[verso]
14
are the escalated [?] of the more
northern [Condt?]. At the very bottom of
[Leper?] Bay are seen two perforations one
a cliff fortressed Fiord, and the other
a smiling ravine, both are occupied by
an [?] of the same glacier, and both
are landmarks for Esquimaux settlements.
The fiord points to [Poternevik?], where now
[Kalutanak?] and his hungry southern Corps
have taken up their [greatest?] the other
is the open [?] of Settlement of Etah.
A snow drift riding at an [?] of
4[?] until it mingles with the steep sides of
a mountain is dotted by two dark blemishes
uponts its pure white. Coming nearer you
see that the [?] spots are perforations
entering like the burrow of a wild beast
into the bowels of the snow. Nearer still
you see that above each spot is a second
but smaller, and that a covered roof extends
over each. These are the doors and
windows of the settlement. Two tents and
four families comprise the entire [?]
and except for these vent holes are entirely
bureed in the snow.
[sketch]
When I arrived and had
finished off Mr. Bill, the
[?] of the burrow
swarmed around me.
Nahlegak! Nahlegak!
[Tima?]! was yelled in chorus. Never seemed
people more anxious to propitiate or pleased
with an unexpected visit, but they soon [?]
back again for they were airily clad and
it blew a N. wester. Soon preparations inside
were [?] and Mitek himself
preceded me in crawling on hands and
knees though an extraordinary [?]
thirty paces long.
[recto]
As I emerged from this the salute of Nahlegak!
was repeated, but from a number of [?]
most dispiriting to a red nosed man [sovereign]
who after 80 miles of ferocious exposure was
about to lodge his royal [?] in their
midst. A party of [?] six in number
and [?] of the neighbouring settlement
had been overtaken by the storm. Among
these in the central place of honour, on
the [blank] or dais, I soon found myself
gasping the [amoniacal?] steam of an
atmosphere of 90 degrees, and sharing with
fourteen [?] fellow creatures a [?]
gave 15 feet long by six. All were naked
Legs perched in mid air, legs tined round
throats; trunks on which [?] the sleeping
head rose, curiously from [?].
Such a [?] voluntarily impacted mass of humanity
one rarely sees. Men, women, children,
[beastlings?], with nothing but their native
[?] to cover them, were wedged into one
wonderful exhaling [solid?] more closely than negroes on the middle passage. No hyperbole
can [?] that which in serious earnest
I now give as truth. This platform [measured?]
but seven feet in breadth by six in depth,
the shape being semi eliptical. Upon this
including children and myself were slowed
[?] sleepers.
The [Kolbak?] of each matron soon
[?] with a flame sixteen in [?] long
a [?] quarter of walrus, which laid
frozen upon the floor of the [nelek?] was cut into stacks and
soon the [?] smoked with a
burden of ten or fifteen pounds. Mitek
with a [?] amateur aid from a few
of the sheperd [suplied?] this without
my assistance. I saw enough of the culinary
regime, to [?] it impossible for one to
join in the repaste. Bill brought me
a hand fulls of frozen [?], and soon
EN