We found here two divisions of tents, there being eleven where we landed, and five more about half a mile to the northward. By the time we reached the tents we were surrounded by a crowd of men, women, and children, all carrying some trifling article, which they offered in barter, a business they seemed to understand as well, and to need much more than their countrymen to the southward. We were, of course, not backward in promoting a good understanding by means of such presents as we had brought with us, but they seemed to have no idea of our giving them anything gratis, always offering some trifle in exchange, and expressing hesitation and surprise when we declined accepting it. This was not to be wondered at among people who scarcely know what a free gift is among themselves; but they were not long in getting rid of all delicacy or hesitation on this score.
The tents, which varied in size according to the number of occupants, consisted of several seal and walrus skins, the former dressed without the hair, and the latter with the thick outer coat taken off, and the rest shaved thin, so as to allow of the transmission of light through it. These were put together in a clumsy and irregular patchwork, forming a sort of bag of a shape rather oval than round, and supported near the middle by a rude tent-pole composed of several deer's horns or the bones of other animals lashed together. At the upper end of this is attached another short piece of bone at right angles, for the purpose of extending the skins a little at the top, which is generally from six to seven feet from the ground. The lower part of the tent-pole rests on a large stone, to keep it from sinking into the ground, and, being no way secured, is frequently knocked down by persons accidentally coming against it, and again replaced upon the stone. The lower borders of the skins are held down by stones laid on them outside; and, to keep the whole fabric in an erect position, a line of thong is extended from the top, on the side where the door is, to a larger stone placed at some distance. The door consists merely of two flaps, contrived so as to overlap one another, and to be secured by a stone laid upon them at the bottom. This entrance faces the south or southeast; and as the wind was now blowing fresh from that quarter, and thick snow beginning to fall, these habitations did not impress us at first sight with a very favourable idea of the comfort and accommodation afforded by them. The interior of the tents may be described in few words. On one side of the end next the door is the usual stone lamp, resting on rough stones, with the ootkooseek, or cooking pot, suspended over it; and round this are huddled together, in great confusion, the rest of the women's utensils, together with great lumps of raw seahorse flesh and blubber, which at this season they enjoyed in most disgusting abundance. At the inner end of the tent, which is also the broadest, and occupying about one third of the whole apartment, their skins are laid as a bed, having under them some of the andromeda tetragona when the ground is hard, but in this case placed on the bare dry shingle. Comfortless as these simple habitations appeared to us in a snowstorm, they are, in general, not deficient in warmth as summer residences; and, being easily removed from place to place, they are certainly well suited to the wants and habits of this wandering people. When a larger habitation than usual is required, they contrive, by putting two of these together, to form a sort of double tent somewhat resembling a marquee, and supported by two poles. The difference between these tents and the one I had seen in Lyon Inlet the preceding autumn, struck me as remarkable, these having no wall of stones around them, as is usual in many that we have before met with, nor do I know their reason for adopting this different mode of construction.
Even if it were not the natural and happy disposition of these people to be pleased, and to place implicit confidence wherever kind treatment is experienced, that confidence would soon have been ensured by our knowledge of their friends and relations to the southward, and the information which we were enabled to give respecting their late and intended movements. This, while it excited in them extreme surprise, served also at once to remove all distrust or apprehension, so that we soon found ourselves on the best terms imaginable. In return for all this interesting information, they gave us the names of the different portions of land in sight, many of which being recognised in their countrymen's charts, we no longer entertained a doubt of our being near the entrance of the strait to which all our hopes were directed. We now found also that a point of land in sight, a few miles to the southward of the tents, was near that marked Ping-=it-k~a-l~ik on Ewerat's chart, and that, therefore, the low shore along which we had been constantly sailing the preceding night was certainly a part of the continent.
