ang up the companion
ladder, where they beheld a scene that accounted for the laughter, and
induced them to join in it. At first sight it seemed as if thirty Polar
bears had boarded the vessel, and were executing a dance of triumph
before proceeding to make a meal of the crew; but on closer inspection
it became apparent that the men had undergone a strange transformation,
and were capering with delight at the ridiculous appearance they
presented. They were clad from head to foot in Esquimau costume, and now
bore as strong a resemblance to Polar bears as man could attain to.

Meetuck was the pattern and the chief instrument in effecting this
change. At Upernavik Captain Guy had been induced to purchase a large
number of fox-skins, deer-skins, seal-skins, and other furs, as a
speculation, and had them tightly packed and stowed away in the hold,
little imagining the purpose they were ultimately destined to serve.
Meetuck had come on board in a mongrel sort of worn-out seal-skin dress;
but the instant the cold weather set in he drew from a bundle which he
had brought with him a dress made of the fur of the Arctic fox, some of
the skins being white and the others blue. It consisted of a loose coat,
somewhat in the form of a shirt, with a large hood to it, and a short
elongation behind like the commencement of a tail. The boots were made
of white bear-skin, which, at the end of the foot, were made to
terminate with the claws of the animal; and they were so long that they
came up the thigh under the coat, or "jumper," as the men called it, and
thus served instead of trousers. He also wore fur mittens, with a bag
for the fingers, and a separate little bag for the thumb. The hair on
these garments was long and soft, and worn outside, so that when a man
enveloped himself in them, and put up the hood, which well-nigh
concealed the face, he became very much like a bear or some such
creature standing on its hind legs.

Meetuck was a short, fat, burly little fellow by nature; but when he put
on his winter dress he became such a round, soft, squat, hairy, and
comical-looking creature, that no one could look at him without
laughing, and the shout with which he was received on deck the first
time he made his appearance in his new costume was loud and prolonged.
But Meetuck was as good-humoured an Esquimau as ever speared a walrus or
lanced a Polar bear. He joined in the laugh, and cut a caper or two to
show that he entered into the spi