"The Esquimaux eat to-day an old sack made of fish-skin, which proved indeed a dry and miserable dish. While they were at this singular meal, they kept repeating, in a low humming tone, 'you was a sack but a little while ago, and now you are food for us.' Towards evening some flakes of ice were discovered driving towards the coast, and on the fourteenth in the morning, the sea was covered with them. But the weather was again very strong, and the Esquimaux could not quit the snow-house, which made them very low spirited and melancholy. Kassigiak suggested, that it would be well to attempt to make good weather, by which he meant to practise his art, as a sorcerer, to make the weather good. "The missionaries opposed it, and told him that his heathenish practices were of no use, but that the weather would become favourable as soon as it should please God. Kassigiak then asked, whether _Jesus_ could make good weather. He was told, that to _Jesus_ was given all power in heaven and earth; upon which he demanded, that he should be applied to. Another time he said, I shall tell my countrymen at Seglek. The missionaries replied. 'Tell them that in the midst of this affliction, we placed our only hope and trust in Jesus Christ our Saviour, who loves all mankind, and has shed his blood to redeem them from eternal misery.' "To-day the Esquimaux began to eat an old, filthy, and worn-out skin, which had served them for a mattress. "On the fifteenth the weather continued extremely boisterous, and the Esquimaux appeared every now and then to sink under disappointment. But they possess one good quality, namely, a power of going to sleep when they please, and, if need be, they will sleep for days and nights together. "In the evening the sky became clear, and their hopes revived. Mark and Joel went out to reconnoitre, and brought word that the ice had acquired a considerable degree of solidity, and might soon be fit for use. The poor dogs had, meanwhile, fasted for nearly four days, but now in the prospect of a speedy release, the missionaries allowed to each a few morsels of food. The temperature of the air having been rather mild, it occasioned a new source of distress, for by the warm exhalations of the inhabitants, the roof of the snow-house got to be in a melting state; which occasioned a continual dropping, and by degrees made every thing soaking wet. The missionaries report, that they considered this the greatest hardship they had to endure, for they had not a dry thread about them, nor a dry place to lie down in.