Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 2Parry, William Edward, Sir
History
Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 2
Parry, William Edward, Sir
Arctic regions; Northwest Passage; Parry, William Edward, Sir, 1790-1855
Akk=o=odneak, a single day's journey beyond Toonoonek, two ships
like ours had been driven on shore by the ice, and that the people had
gone away in boats equipped for the purpose, leaving one ship on her
beam ends, and the other upright, in which situation the vessels were
supposed still to remain.[004]
We observed on this occasion as on our first arrival at Igloolik, that
the new Esquimaux were obliged to have recourse to the others to
interpret to them our meaning, which circumstance, as it still appeared
to me, was to be attributed, as before, to our speaking a kind of broken
Esquimaux that habit had rendered familiar to our old acquaintance,
rather than to any essential difference in the true languages of the two
people.
Toolemak having some time before promised to accompany me to the
fishing-place, taking with him his wife, together with his sledge, dogs,
and tent, made his appearance from Ooglit on the 23d, bringing, however,
only the old lady and abundance of meat. Having lent him a tent and two
of our dogs, and hired others to complete his establishment, we set out
together at five A.M. on the 24th, my own party consisting of Mr.
Crozier and a seaman from each ship. Arriving at Khemig towards noon, we
found among the islands that the ice was quite covered with water,
owing, probably, to the radiation of heat from the rocks. The weather
proved, indeed, intensely hot this day, the thermometer in the shade, at
the ships, being as high as 51°, and the land in this neighbourhood
preventing the access of wind from any quarter. The travelling being
good beyond this, we arrived within four or five miles of the head of
Quilliam Creek at ten P.M., where we pitched the tents for the night. In
this day's journey ten dogs had drawn my sledge a distance of forty
statute miles since the morning, the weight on the sledge being about
twelve hundred pounds, and half of the road very indifferent. It is the
custom of the Esquimaux, even when meat is most abundant, to feed these
invaluable animals only once a day, and that in the evening, which they
consider to agree with them better than more frequent meals; we always
observed the same practice with ours, and found that they performed
their journeys the better for it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account