By the time we had distributed most of our presents, and told some long stories about Winter Island, to all which they listened with eager delight and interest, we found the weather becoming so inclement as to determine us to make the best of our way on board, and to take a more favourable opportunity of renewing our visit to the Esquimaux. After pulling out for an hour and a half, Captain Lyon, who had a boat's crew composed of officers, and had, unfortunately, broken one of his oars, was under the necessity of returning to the shore. My anxiety lest the ships should be ventured too near the shore, from a desire to pick up the boats, induced me to persevere an hour longer, when the wind having increased to a gale, which prevented our hearing any of the guns, I reluctantly bore up for our former landing-place. Captain Lyon and his party having quartered themselves at the southern tents, we took up our lodgings at the others, to which we were welcomed in the kindest and most hospitable manner. That we might incommode the Esquimaux as little as possible, we divided into parties of two in each tent, though they would willingly have accommodated twice that number. Immediately on our arrival they offered us dry boots, and it was not long before we were entirely "rigged out" in their dresses, which, thoroughly drenched as we were by the sea, proved no small comfort to us. With these, and a sealskin or two as a blanket, we kept ourselves tolerably warm during a most inclement night; and the tents, which but a few hours before we had looked upon as the most comfortless habitations imaginable, now afforded us a sufficient and most acceptable shelter.
The evening was passed in dealing out our information from the southward, and never did any arrival excite more anxious inquiries than those we were now obliged to answer. So intimate was the knowledge we possessed respecting many of their relationships, that, by the help of a memorandum-book in which these had been inserted, I believe we almost at times excited a degree of superstitious alarm in their minds. This sort of gossip, and incessant chattering and laughing, continued till near midnight, when the numerous visitors in our tents began to retire to their own and to leave us to our repose. Awaking at four A.M. on the 17th, I found that the weather had moderated and cleared up, and the ships soon after appearing in sight, we called our boat's crew up, and sent one of the Esquimaux round to the other tents to inform Captain Lyon of our setting out. Several of the natives accompanied us to our boat, which they cheerfully helped us to launch, and then went round to another part of the beach for their own canoes. A thick fog had come on before this time, notwithstanding which, however, we managed to find the ships, and got on board by seven o'clock. Five canoes arrived soon after, and the wind being now light and variable, we lay-to for an hour to repay our kind friends for the hospitable reception they had given us. After supplying them abundantly with tin canisters, knives, and pieces of iron hoop, we hauled to the northeastward to continue our examination of the state of the ice, in hopes of finding that the late gale had in this respect done us some service.
Finding that a farther examination of the eastern lands could not at present be carried on, without incurring the risk of hampering the ships at a time when, for aught that we knew, the ice might be breaking up at the entrance of the strait, we stood back to the westward, and, having fetched near the middle of Igloolik, were gratified in observing that a large "patch" of the fixed ice[[002]] had broken off and drifted out of sight during our absence. At nine A.M. we saw eleven canoes coming off from the shore, our distance from the tents being about four miles. We now hoisted two of them on board, their owners K=a-k~ee and N~u-y=ak-k~a being very well pleased with the expedient, to avoid damaging them alongside. Above an hour was occupied in endeavouring to gain additional information respecting the land to the westward, and the time when we might expect the ice to break up in the strait, after which we dismissed them with various useful presents, the atmosphere becoming extremely thick with snow, and threatening a repetition of the same inclement weather as we had lately experienced.
