Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/133

112 cost of my time and patience, as I had to pick them up from all parts of the cabin. On discovering that the needles had sprung from his hand, he acted as if smitten by a thunderbolt, throwing needles, magnet, and all helter-skelter away! and still more, he at once declared I was an An-ge-ko! At this time Ugarng was often on board the ship, and one day I was much amused at his vain attempts to pick up some mercury which I had out upon a sheet of white paper. The metal assumed a globular shape, and looked precisely like shot made of tin. Now the mercury thus presented to his view seemed to be quite beyond his comprehension. Generally, an Esquimaux is stoical under all circumstances, no matter how startling they may be, but here was something that completely upset his equanimity. After nearly half an hour's attempt to understand the lively substance before him, and to grasp it, he gave up, and also lost his temper. He burst out in some broken words, like oaths he had heard on board ship, declaring the d—l was in it, and nothing else. A short time after our arrival at this anchorage I had a narrow escape of my life. It was most providential. No other arm but the Almighty's could have shielded me from so imminent danger as that to which I had been exposed. In the afternoon I went down seaward for the purpose of examining some rocks. I had with me my revolver, pencil, and portfolio. The stratification of these rocks was very remarkable, and for several rods I saw a quartz vein running as straight as a line N.N.W. and S.S.E. Its dip was 60°, and in thickness one and a half to two inches. Everywhere around, the fallen ruins of mountains stared me in the face. I was perfectly astonished at the rapidity with which huge rocks had evidently been rent to pieces. I also saw, standing by themselves, square pillars of stone, the strata of which were completely separated, so that I could take them off one by one, as leaves of paper. Some were an inch, half an inch, two inches, and others six inches thick. Anxious to obtain some specimens, I was engaged, with my knife, digging out some quartz and gold-like metal, slightly bedded in a fresh-broken