piece of work from which I henceforth derived as much glory as I ever won from anything I ever did, not excepting fighting in the rebellion and some tall marches on the retreat; and an event was then completed, which recapitulation many times has never once lessened in magnitude or curtailed in importance. My first pussy was now fairly hauled in, and I bore it on my back in triumph, transporting it differently from the others, which I had merely drawn after me, and, depositing it with a shout in the sledge, prepared to return, as my companions, all of whom had brought even more success with them than I did, were awaiting us for the home stretch. Our team being already harnessed by their helping hands, we sprang on, with the seal yet warm in front, and set in at a rapid rate, retracing the course we had gone.

As we drew nigh, we found the whole village emptying itself round us, its last lagging denizens creeping from their burrows. We sprang to our feet and to land as soon as we came in their midst, throwing out the carcasses last slaughtered. All the others, which had been longer dead, were stiffened hard as boards. These former our friends seized, cutting open their jugulars and letting what blood would flow into pans and vessels brought forward to catch it. This, in all instances, their head-man or anticote, as he is called, a kind of patriarchal "medicine-chief," first partook of. Then, without regard

to precedence, all pitched in, having each a share, until the last gurgling drop had ceased to flow, and was formed into a ruby icicle, congealed by the cold or exhausted in supply. The carcasses of these were then ripped open, we offering no objection, and the liver torn out, cut into slices, and while yet warm, was divided among and devoured by them. We left them there and hurried off to the schooner with our splendid load of fresh meat. There we were hailed with acclamations as our day's work was shown, and had the pleasure of unsparing plaudits, enhanced after a brief time by tit-bits of roasted meat, while our companions joined in the feast our enterprise had provided.

We also sent, on that occasion, a couple of seals apiece to each of the other vessels of the squadron, and one captain to whom we had sent a share of the best, ordering us, in return of the compliment, a ration of grog each, we turned in, without being bothered by the natives that night, pleased with ourselves and with every one around, merely reserving a small quantity of jolly reprobation for the runaway Ugag, who was, by the way, injured by none of it. When we told the captain of his fiasco, he swore that he should have no more traffic with the schooner, though Fanny was understood as not lying under the same dire embargo with her liege-lord.

Several times after did our men go out on similar excursions, but not always with the same luck-at

times coming home entirely empty, not having the necessary patience to remain long enough for a catch, when the seal is shy or scarce in the locality. When hard set upon by hunger, a native will remain in the position of watcher for twenty-four hours at a stretch, before getting an opportunity to spear anything, and that without any refreshment whatever. This, I think, surpasses the stoicism and perseverance shown even by Americans, who, as is well known, are the most patient people-excepting Esquimaux-on the habitable globe.

A walrus-hunt is also a very enjoyable employment, the flesh, though not quite so palatable as the seal's, being very good eating, and much resorted to by the natives. I never was on one of these, but I have heard my messmates going over their exploits, and recounting their captures in that line, with high enjoyment. In many instances, when whales are not plentiful, this animal is sought after by whalers, as the blubber enwrapping their flesh gives a very good quality of oil, nearly equal in commercial value to that of the whale. I have seen it stated by some whom I regard as "fictionists," that it is found commonly from twelve to eighteen feet long, and often weighing seven or eight hundred pounds, with ivory tusks several feet in length, and one of the most ferocious animals in existence. I discovered it to be generally less than six feet in length, and in extreme instances to weigh not more than one hundred and

seventy-five pounds. Two tusks, from eighteen to thirty inches in length in a grown specimen, project downward from the upper jaw, and are of great service to the animal in enabling it to climb from the water upon an ice-cake, or upon the surface of a rock, to enjoy a sunning or a siesta. They sleep, usually, however, in the water, having sentries posted to give alarm to the "school" on any appearance suspicions, making sleeping-time the most difficult in which to get upon them. Their ferocity is not of a very appalling sort.

CHAPTER IX.

ARCTIC HOLIDAYS.

As the mind of man, that interior mechanism, that spiritual organization to which his corporeal structure is fit correspondence, is in all its varied phases designed and supported by an Almighty Power, and as religion is simply an embodied claim, more or less recognized, it may be, but still universally extant, following upon these varied phases as far as responsibilities can go, the sequence is that there is no phase or mood of mind, in itself innocuous and apart from the circumstance of evil, but what finds full sanction beneath the wide panoply of devotion. There is a time for casting away stones, preceding the time for gathering them, just as there is a time for disparaging natural truths, and that previous to our collection and appropriation of them. There is a time for joy as well as a time for sorrow-an appropriate one for every condition, as well as for every kind of mortality, and all, whether in equal proportion or not, are admitted a place in the economy of Him who is Love and Wisdom. And all dispositions of mind will seek their meet manifestations as the ultimates to which all things tend.