On the 23d we went on shore to pay another visit to the Esquimaux, who came down on the ice in great numbers to receive us, repeatedly stroking down the front of their jackets with the palm of the hand as they advanced, a custom not before mentioned, as we had some doubt about it at Winter Island, and which they soon discontinued here. They also frequently called out tima, a word which, according to Hearne, signifies in the Esquimaux language, "What cheer!" and which Captain Franklin heard frequently used on first accosting the natives at the mouth of the Coppermine River. It seems to be among these people a salutation equivalent to that understood by these travellers, or at least some equally civil and friendly one, for nothing could exceed the attention which they paid us on landing. Some individual always attached himself to each of us immediately on our leaving the boat, pointing out the best road, and taking us by the hand or arm to help us over the streams of water or fissures in the ice, and attending us wherever we went during our stay on shore. The day proving extremely fine and pleasant, everything assumed a different appearance from that at our former visit, and we passed some hours on shore very agreeably. About half a mile inland of the tents, and situated upon the rising ground beyond the swamps and ponds before mentioned, we found the ruins of several winter habitations, which, upon land so low as Igloolik, formed very conspicuous objects at the distance of several miles to seaward. These were of the same circular and dome-like form as the snow-huts, but built with much more durable materials, the lower part or foundation being of stones, and the rest of the various bones of the whale and walrus, gradually inclining inward and meeting at the top. The crevices, as well as the whole of the outside, were then covered with turf, which, with the additional coating of snow in the winter, serves to exclude the cold air very effectually. The entrance is towards the south, and consists of a passage ten feet long, and not more than two in height and breadth, built of flat slabs of stone, having the same external covering as that of the huts. The beds are raised by stones two feet from the ground, and occupy about one third of the apartment at the inner end; and the windows and a part of the roofs had been taken away for the convenience of removing their furniture in the spring. It was a natural inference, from the nature of these habitations, that these people, or at least a portion of them, were constant residents on this spot, which, indeed, seemed admirably calculated to afford in luxurious profusion all that constitutes Esquimaux felicity. This, however, did not afterward prove to be absolutely the case; for though Igloolik (as perhaps the name may imply) is certainly one of their principal and favourite rendezvous, yet we subsequently found the inland entirely deserted by them at the same season.
In every direction around the huts were lying innumerable bones of walruses and seals, together with sculls of dogs, bears, and foxes, on many of which a part of the putrid flesh still remaining sent forth the most offensive effluvia. We were not a little surprised to find also a number of human sculls lying about among the rest, within a few yards of the huts; and were somewhat inclined to be out of humour on this account with our new friends, who not only treated the matter with the utmost indifference, but, on observing that we were inclined to add some of them to our collections, went eagerly about to look for them, and tumbled, perhaps, the craniums of some of their own relations into our bag, without delicacy or remorse. In various other parts of the island we soon after met with similar relics no better disposed of; but we had yet to learn how little pains these people take to place their dead out of the reach of hungry bears or anatomical collectors.
The account we gave of our visit to the shore naturally exciting the curiosity and interest of those who had not yet landed, and the ice remaining unchanged on the 24th, a couple of boats were despatched from each ship, with a large party of the officers and men, while the ships stood off and on. On the return of the boats in the evening, I found from Lieutenant Reid that a new family of the natives had arrived to-day from the main land, bringing with them a quantity of fine salmon and venison, of which some very acceptable samples were procured for both ships. Being desirous of following up so agreeable a kind of barter, I went on shore the next morning for that purpose, but could only procure a very small quantity of fish from the tent of the new-comer, a middle-aged, noisy, but remarkably intelligent and energetic man named T=o=ol~em~ak. After some conversation, we found from this man that, in order to obtain a fresh supply of fish, three days would be required; this prevented my putting in execution a plan of going out to the place where the fish were caught, which we at first understood to be near at hand. We therefore employed all our eloquence in endeavouring to procure a supply of this kind by means of the Esquimaux themselves, in which we at length so far succeeded, that Toolemak promised, for certain valuable considerations of wood and iron, to set out on this errand the following day.
Shortly, after I returned on board Captain Lyon made the signal "to communicate with me," for the purpose of offering his services to accompany our fisherman on his proposed journey, attended by one of the Hecla's men; to which, in the present unfavourable state of the ice, I gladly consented, as the most likely means of procuring information of interest during this our unavoidable detention. Being equipped with a small tent, blankets, and four days' provision, Captain Lyon left us at ten P.M., when I made sail to re-examine the margin of the ice.