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Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/199

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180
LIFE WITH THE ESQUIMAUX.

my mind that this relic of Frobisher on Oopungnewing is an anvil."

Another wood model,[1] of great similarity to the above two, was executed on the 15th of October by Annawa.

When Ugarng saw the relic, or "heavy stone," it was "red with rust;" and Artarkparu informed me that it had been carried to Oopungnewing from Kodlunarn many years ago by Innuits on a sledge. Annawa, in
KOO-OU-LE-ARNG'S TOODNOO MODEL OF THE IRON RELIC.
speaking of it, said "it was something that did not grow there," and each one confirmed the others' testimony, though examined apart and at different times. Suzhi also made a rude model of it by chewing some toodnoo and then fashioning it into the shape opposite. Thus everything seemed to confirm me in the belief that the article probably yet to be found on Oopungnewing was an anvil formerly belonging to Frobisher's expedition; hence my desire was great to induce some of the natives to go for it, hoping they might return before the ship sailed. But I found no one who cared to undertake the task.

It was the intention of Captain B—— to leave the country on the 20th October, and the minds of all had been made up accordingly. I was anxious to go, before sailing, to a high point near Bayard Taylor Pass, where I could complete my operations pertaining to the trigonometrical survey I had commenced. With this design I set out on the morning of October 17th for an excursion thither, and I now copy from my diary a portion of the record made on the evening of that day and on subsequent days:—

"10 p.m. Shall I put upon paper my feelings of to-night, or shall I leave them to be imagined after stating the bare facts from which they originate?

  1. This model I sent to the English government with many of the Frobisher relics which I discovered and obtained in the Countess of Warwick's Sound.