during the winter; and on this account we hardly knew whether to rejoice or not at the general success of their fishery.  Certain it is, that on a particular occasion of great plenty, one or two individuals were seen lying in the huts, so distended by the quantity of meat they had eaten that they were unable to move, and were suffering considerable pain, arising solely from this cause.  Indeed, it is difficult to assign any other probable reason for the lamentable proportion of deaths that took place during our stay at Igloolik, while, during a season of nearly equal severity, and of much greater privation as to food, at Winter Island, not a single death occurred.  Notwithstanding their general plenty, there were times in the course of this winter, as well as the last, when our bread-dust was of real service to them, and they were always particularly desirous of obtaining it for their younger children.  They distinguished this kind of food by the name of k=an~ibr~o~ot, and biscuit or soft bread by that of sh=eg~al~ak, the literal meaning of which terms we never could discover, but supposed them to have some reference to their respective qualities.

Our lengthened acquaintance with the Esquimaux and their language, which a second winter passed among them afforded, gave us an opportunity of occasionally explaining to them in some measure in what direction our country lay, and of giving them some idea of its distance, climate, population, and productions.  It was with extreme difficulty that these people had imbibed any correct idea of the superiority of rank possessed by some individuals among us; and when at length they came into this idea, they naturally measured our respective importance by the riches they supposed each to possess.  The ships they considered, as a matter of course, to belong to Captain Lyon and myself, and on this account distinguished them by the names of Lyon-oomiak and Paree-oomiak; but they believed that the boats and other parts of the furniture were the property of various other individuals among us.  They were, therefore, not a little surprised to be seriously assured that neither the one nor the other belonged to any of us, but to a much richer and more powerful person, to whom we all paid respect and obedience, and at whose command we had come to visit and enrich the Innuees.  Ewerat, on account of his steadiness and intelligence, as well as the interest with which he listened to anything relating to Kabloonas, was particularly fit to receive information of this nature; and a general chart of the Atlantic Ocean, and of the lands on each side, immediately conveyed to his mind an idea of the distance we had come, and the direction in which our home lay.  This and similar information was received by Ewerat and his wife with the most eager astonishment and interest, not merely displayed in the “hei-ya!” which constitutes the usual extent of Esquimaux admiration, but evidently enlarging