Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/63

44 Approaching a piece of ice on which some of these creatures were basking, he attacked one of them, whereupon all the rest immediately rushed toward the boat, and vigorously set upon him and his crew. For a time it seemed necessary to fly for safety; but all hands resisted the attack, and would have got off very well, but that one of the walrus herd pierced the boat's side with his tusks, and made the invaders retreat to repair damages. Mr. Lamb had to drag his boat upon an ice-floe near by, and stuff in oakum to stop a serious leak thus caused. Finally he succeeded, though with some difficulty, in getting back, and thus ended his encounter with a shoal of walrus. With reference to Frobisher Bay, I may here mention that, in taking a look with my glass from "Flag-staff Hill," adjoining this whaling dépôt, and sweeping around from the southeast extreme of Meta Incognita toward the land I recently visited (the dreaded land), I was astonished to see, just on the horizon, what appeared to be islands stretching nearly across. One of the Innuits (Sharkey) told me that he had been to those islands, and that his people sometimes make a passage across the entrance of the bay by starting on the Kingaite side, and then striking from one island to the other, by way of Too-jar-choo-ar (Resolution Island), until able to make the distance (avoiding the dreaded district) to the place where we then were—Cape True. Years ago reindeer were very numerous on those islands, but at last the moss failed and they all died. Their horns and bones are to be found scattered all over the place. Polar bears are plentiful there.

I was sorry to find several of my Innuit friends at this place very sick from the complaint that was introduced to their race when first brought into contact with civilization, viz. consumption. Sharkey's wife was rapidly declining, Her bleeding at the lungs had left her white as the driven snow, and poor as fleshless bones could be. I will here relate an anecdote, which will serve to show how fond some of the Innuits are of sweets, as well as of fat or blubber.