Page 119

116

We returned to the Brig [on the evening
of Thusday Sept 20th] successful in obtaining
a prudent supply of beef and good feed
for ourselves and dogs. during our absence
Mr. Brooks had cleared the hold and
prepared every thing for raising the ship.
Things seem to be going on well.

On the night of our arrival we were
at once taken to the hut. It was pitchy
dark and the strange Esquimaux whose
name we found to be [Awhatok?] or "seal
bladder float" was striking a fire from
two stones. One a plain peice of angular
milky quartz he held in the right hand
the other apparently an oxide of [unclear]

He struck after the true tinder
box fashion Throwing a scanty supply
of sparks on a tinder composed of the
silky down of the Willow Catkins (S. Lanata)
retained on a lump of dried moss.
In a very short time a blaze of moss
and walrus blubber lit up the hut.

I have never described his hut or Iglöe. It was in a rude elliptical apartment
entirely of stone, only the outside being
lined with sod. At its further end a
rude platform. The [?] also of stone was
lifted about a foot above the entering floor
and the roof although curved was composed
of huge flat stones (3f. x 3f) arrayed
by overlapping, and without any application
of the principle of the arch. The height
of this cave like abode barely permitted
you to sit upright. Its length was 8 feet
its breadth 7., and an expansion of the
tunneled entrance made an appended
length of two feet more.

116

We returned to the Brig [on the evening
of Thusday Sept 20th] successful in obtaining
a [prudent?] supply of beef and good feed
for ourselves and dogs. during our absence
Mr. Brooks had cleared the hold and
prepared every thing for raising the ship.
Things seem to be going on well.

On the night of our arrival we were
at once taken to the hut. It was [pitchy?]
dark and the strange Esquimaux whose
name we found to be [Awhatok?] or "seal
bladder float" was striking a fire from
two stones. One a plain peice of angular
milky quartz he held in the right hand
the other apparently a [?].

He struck after the true tinder
box fashion [?]ing a scanty supply
of sparks on a tinder composed of the
silky down of the willow [catteins?] (S. [?])
retained on a lump of dried moss.
In a very short time a blaze of moss
and walrus blubber lit up the hut.

I have never described his hut or Iglöe. It was in a rude elliptical apartment
entirely of stone, only the outside being
lined with sod. At its further end a
rude platform. The [?] of [?]
lifted about a foot above the entering floor
and the roof although curved was composed
of huge flat stones (3f. x 3f) arrayed
by overlapping, and without any application
of the principle of the arch. The height
of this cave like abode barely permitted
you to sit upright. Its length was 8 feet
its breadth 7., and an expansion of the
tunneled entrance made an appended
length of two feet more.