Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/248

Rh had not yet come in, Koodloo and I went in search of him with dogs and sledge. When within three cables' distance of where he was still seated beside the seal-hole, having been there since the previous morning, he signified to us not to approach nearer, lest we should frighten the seal, as it had come up and given a puff. We then returned to the igloo and remained for another night. On the morning of March 4th Ebierbing had not returned, and I went once more to look for him, but soon discovered him approaching. He had been two and a half days and two nights at that seal-hole, patiently sitting over it without food or drink! and he had not caught the seal either. On returning to the igloo some soup and other food was given him, and he then expressed a determination to go and try again. On the evening of March 5th I was again at the ship, Ebierbing, his wife, and infant having accompanied me. I left a supply of my pemmican for Koodloo and his family, until Ebierbing should return with the dogs and sledge for them. The last half of the month of March I was chiefly occupied with preparations for the sledge journey which I proposed making up Frobisher Bay, and to which I have before referred. I conclude this chapter with an extract from my diary of January 8th, concerning a subject which was always present with me, and to a consideration of which I gave many thoughtful hours:—

"This I have called on my Innuit friends Ebierbing and Tookoolito. They are going to accompany me to the United States. I take them with the object of having them as interpreters on my still proposed voyage to King William's Land and Boothia Felix. Among the Innuits who spend their lives in the vicinity of the places named, there exists the history of Sir John Franklin's expedition from about the time the Erebus and Terror became beset in the ice, near King William's Land, to its final dispersion, and of all events connected therewith: the history of Sir John Franklin's expedition exists among the Innuits now living on and in