Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/60

 CHAPTER III.

Wednesday morning, the 17th of July, 1861, we were delighted to find that our ship had broken from her eight months' imprisonment during the past night, and now swung to her chains in the tidal waters of Rescue Harbour. But it was only in a pool she was free. Ice still intervened between our anchorage and the main bay, and we could do nothing but wait yet longer with whatever patience we could command. I myself was getting quite impatient. Time was passing on, and no chance yet offered for my going away on one or other of my intended explorations. What could I do? I was, at times, as if crazy; and only a walk on some island, where I could examine and survey, or a visit to my Innuit friends, helped to soothe me. But the reader will feel little interest in all this; I will therefore pass on to some other incidents of my voyage. Ebierbing had been out one day with dogs and sledge where the ice was still firm, when suddenly a seal was noticed ahead. In an instant the dogs were off toward the prey, drawing the sledge after them at a marvellous rate. The seal for a moment acted as if frightened, and kept on the ice a second or two too long, for just as he plunged, "Smile," the noblest-looking, best