me to
understand that they would soon arrive. We returned to the Fort, and
walking by the side of the river we saw numbers of white whales which
frequent it at this season of the year, and many of which are harpooned
from a boat that is employed, and usually carries three or four of the
Company's servants. The harpooner killed one to-day, which measured
fourteen feet long, and eight in girth, and weighed it was supposed a
ton weight. The blubber is boiled at the Fort, and the oil sent to
England as an article of the Company's trade. When the Esquimaux visit
us from the tent, they generally go to the spot where the carcases of
the whales are left to rot after the blubber is taken, and carry away a
part, but generally from the fin or the tail; they have been known,
however, to take the maggots from the putrid carcase, and to boil them
with train oil as a rich repast. They are extremely filthy in their
mode of living. The Esquimaux who was engaged at the Fort as an
interpreter, used to eat the fish raw as he took them out of the net,
and devour the head and entrails of those that were cooked by the
Company's servants. And it is their constant custom, when their noses
bleed by any accident to lick their blood into their mouths and swallow
it.

Though the beaver, which furnishes the staple fur of the country, is
not common in this immediate neighbourhood, an Indian was successful
enough to kill one at a short distance down the river, which he brought
to the Fort. It was roasted for dinner, and proved of excellent
flavour, though I could not agree that the tail, which was served up in
a separate dish, was of that superior taste it is generally considered
to be. The sagacity of this animal has often been described; and I have
frequently been surprised at the singular construction of their houses,
the care with which they lay up their provision of wood, and the mode
in which they dam up the water near their habitations. They cut with
their teeth sticks of a considerable size, and when larger than they
are able to drag, they contrive to fell them on the bank, so that they
may fall and float down the stream to the place where they design to
make the dam; and then entwine them with willow twigs, which they
plaster with mud, so as effectually to obtain a head of water.

We met again on the Sabbath for divine worship on both parts of the
day, as we had done on the previous Sunday. As the Esquimaux did not
make their appearance, w