who may think her worth his notice. This barbarous
custom I should suppose prevails among the Esquimaux who visit
Churchill Factory, as they pointed out to me, at the time I saw them, a
weakly looking man, who they said had his wife taken from him by
another of superior strength. They shewed me also how they decided
their quarrels, by each party alternately bending the body in a
horizontal position, and receiving from each other a blow of the fist
on the temple or side of the face.

On the 12th, we left Churchill Factory, and in our track killed plenty
of wild-fowl, and were again tortured with the mosquitoes, till after
the second day's march, when we waded through a low swampy ground,
frequently half-leg deep in water, to some dry ridges of land. The wind
blew again off the ice in the bay, which enabled us to walk without
much annoyance; and in our progress, we often passed large holes, which
the bears had scratched in these ridges to lie in, and which, from the
impression of their paws on the sand, several had recently left. On the
17th, we came to a tent of Indians, who were encamped on the shore, for
the purpose of killing them, in the front of which was the head of one
that they had lately shot, stuck upon some painted sticks, in
expression of some superstitious notions respecting the animal. They
have a great dread of bears, and are very fond of wearing their claws
round their necks, ornamented as a necklace, under the idea that they
shall be preserved from their ferocious attacks. A short time before I
left the Red River Colony, a Saulteaux Indian came to my residence with
a necklace strung with some large claws; and prevailing upon him to
part with it for some tobacco, he addressed it in a very grave speech,
when he took it from his neck, and laid it for me on the table, in
language to the following effect:--"My grandfather! you and I have been
together some time--we must now part. Go to that Chief; and in leaving
me, be not angry, but let me kill buffaloe when I am hungry, and
another bear when I meet with it, and then I will make another necklace
of the claws." I smiled at this address, when, looking at me very
seriously, he said, "If you offend the bear," (I supposed he meant the
spirit of the bear, whose claws he had given me,) "the bears will be
sure to eat you."

On the 18th, some Indians whom we met, told us that they had heard the
great guns of the ship, on her arrival from England, though they had
no