enormous quantity of fat in their huge bodies. This fat is found by physiologists to be highly essential to produce, in the process of respiration, a certain amount of animal heat, so as to keep up the temperature of the body in those climates. On the contrary, in temperate and warm regions, such food as the Esquimaux enjoy would, besides being disgusting, be useless and hurtful; while these people consume enormous quantities of it, and are enabled thus to support the bitterness of an arctic winter, without appearing to suffer more from the extreme cold than do the residents of more genial climes during their winter. In other respects, too, it is curious to observe how these poor people, simple and ignorant as we may think them, manage to live in health, comfort, and plenty, where Europeans, however hardy, and provided beforehand with a home, (their ship,) fitted up with every comfort, with abundant stores of provision and expensive clothing, can hardly manage to exist for two or three years become diseased and emaciated, and think it a great achievement to return home alive.

The Esquimaux seems to make even the cold, that renders every thing not living as hard as iron, subservient to his purpose. In two hours he can build a perfect shelter from the biting blast, with square blocks of snow.

His

house is a dome of solid masonry, of which every part is nicely fitted, and provided with a long winding gallery, open in a direction opposite to that from which the coldest winds blow. From the frozen bodies of fish he can form a sledge, which, being bound together with the sinews of bears and deer, glides securely over the frozen plain. During the winter, sea and land are alike to him; he harnesses his dogs and gallops away over either, and finds his food beneath the ice that covers the deep.

Captain Ross and his men soon returned the visits of the Esquimaux, whose village consisted of twelve snowhuts, which had the appearance of inverted basins. Each hut had the long appendage mentioned before; and opposite the entrance of the principal apartment, which was a circular dome, was a flooring of snow, raised about two feet and a half high, and covered with various skins: this formed the sleeping-place of the family. At one end of this platform sat the mistress of the house, opposite the lamp, which being of moss and oil, gave sufficient flame to supply both light and heat. Over the lamp was the cooking-dish of stone, containing the flesh of deer and of seals, with oil, and there seemed abundance of this provision. All these snow-huts were lighted by a large oval piece of clear ice, fixed about half-way up, on the eastern side of

the roof. Captain Ross found that all these huts were scarcely a day old. What cares the Esquimaux for wood and bricks, and slate, and glass?—he has his ice and snow, with which he forms a perfect shelter in less time than our builders would require to mark out the ground. This party of Esquimaux, and some others besides, frequently visited the ship, and made themselves very useful to our countrymen, by guiding them on their exploring trips, and catching fish. In payment for these services they were well pleased to receive files, needles, and chisels-in short, iron in any shape, of which they fully appreciated the use and value.

One poor native, named Tulluiahu, had lost a leg, and was obliged to be drawn on sledges whenever his company moved from place to place. The ship's carpenter set to work to make him a wooden leg, with which he stumped about with great delight at being once more set upright, and able to walk. In token of gratitude for this service. his wife, Tiriksiu, made Captain Ross a complete female dress, which was a first-rate specimen of Esquimaux tailoring; the skins being most carefully fitted, so that the colors of the fur should match; while there was a fringe below, and a border of white round the hood and armholes. In return, the captain gave her a silk handkerchief

which attracted great admiration. Tiriksiu also gave them some useful geographical information: she, in common with many of the natives, perfectly understood the nature and object of a chart. In fact, Ikmalik, one of the most intelligent among them, had drawn, for the captain's use, a chart of the neighboring coasts; and Tiriksiu, on being shown it, marked, in addition, several islands, the places where food could be obtained, and where they had better sleep on their journey: and in this, as in other instances, it was found that their information was remarkably accurate.

The sun at length began to appear above the horizon; the winter gradually passed away-at least so it would be considered in those regions; and the Esquimaux departed to their summer haunts.

The ice gradually melted around the ship, and the voyagers made every preparation for sailing away. They watched anxiously, day after day, for an opportunity of getting into open sea; but not until September did the Victory once more float in free water. They got under sail; they advanced about three miles through the loose ice; which soon united again, blocked up the channel by which they had hoped to escape, closed round the Victory, and once more were they bound in for another winter,

to be passed in the same manner as the last, but with diminished hopes of success.

In August, 1831, the Victory floated once more, was towed out of harbor by the boats, and this year they sailed four miles, when they were again blocked up by the ice, and a third dreary winter was before them.

As the summer of 1832 drew near, they determined to abandon the ship, and endeavor to reach, in the open boats, some part of the sea where they might fall in with some of the whaling-ships; for by this time the stores they had taken from Fury Beach were becoming exhausted, and it seemed needful to reduce the daily portion of food.

They prepared their sledges, boats, and provisions ; they nailed the English flag to the mast of the poor Victory, and abandoned her to her fate. Captain Ross writes" It was the first vessel I had ever been obliged to abandon, after having served in thirty-six, during a period of forty-two years. It was like parting with an old friend, and I did not pass the point where she ceased to be visible, without stopping to take a sketch of this melancholy desert, rendered more melancholy by the solitary abandoned home of our past years, fixed in immoveable ice, till time should perform on her his usual work."