in rather less than five fathoms, on a muddy bottom, at the distance of one cable’s length from the eastern shore of the bay.

The whole length of the canal we had sawed through was four thousand three hundred and forty-three feet; the thickness of the ice, in the level and regular parts, being from twelve to fourteen inches, but in many places, where a separation had occurred, amounting to several feet.  I cannot sufficiently do justice to the cheerful alacrity with which the men continued this laborious work during thirteen days, the thermometer being frequently at zero, and once as low as -9 deg. in that interval.  It was satisfactory, moreover, to find, that in the performance of this, not a single addition had been made to the sick-list of either ship, except by the accident of one man’s falling into the canal, who returned to his duty a day or two afterward.

While our people were thus employed, the Esquimaux had continued to make daily visits to the ships, driving down on sledges with their wives and children, and thronging on board in great numbers, as well to gratify their curiosity, of which they do not, in general, possess much, as to pick up whatever trifles we could afford to bestow upon them.  These people were at all times ready to assist in any work that was going on, pulling on the ropes, heaving at the windlass, and sawing the ice, sometimes for an hour together.  They always accompanied their exertions by imitating the sailors in their peculiar manner of “singing out” when hauling, thus, at least, affording the latter constant amusement, if not any very material assistance, during their labour.  Among the numerous young people at Igloolik, there were some whose activity on this and other occasions particularly struck us.  Of these I shall, at present, only mention two:  N=o=ogloo, an adopted son of Toolemak, and K=ong~ol~ek, a brother of “John Bull.”  These two young men, who were from eighteen to twenty years of age, and stood five feet seven inches in height, displayed peculiar tact in acquiring our method of heaving at the windlass, an exercise at which K=ong~ol~ek became expert after an hour or two’s practice.  The countenances of both were handsome and prepossessing, and their limbs well-formed and muscular; qualities which, combined with their activity and manliness, rendered them (to speak like a naturalist), perhaps, as fine specimens of the human race as almost any country can produce.