n or bent, without
securing the depredators. These animals were indeed so hungry and
fearless as to take away some of the Esquimaux dogs in a
snow-house near the Hecla's stern, though the men were at the time
within a few yards of them.

From the circumstance of Captain Lyon and myself having
accidentally gone into different huts on our first visits to the
village (for by this name I believe we must venture to dignify the
united abodes of more than sixty human beings), particular
individuals among the Esquimaux had already, in a manner, attached
themselves to each of us. Captain Lyon now informed me that one of
his acquaintance, a remarkably fine and intelligent young man,
named _=Ay~ok~et_, had given him to understand that he had
somewhere or other seen _Kabloona_[*] people like ourselves only a
few months ago. This being the case, there seemed no reason why,
if it were made worth his while, he should not be able to see them
again in the course of next summer. Anxious to profit by this
unexpected mode of communication, I requested Captain Lyon to
endeavour to direct Ayoket's attention to the scheme of conveying
a letter from us to the persons of whom he spoke.

[Footnote: European.]

On the 7th I paid another visit to the huts, where I found
scarcely anybody but women and children, the whole of the men,
with the exception of the two oldest, having gone on a sealing
excursion to the northeastern side of the island. One of the
women, named _Il=igliuk_, a sister of the lad Toolooak, who
favoured us with a song, struck us as having a remarkably soft
voice, an excellent ear, and a great fondness for singing, for
there was scarcely any stopping her when she had once begun. We
had, on their first visit to the ships, remarked this trait in
Iligliuk's disposition, when she was listening for the first time
to the sound of the organ, of which she seemed never to have
enough; and almost every day she now began to display some of that
superiority of understanding for which she was so remarkably
distinguished. A few of the women learned several of our names
to-day, and I believe all thought us Angekoks[*] of a very
superior class, when we repeated to them all round, by the
assistance of our books, the names of all their husbands, obtained
on board the preceding day. On our way back to the ships we saw a
party of them, with their dogs, returning over the hill from the
northeastward; and we afterward met another of eight or ten,