Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/309

 a snow shelter, or in deserted huts, and during this time our thermometers were ranging from 30° to 40° below zero; and when they came on board out of this temperature it never seemed to occur to them to warm themselves, but they first wandered all over the ship, satisfying their curiosity.

A few hours afterward there arrived a family of quite another description,—Myouk and his wife of the ragged coat. They had walked all the way up from Iteplik, the woman carrying her baby on her back all of these hundred and fifty miles. Myouk was evidently at a loss to find an excuse for paying me this visit; but he put a bold front on, and, like Kalutunah, discovered a reason. "I come to show the Nalegaksoak my wife and Daktagee," pointing to the dowdy, dirty creature that owned him for a husband, and the forlorn being that owned him for a father. But when he perceived that I was not likely to pay much for the sight, he timidly remarked, with another significant point, "She made me come," and then started off, doubtless to see what he could steal.

My arrangements were soon concluded with Kalutunah. He was to live over in the hut at Etah, to do such hunting as he could without the aid of his dogs, all of which he loaned to me; but, in any event, my stores were to be his reliance, and I bound myself to supply him with all that he required for the support of himself and his family.

On the following day the hut at Etah was cleared out and put in order, and this interesting family took up their abode there, while Myouk, as eager to place himself under the protection of a man high in favor as if his skin had been white and he knew the meaning of "public office" and lived nearer the equator,