ping off
the scurvy,--as also a daily supply of fresh meat, whether of fish or
flesh; and we very soon got over any objection we might have had to
seal's blubber dressed in Esquimaux fashion.

During calm weather we paid numerous visits to the ship, to bring away
things we might require; and we were able to afford our friends what was
to them an almost inexhaustible supply of wood. Without the aid of our
saws and hatchets they could not cut away the stout timbers and planks;
and as we had removed the bulkheads and lining of the ship, with the
remaining spars, their honesty was not as much tempted as it otherwise
might have been.

Our time did not hang on our hands nearly as heavily as might be
supposed. We in the first place employed ourselves in manufacturing the
skins of the animals we killed into garments of all sorts,--mittens,
hoots, jackets, and caps,--so that we were all of us clothed from head
to foot very much in the fashion of the Esquimaux.

We took some trouble to trim our jackets and caps with fur of different
colours as they do, and the effect produced was very good. We also made
models of sledges and canoes, and of all the articles used by our
friends, which seemed to please them very much, though I confess they
were not more neatly made than theirs, in spite of our superior tools.

When tired of work we used to sit round our lamp at night, and narrate
our past adventures, or invent stories, some of which were very
ingenious and amusing, and were well worth writing down; indeed, I
regret that my space will not allow me to give some which I remember
very well, for I took pains to impress them on my memory, thinking them
worth preserving. If my young friends express any wish to hear them, I
shall be very glad at some future time to write them down for their
amusement.

But the subject which naturally occupied our chief attention was the
means we should take to regain our native land. We could not hope that
any whalers would visit the coast till August at the soonest, and even
then it was not certain that they would come at all. David, who was our
authority on such matters, said that he had known some years when the
ships could not pass the middle ice through Baffin's Bay to Pond's Bay;
and that, consequently, we might have to pass another year in that
place, unless we could escape through our own exertions.

On this the idea was started of building a vessel, and attempting to
reach Newfoundland