in Copenhagen, a bearskin forty Danish dollars, a blue foxskin four,
and a white one two or three dollars. The doctor also wished, with
an eye to completing his personal education, to visit one of the
Esquimaux huts; it is almost impossible to imagine of what a learned
man who is desirous of knowledge is capable. Happily the opening of
those hovels was too narrow, and the enthusiastic fellow was not able
to crawl in; it was very lucky for him, for there is nothing more
repulsive than that accumulation of things living and dead, seal flesh
or Esquimaux flesh, rotten fish and infectious wearing apparel, which
constitute a Greenland hovel; no window to revive the unbreathable
air, only a hole at the top of the hut, which gives free passage to
the smoke, but does not allow the stench to go out.

Foker gave these details to the doctor, who did not curse his
corpulence the less for that. He wished to judge for himself about
these emanations, _sui generis_.

"I am sure," said he, "one gets used to it in the long run."

_In the long run_ depicts Dr. Clawbonny in a single phrase. During
the ethnographical studies of the worthy doctor, Shandon, according
to his instructions, was occupied in procuring means of transport
to cross the ice. He had to pay 4 pounds for a sledge and six dogs,
and even then he had great difficulty in persuading the natives to
part with them. Shandon wanted also to engage Hans Christian, the
clever dog-driver, who made one of the party of Captain McClintock's
expedition; but, unfortunately, Hans was at that time in Southern
Greenland. Then came the grand question, the topic of the day, was
there in Uppernawik a European waiting for the passage of the
_Forward_? Did the governor know if any foreigner, an Englishman
probably, had settled in those countries? To what epoch could he trace
his last relations with whale or other ships? To these questions the
governor replied that not one single foreigner had landed on that
side of the coast for more than ten months.

Shandon asked for the names of the last whalers seen there; he knew
none of them. He was in despair.

"You must acknowledge, doctor, that all this is quite inconceivable.
Nothing at Cape Farewell, nothing at Disko Island, nothing at
Uppernawik."

"If when we get there you repeat 'Nothing in Melville Bay,' I shall
greet you as the only captain of the _Forward_."

The small boat came back to the brig towards evening, bringing back
the visit