Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/80

Rh gale. Everything was in a wet state, outside and in, except bedding and clothing. A flood of water occupied half of the tupic. It would astonish most people at home to see how comfortably I lived with the Innuits, like one of themselves. While I jotted down notes, or more fully wrote out notes previously made, Suzhi chanted some Innuit tune, and Ebierbing and Tookoolito enjoyed what among civilized white folks would be a "tea-table chat." We lived also, at times, on pemmican and kelp, a sea-weed gathered by the Innuits when the tide is out. These people are not exclusively flesh-eaters, for in the summer-time they occasionally gather and eat a few berries and leaves of stunted wild plants that grow sparsely in these regions. Both summer and winter they collect kelp, and eat it, but only as a sort of luxury, except in cases of great scarcity of food, and then they fall back upon this resource. I have acquired a taste for this sea-weed, and eat it as they do, raw or boiled, in which latter state it is more tender. The stormy weather continued some days, and no work could be done. On Tuesday, August 6th, the wind blew a gale, with rain. On Wednesday we had a little better weather, and I went over to the ship again to see Captain B. I hoped to set out on my trip up Frobisher Bay within a day or two. On Wednesday evening, during ebb tide, the "ghost" of the Rescue drifted out of the harbour into the bay, and went seaward. I thought this was probably the last we should see of her. On the same evening I communicated to Ebierbing and Tookoolito my intended immediate departure, and informed them that I had made arrangements with the captain for their removal nearer the ship, so that Ebierbing might receive some better attention. They were sorrowful at my leaving, but hoped to see me again before many weeks. I then requested Ebierbing to assist me in persuading Koodloo and his nuliana "Jennie" to accompany me, which would just complete my now proposed crew. I soon found that both Ebierbing and Tookoolito were very loth to have