Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1825, 1826, and 1827

by John Franklin; Sir John Richardson

Monday, 10th.The Esquimaux revisited us in the morning, with their women and children; the party consisted of forty-eight persons. They seated themselves as before, in a semicircle, the men being in front, and the women behind. Presents were made to those who had not before received any; and we afterwards purchased several pairs of seal-skin boots, a few pieces of dressed seal-skin, and some deer-skin cut and twisted, to be used as cords. Beads, pins, needles, and ornamental articles, were most in request by the women, to whom the goods principally belonged, but the men were eager to get any thing that was made of iron. They were supplied with hatchets, files, ice chisels, fire-steels, Indian awls, and fish-hooks. They were very anxious to procure knives, but as each was in possession of one, I reserved the few which we had for another occasion. The quarter from whence these knives were obtained, will appear in a subsequent part of the narrative. It was amusing to see the purposes to which they applied the different articles given to them; some of the men danced about with a large cod-fish hook dangling from the nose, others stuck an awl through the same part, and the women immediately decorated their dresses with the ear-rings, thimbles, or whatever trinkets they received. There was in the party a great proportion of elderly persons, who appeared in excellent health, and were very active. The men were stout and robust, and taller than Augustus, or than those seen on the east coast by Captain Parry. Their cheek-bones were less projecting than the representations given of the Esquimaux on the eastern coast, but they had the small eye, and broad nose, which ever distinguish that people. Except the young persons, the whole party were afflicted with sore eyes, arising from exposure to the glare of ice and snow, and two of the old men were nearly blind. They wore the hair on the upper lip and chin; the latter, as well as that on their head, being permitted to grow long, though in some cases a circular spot on the crown of the head was cut bare, like the tonsure of the Roman catholic clergy. Every man had pieces of bone or shells thrust through the septum of his nose; and holes were pierced on each side of the under lip, in which were placed circular pieces of ivory, with a large blue bead in the centre, similar to those represented in the drawings of the natives on the N.W. coast of America, in Kotzebue's Voyage. These ornaments were so much valued, that they declined selling them; and when not rich enough to procure beads or ivory, stones and pieces of bone were substituted. These perforations are made at the age of puberty; and one of the party, who appeared to be about fourteen years old, was pointed out, with delight, by his parents, as having to undergo the operation in the following year. He was a good-looking boy, and we could not fancy his countenance would be much improved by the insertion of the bones or stones, which have the effect of depressing the under lip, and keeping the mouth open.

Their dress consisted of a jacket of rein-deer skin, with a skirt behind and before, and a small hood; breeches of the same material, and boots of seal-skin. Their weapons for the chase were bows and arrows, very neatly made; the latter being headed with bone or iron; and for fishing, spears tipped with bone. They also catch fish with nets and lines. All were armed with knives, which they either keep in their hand, or thrust up the sleeve of their shirt. They had received from the Loucheux Indians some account of the destructive effects of guns. The dress of the women differed from that of the men only in their wearing wide trowsers, and in the size of their hoods, which do not fit close to the head, but are made large, for the purpose of receiving their children. These are ornamented with stripes of different coloured skins, and round the top is fastened a band of wolf's hair, made to stand erect. Their own black hair is very tastefully turned up from behind to the top of the head, and tied by strings of white and blue beads, or cords of white deer-skin. It is divided in front, so as to form on each side a thick tail, to which are appended strings of beads that reach to the waist. The women were from four feet and a half to four and three quarters high, and generally fat. Some of the younger females, and the children, were pretty.

It would appear that the walrus does not visit this part of the coast, as none of these people recognised a sketch of one, which Lieutenant Back drew; but they at once knew the seal and rein-deer. We learned that the polar bear is seldom seen, and only in the autumn; and likewise that there are very few of the brown bears, which we frequently saw on the coast eastward of the Coppermine River. We had already seen a few white whales, and we understood that they would resort to this part of the coast in greater numbers with the following moon.

The habits of these people were similar, in every respect, to those of the tribes described by Captain Parry, and their dialect differed so little from that used by Augustus, that he had no difficulty in understanding them. He was, therefore, able to give them full particulars relative to the attack made by the other party, and they expressed themselves much hurt at their treacherous conduct. "Those are bad men," they said, "and never fail either to quarrel with us, or steal from us, when we meet. They come, every spring, from the eastern side of the Mackenzie, to fish at the place where you saw them, and return as soon as the ice opens. They are distinguished from us, who live to the westward of the river, by the men being tattoed across the face. Among our tribes the women only are tattoed;" having five or six blue lines drawn perpendicular from the under lip to the chin. The speaker added, "If you are obliged to return by this way, before these people remove, we, with a reinforcement of young men, will be in the vicinity, and will willingly accompany you to assist in repelling any attack." Augustus returned with the Esquimaux to their tents, as there was not the least prospect of our getting forward, though the ice was somewhat broken.

