up and licking her face all over, whenever his trace would allow
him; and at night, after Toolemak had fed his own dogs, he frequently
brought to our tent an extra piece of meat, expressly for
_Ann=owtalik_, to whom these poor people seemed to take a mournful
pleasure in now transferring their affection.

Landing close to the head of the inlet on the south shore, we proceeded
with difficulty a couple of miles over land till we came to a river, the
limits of which the warmth of the weather was just rendering
discernible, and which, our guides informed us was to be our fishing
place. It was interesting to observe that, in every case of doubt as to
the situation of a place, the best route, or the most advisable method
of overcoming any difficulty, Toolemak invariably referred to his wife;
and a consultation of some minutes was held by these two before they
would determine on what was to be done, or even return an answer to our
questions respecting it. Pitching our tents upon the banks of the river,
we went upon the ice, which was still quite solid except close to the
shores, and soon made two or three holes for a hook and line, the
thickness of the ice in the middle being from six to seven feet. The
Esquimaux fishhook is generally composed of a piece of ivory, having a
hook of pointed iron, without a barb, let into it. The ivory they
consider useful in attracting the salmon, but they also bait the hook
with a piece of blubber well cleared of its oil by chewing, and securely
tied on with a thread of sinew, so as to cover nearly the whole of the
hook. A small piece of bone, reindeer's horn, or wood, serves as a rod,
and with this they keep the bait constantly in motion up and down, the
bait being from one to three feet below the surface of the ice.
Previous, however, to commencing the fishery, the old lady, who took the
principal part in this employment, muttered some words, to me altogether
incomprehensible, over the hole, to which Toolemak, in a formal manner,
added something about fish and _Kabloonas_; and the whole of this
preparatory ceremony seemed intended to propitiate the spirit to whose
department the salmon particularly belonged. The lady (for it seems she
is a female) did not, however, appear to lend a very favourable ear to
our wants or Toolemak's rhetoric; for, after many hours' patient trial
on this and the following day, only two fish were seen and one caught to
repay our labour.

On the 27th Toolemak and h