genuity and perseverance to make amends for our want
of skill and knowledge.

Our first task was to break up the wreck, and to convey it piecemeal to
the bay; and in this work we were ably assisted by the Esquimaux, who
understood that whatever portion we did not require was to be their
perquisite. They also shrewdly suspected that we should leave them, if
we went away, many of the other treasures we had in our possession. I
believe, however, that they really had formed a sincere regard for us,
and were sorry to find that we were about to depart; at the same time
that they consoled themselves, as more civilised people are apt to do
under similar circumstances, with the reflection that we should leave
something behind us.

We first had to carry to our store the remainder of the salted
provisions; which, had they been left a single night on board after the
hatches were removed, the bears would inevitably have got hold of. We
then carried off such part of the deck as we required, with some of the
timbers and planks.

As we could not get at the keel, we were obliged to content ourselves
with the mainmast, to serve as a keel for our new vessel. We laid her
down close to the beach just above high-water mark, with a
carriage-sledge under her, so as to be able to launch her over the ice.
Our intention was to make her a vessel of about sixteen to twenty tons,
which was as large as our materials would allow, and to rig her as a
schooner for the same reason, and because she would thus be more easily
handled.

After much discussion as to the ways and means, we laid down the keel
and set up the stem and stern. We next commenced on the ribs, which
puzzled us much more to shape them, so as to make the sides of the form
we wished, and one side to correspond with the other. However, there is
an old saying, that "Where there's a will there's a way;" and though not
always true, it was so in our case, though we expended six times as much
labour and time as we should have done had there been a good carpenter
among us to superintend our work. We were unwearied in our labours; we
worked all day, and a great part of the night too, for we all felt that
on getting it done in time depended our escape from those icy regions
that year.

I have described our imprisonment as passed more pleasantly than we
could have expected; but yet none of us desired to spend another winter
in the same way, and most of us had some friends or relations