The Cecil Whig., 1885-12-05

Il
sszs..aszsxzxsa.auuuzuzzz
crackers-'scouse," as our whaling cook |
called it-covered with pork grease, over |
which an ample supply of thick molasses
was poured. This, washed down with |
tea or coffee, made our Esquimaux friends |
give great grunts of thanksgiving in
"Ma nook poo ma-mook poo u ad-lo! ~
good very good y, and no doubt wished
that Thanksgiving came seven days IN
the week. and at least twice day. After
the dinner was over, and for which our |
Esquimaux gave more thanks than for |
any other part of the proceedings, they |
slowly dispersed to their snOw-houses in
the village that was clustered around
ours as a centre, and turning in between
their warm robes of reindeer skins
dreamed away the rest of the day, while
the white men tried to spend the day as
they would in more civilized lands.
The next Thanksgiving, one year later,
we spent on our sledge journey return
ing to Hudson Bay, which we spoke of
as 'home," from the islands in the Are
tic Ocean near the mouth of Back S Great
Fish River. The last Thursday in No
vember found us crossing broad pcnin-
sula passing from one large arm of the
Arctic Sea to another, where the
Bucks River empties, and which we
vtrar al tn That
day We came upon a river some sixty or
seveaty PAGES broad, and it was named
Thanksgiving River to commemorate the
event.
1t was of great deal of Importance to
us to know just which way it flowed, for
should its waters run eastward, all We
would have To do would be to sledge
along its icy covering, and it would take
us by an easy grade to Backs River.
Usually the EsquimauX can tell which
way the current of u frozen river trends
by lying fiat on the ice, and placing the
face close to it, and turning the eyes al
ternately to the right and left, Or up and
down stream, sighting along the level
ice; but although two of the keenest-
sighted of the EsquimAux young men
tried this plan on several parts of Thanks
giving River, they gave it up in despair,
shaking their heads, and informing me
that if the ice was off the river so that
we could see the water flowing it would
be a very sluggish current. The only
way to settle the matter was to dig
| through the ice, some five or six feet
thick, and sink IA pole in the ice well,
first on one side aud then on the other,
| until the force of the current, however
sluggish, would carry it across to the
other side, and determine the direction
of the current.
This cutting an ice well is very inter
est;ng, and is done with two Instruments,
each on the end of long pole. The first
is a chisel, sharpened spike, bay onet,
or any such instrument, with which the
native cuts a hole about foot deep in
the ice, and probably foot and half
wide This chopped ice made 10y the
ice clse is then scooped out by sort
of ladle made of musk-ox horn on the
end of another pole, and this alienation
of cutting and scooping is kept up, dig
ging out from six to twelve inches each
time until the water is reached six or
seven feet below. The farthest ever
saw them dig an ice-well to get to fresh
water was eight feet and half
After we had dug well about foot
and a half in diameter, | put down the
scoop beyond the bottom of the ice on
the western side, and there it remained; :;
then on the eastern side, and it lazily
tloated that way, or in the direction from
which we had been coming. 1t was
great disappointment to us, and IA river
that We could hardly be thankful fol; so
it was abandoned next day.
Our Thanksgiving dinner that day was
nothing but reindeer meat the same
as any other day, for the good and sutfi
cient reason that we had nothing else
For breakfast we had three or four
pounds of broiled reindeer meat, drink
ing the soup afterward. For lunch while
| travelling We had raw frozen reindeer cut
in chunks about half as big as ones
hand, al d then beaten into brashy shreds
with the back of the hatchet. For din
ner, as soon as the snow house was fin
ished we had the same frozt Ii meat, and
a hot diunyr of boiled meat and soup
about an hour after. Now that the in
tensely cold winter weather of the arctic
was coming rapidly toward us, we ate
large quantities of reindeer fat to help
us keep warm, oftcntimes as much in
| quantity as the meat itself. Just abou
this Thanksgiving we were living on re
duced raSiuns. however, for we had bui
little reindeer meat, and could not see
our way clear to Backs Great Fish
River, where We could procure fish OuI
poor dogs. they had even less to bt
thankful for than we, as they were being
fed ONLY about once week