Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/227

206 dress upon me, I took 1 extra under-shirt, 1 woollen shirt, 2 pairs extra stockings, 1 pair extra pants, 2 towels, and 2 pairs mittens. My books were Bowditch's Navigator, Burrit's Geography and Atlas of the Heavens, Gillespie's Land Surveying, Nautical Almanac for 1861, a Bible, and 'Daily Food.' My instruments were, 1 telescope, 1 self-registering thermometer, 1 pocket sextant, 2 magnetic compasses, and 1 marine glass. I had also a rifle and ammunition, oil for lamp, and a hand-saw, besides paper, ink, pens, memorandum and journal book. "At 10 we were in readiness—Ebierbing with the loaded sledge and team of dogs (five of his and five of my Greenlanders)—alongside the George Henry. Tookoolito was gaily dressed in new tuktoo skirt, tuktoo pants, jacket, &c. Bidding adieu to our friends on board, we then started, Tookoolito leading the way—tracking for the dogs—for about one mile to the shore, in a north-easterly direction. Thence our course was that which Ugarng had evidently taken the day before. Over hill and mountain, through vale and valley, away we went. Sometimes, when on a descent, our speed was rapid. Now and then we all got on the sledge for a ride. My spirits were high, for this was my first sledge-travelling trip. Ebierbing managed the dogs admirably. Indeed, I should consider him a capital dog-driver. I think I never perspired so profusely as I have this day. Some of the events during our journey have been most amusing. Once we were descending a steep incline, all of the company holding on to the sledge, so as to prevent its too great speed downward, when, one of my feet breaking through the treacherous snow-crust, headlong I went, and, like a hoop, trundled to the bottom of the hill. Tookoolito hastened to my relief, and, seeing a frostbite on my face, she instantly applied her warm hand, the Innuit way, till all was right again. Another steep incline caused the sledge to descend so rapidly that at length