, but the expression was very amiable, and
so was their conduct.

We had to lower a boat to assist them on deck when they came alongside,
for otherwise they would not have been able to get out of their crank
barks without capsizing. The way they manage is as follows:--Two canoes
bring up alongside each other, the man in the outer one passing his
paddle through a thong which stretches across the deck of the inner one,
which it thus steadies till the owner can get out. The inner canoe is
then hauled out of the way, and another pulls up on the outside. The
last canoe is held by the gunwale till the occupant steps out. They all
appeared ready to render each other this assistance. The canoe is
called a "kajack."

The kajacks being hauled on deck, we began our barter. We had to give
old clothes, red and yellow cotton handkerchiefs, biscuits, coffee,
earthenware bowls, needles, and many other little things; for which they
exchanged sealskins, sealskin trousers, caps, slippers, gloves, and
tobacco-bags. These articles were very neatly sewed with sinew thread.
Our negotiations being completed in the most amicable manner, they took
their departure much in the way in which they had arrived.

I afterwards went ashore in the boat, and saw their huts, which were
better, I am ashamed to say, than many I had seen in Ireland. Many of
them were nearly built of the bones of the whale, which had an odd
appearance. There were heaps of filth in front, and troops of
ill-favoured dogs were prowling about them.

I saw some of their women, the elder ones being the most hideous-looking
of the human race I ever beheld. They wore their hair gathered in a
large knot at the top of the head; but in other respects they were
dressed exactly like the men, in sealskin garments. Whatever business
took us there was soon completed; and once more, in company with several
other ships, we commenced our struggle with the ice-monsters of the
deep. Our course was still northerly, as what is called the "middle
ice" fills up the centre of the bay in impenetrable masses; and it is
only by working round it to the north, where it has drifted away from
the coast, that a passage to the west side can be effected.

Soon after sailing, we were frozen into a sheet of bay ice for some
days. It was slight, and in many places could scarcely bear the weight
of a man. Indeed, there were in every direction pools of water, which
for some reason or other did not f