in the gloom, while the vessel was left in charge of Mivins and
four men. A strict search was made in all directions, but no traces of
animals could be found; the stores on the island were found undisturbed;
and gradually the dogs ceased their agitated gyrations, and seemed
inclined to resume their slumbers on the ice.

Seeing this, and supposing that they were merely restless, Captain Guy
recalled his men, and not long after every man in the cabin of the
_Dolphin_ was buried in profound slumber.

CHAPTER XV.

_Strangers appear on the scene--The Esquimaux are hospitably entertained
by the sailors--A spirited, traffic--Thieving propensities and summary
justice._

Dumps sat on the top of a hummock, about quarter of a mile from the
ship, with an expression of subdued melancholy on his countenance, and
thinking, evidently, about nothing at all. Poker sat in front of him
gazing earnestly and solemnly right into his eyes with a look that said,
as plain as if he had spoken, "What a tremendously stupid old fellow you
are, to be sure!" Having sat thus for full five minutes, Dumps wagged
his tail. Poker, observing the action, returned the compliment with his
stump. Then Poker sprang up and barked savagely, as much as to say,
"Play, won't you?" but Dumps wouldn't; so Poker endeavoured to relieve
his mind by gambolling violently round him.

We would not have drawn your attention, reader, to the antics of our
canine friends, were it not for the fact that these antics attracted the
notice of a personage who merits particular description. This was no
other than one of the Esquimau inhabitants of the land--a woman, and
_such_ a woman! Most people would have pronounced her a man, for she
wore precisely the same dress--fur jumper and long boots--that was worn
by the men of the _Dolphin_. Her lips were thick and her nose was blunt;
she wore her hair turned up, and twisted into a knot on the top of her
head; her hood was thrown back, and inside of this hood there was a
baby--a small and a very fat baby! It was, so to speak, a conglomerate
of dumplings. Its cheeks were two dumplings, and its arms were four
dumplings--one above each elbow and one below. Its hands, also, were two
smaller dumplings, with ten extremely little dumplings at the end of
them. This baby had a nose, of course, but it was so small that it might
as well have had none; and it had a mouth, too, but that was so
capacious that the half of it would have been mor