h other as we laboured at the oars. Our only hope was
to fall in with natives. Signs of them were seen everywhere, and we
expected to hear their shouts at every point of land we doubled. The
captain suggested that we should try _shoe-soup_ on Wednesday morning!
He was more than half in earnest, but spoke as if he were jesting.
Pepper cocked his ears as if there was some hope still of work for him
to do in his own line. Jim Crofts pulled off his shoe, and, looking at
it earnestly, wondered if the sole would make a very tough chop. We all
laughed, but I cannot say that the laugh sounded hearty. On the
Thursday I began to feel weak, but the pangs of hunger were not so bad.
Our eyes seemed very large and wolfish. I could not help shuddering
when I thought of the terrible things that men have done when reduced to
this state.

"That evening, as we rounded a point, we saw an Eskimo boy high on a
cliff, with a net in his hand. He did not see us for some time, and we
were so excited that we stopped rowing to watch him in breathless
silence. Thousands of birds were flying round his head among the
cliffs. How often we had tried to kill some of these with sticks and
stones, in vain! The net he held was a round one, with a long handle.
Suddenly he made a dashing sweep with it and caught two of the birds as
they passed! We now saw that a number of dead birds lay at his feet.
In one moment our boat was ashore and we scrambled up the cliffs in
eager haste. The boy fled in terror, but before he was well out of
sight every man was seated on a ledge of rock with a bird at his mouth,
sucking the blood! Hunger like ours despises cookery! It was fortunate
that there were not many birds, else we should have done ourselves harm
by eating too much. I have eaten many a good meal in my life, but never
one so sweet, or for which I was so thankful, as that meal of raw birds,
devoured on the cliffs of Greenland!

"That night we reached the Eskimo village, where we now lie. We find
that it is only two days' journey from this place to the Danish
settlements. There we mean to get on board the first ship that is bound
for Europe--no matter what port she sails for. Meanwhile we rest our
weary limbs in peace, for our dangers are past, and--thanks be to God--
we are saved."

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Reader, my tale is told. A little book cannot be made to contain a long
story, else wo