ed up to
the neck, so that they tumble down when they attempt to run.

The females are tended by the women, and treated with great care, and
the puppies are often fed with meat and water at the same time as the
children. Consequently, when grown up, they always follow women more
willingly than men; and when they are drawing a heavy load, a woman will
entice them on by pretending to eat a piece of meat, and by throwing her
mitten before them on the snow, when, mistaking it for food, they hurry
forward to pick it up.

We afterwards purchased a number, which we found very useful for
hunting, as also for drawing a sledge; though we never managed them as
well as the Esquimaux did.

A drive of a couple of hours carried us back to our house, where we
found our companions well, and ready to accompany our new friends on a
visit to their tents. We employed ourselves during their absence in
thickening the walls of our house, and in getting our boat ready for
hunting seals, in order to lay in a good supply of oil for winter use.

We had no time to lose, for every day the weather was getting colder and
colder, and the days shorter, and we might expect the winter speedily to
set in.

All this time, it must be remembered, there was no want of ice and
icebergs on the sea, and snow on the ground; but still, when the sun
shone, the air was pleasantly warm to our feelings, long accustomed to
constant exposure to sharp winds, which would have chilled the blood of
most of our countrymen accustomed to live at home at ease.

We found our house at night colder than we expected; and we resolved to
catch as many animals as we could with warm skins, to make ourselves
clothing.

The next morning, while the rest of us were engaged about the house, Tom
Stokes, who had gone some way along the beach to watch for any seals
which might appear, came running back, declaring that he had seen a
fierce-looking wild man grinning at him over a hummock of ice, and that
he must be one of the mermen he had read about, but which he did not
before believe to exist. He said that when he first saw him, he was in
the water; that he came out on the ice, and put up his fist, and made
faces at him, and that, though he hove a stone at him, he did not seem
to care.

"I'll see what this merman is," I observed, taking up a gun loaded with
a bullet, and following Tom to the spot.

There, sure enough, was an ugly black-looking monster; but instead of a
merman, i