A strong breeze from the westward during the night, contributed, with the swell, to the further reduction of the ice, in front of the encampment; Tuesday, 11th.and on the morning of the 11th, the wind changed to the eastward, and removed the pieces a little way off shore, though they were tossing too violently for the boats to proceed. The swell having subsided in the afternoon, we embarked; but at the end of a mile and a half were forced to land again, from the ice being fixed to the shore; and as the wind had now become strong, and was driving the loose pieces on the land, the boats were unloaded and landed on the beach. From the summit of an adjoining hill we perceived an unbroken field of ice to the west, and, consequently, a barrier to our progress.

We encamped on the spot which our Esquimaux friends had left in the morning, to remove in their oomiaks and kaiyacks towards the Mackenzie, where they could set their fishing nets, and catch whales and seals. One of them showed his honesty, by returning some arrows, and a piece of a pemmican bag, that we had left at our last resting-place. The men also joined us here with specimens of rock from Mount Fitton.

The Esquimaux winter residences at this spot were constructed of drift timber, with the roots of the trees upwards, and contained from one to three small apartments, beside a cellar for their stores. There were generally two entrances, north and south, so low as to make it necessary to crawl through them. The only aperture was a hole at the top for the smoke, which, as well as the doorways, could be filled up with a block of snow at pleasure. When covered with snow, and with lamps of fire burning within, these habitations must be extremely warm, though to our ideas rather comfortless. Lofty stages were erected near them for the purpose of receiving their canoes, and bulky articles. A north-east gale came on in the evening, and rolled such a heavy surf on the beach, that twice, during the night, we were obliged to drag the boats and cargoes higher up.

Wednesday, 12th.About three the next morning a heavy rain commenced, and continued, without intermission, through the day; at which we were delighted, however comfortless it made our situation, because we saw the ice gradually loosening from the land under its effects. We found the keeping a tide-pole fixed in the loose gravel beach impracticable here, as well as at the last resting-place, on account of the swell. It appeared to be high water this morning at half past one a.m., and that the rise of tide was about two feet. I need hardly observe that we had the sun constantly above the horizon, were it not for the purpose of mentioning the amusing mistakes which the men made as to the hour. In fact, when not employed, a question as to the time of day never failed to puzzle them, except about midnight, when the sun was near the northern horizon.

Lieutenant Back missing the protractor which he used for laying down his bearings on the map, Augustus set off in the rain early this forenoon to recover it from an Esquimaux woman, whom he had seen pick it up. The rain ceased in the afternoon, the wind gradually abated, and by eight in the evening it was calm. A south wind followed, which opened a passage for the boat, but Augustus was not in sight. At midnight we became greatly alarmed for his safety, having now found that he had taken his gun, which we supposed the natives might have endeavoured to wrest from him, and we were on the point of despatching a party in search of him, Thursday, 13th.when he arrived at four in the morning of the 13th, much fatigued, accompanied by three of the natives. His journey had been lengthened by the Esquimaux having gone farther to the eastward than he had expected, but he had recovered the protractor which had been kept in their ignorance of its utility to us. His companions brought five white fish, and some specimens of crystal, with other stones, from the mountains, which we purchased, and further rewarded them for their kindness in not allowing Augustus to return alone.

The boats were immediately launched, and having pulled a short distance from the land, we set the sails, our course being directed to the outer point in view, to avoid the sinuosities of the coast. We passed a wide, though not deep bay, whose points were named after my friends Captains Sabine and P.P. King; and we were drawing near the next projection, when a compact body of ice was discovered, which was joined to the land ahead. At the same time a dense fog came on, that confined our view to a few yards; it was accompanied by a gale from the land, and heavy rain. We had still hopes of getting round the point, and approached the shore in that expectation, but found the ice so closely packed that we could neither advance nor effect a landing. We, therefore, pulled to seaward, and turned the boat's head to the eastward, to trace the outer border of the ice. In this situation we were exposed to great danger from the sudden change of wind to S.E., which raised a heavy swell, and brought down upon us masses of ice of a size that, tossed as they were by the waves, would have injured a ship. We could only catch occasional glimpses of the land through the fog, and were kept in the most anxious suspense, pulling in and out between the floating masses of ice, for five hours, before we could get near the shore. We landed a little to the west of Point Sabine, and only found sufficient space for the boats and tents between the bank and the water. The rain ceased for a short time in the evening, and during this interval, we perceived, from the top of the bank, that the whole space between us and the distant point, as well as the channel by which we had advanced to the westward, were now completely blocked; so that we had good reason to congratulate ourselves on having reached the shore in safety.