Pill R"
His kayak combines symmetry of shape with extreme lightness and strength :
it is formed of seal-skin stretched over a framework made partly of drift pine-
wood and partly of whalebone. His hunting and fishing implements are constructed
of the same material. Every article of his di’ess, his tent, the window
of his hut, the substance which yields him light and warmth in the long Arctic
^vinter, and, in a great measure, his food are products of the sea. Every particle
of wood he uses comes from the same source. We might, therefore, naturally
expect to find him an adept in the management of his canoe; but I was
certainly unprepared for a feat which some of the Exquimaux performed this
morning alongside the ship, where the partial clearing aw^ay of the ice had left
sufficient space for them to mancemTe. I t consisted in turning a complete
somersault sideways, kayak and all ; the occupant of the kayak swaying his
body to and fro laterally, wfith the arms stretched out so as to poise the paddle
in front of the chest, until sufficient momentum was engendered ; and then
capsizing, as it were, on one side and coming up on the other. One poor blear-
eyed old man went through this performance at least a dozen times, receiving
as his recompense that greatest of all luxuries to an Esquimaux, a pound or two
of ship’s biscuit and a little tobacco.
The oomiak, like the kayak, is formed of seal-skin, stretched over a wooden
and whalebone framework, but, instead of being contrived to hold only one
person, is capable of carrying fi*om twelve to twenty. I t varies in length from
25 to 35 feet, and in breadth from 4 to 5 feet, and is invariably rowed by women.
As might be supposed, boats formed of material so readily tom or pierced by ice
or rock must be somewhat liable to accident whilst traversing the Greenland
coasts for several hundi-ed miles, as they constantly do. But the tendei\cy to
leakage is proHded against in a curious and highly characteristic manner,
namely, by constantly keeping at hand several large pieces of seal- or whale-
blubber ; so that, the moment a rent occurs, a proportionally sized lump of this
substance may at once be forced into the aperture. Both owing to its oily nature
and its great elasticity, it is perhaps more admirably adapted than any other
material that could have been hit upon to effect the required object.
Aug. 15.—The ice haring materially diminished in quantity, both in Baal’s
River and the fiords on this side of it, and our supply of coal having been taken
on board, at 8 p .m . yesterday, the ‘ Bulldog’ left the harbour in order to proceed
to sea. She had hardly started, however, when a thick fog rolled down from
the heights and compelled her to drop anchor again at the head of the nearest
fiord. At an early hour this morning she once more got under way, and, taking
the ‘ Nautilus’ in tow until clear of the islands at the entrance of Baal’s River,
commenced her voyage to the southward.
During the day we passed between some extensive fields of ice, and at times
approached close to the coast. But, on arriving abreast of Frederickshaab, it
became manifest that our chance of effecting a passage into the harbour was as
remote as ever. For the fourth time we found the entrance barred against u s ;
and for the foiu’th time the ‘ Bulldog ’ is ploughing her way out to sea, with a
heavy south-westerly gale blowing.
Aug. 16.—The gale abated this morning; and at noon we were steering
towards Julianshaab, a Danish settlement about midway between Frederickshaab
and Cape Farewell,—Cape Desolation bearing south-east, and distant about a
hundred miles.
The surface of the sea was more or less covered by extensive fields of fragmentary
ice in the last stage of decay. Some of these fields were two or three
miles in diameter,—the close aggregation of the pieces being due, in all probability,
to the long rolling swell and calm which have set in since the gale
moderated. My attention was arrested by the continuous crackling sound
audible on aU sides as the ship traversed these ice-fields, and which resembled
the pattering of heavy rain-drops when falling on sheets of metal. Being quita
unable to account for the peculiar chai'acter of the sounds by the mere collision
of such small masses—for they rarely exceeded 6 or 8 inches in thickness,
whilst the greater number were considerably under that size—I procured a
bucketful, and, to my surprise, discovered that they were produced by the ice
being in such a state of decay that a very slight blow sufficed to break it up still
further, and to explode the minute air-chambers in its substance. Some of the
pieces were full of these air-chambers, besides being riddled by tubular carities
exactly resembling the holes bored by Teredo, sometimes open at either end,
sometimes only at one, but never closed at both. The air-chambers, on the
other hand, could be seen distinctly in the substance of the ice as closed carities,
like the little air-bubbles often seen in glass.
I conceive that the rapid disappearance of the pack-ice from the west coast
mi.
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