Studio: international art (5.1895)

A Painter in the Arctic Regions

yards, we saw a speck on the horizon and heard " Why yes, in a way ; they have their own notions

holloaing and shouting. It was Peary, for whom and customs, some of which seem odd to us ; but

we were in search ; for in those regions sound they are very intelligent. There in that painting,

travels an enormous distance. Our party saw him The Ing-?nuk-toe, is one of their homes, a typical

first, so we waited for the others to join us. We igloo; I painted the picture just as you see it, sit-

were then wet through, having been up to our ting in this corner. It wasn't very much space to

knees in snow all the way, and often stepping in work in, about two yards by one. Those girls,

crevasses up to our armpits. As we waited, a sea who are stripped all but a waist-cloth, have just

of mist rolled up ; away below us was the Bay, been sleeping between furs. Is that another girl ?

completely hidden. After a while Peary came up Why, no; that is the son of the old fellow

to us, and we went back to the ship, to be received next to him, who is a medicine-man. If his face

with cheers and great excitement. I went to bed were in repose you would see what a fine type of

at once—it was about four or five p.m.—and slept countenance it is. They look, and are, very kind

until nine the next evening, the 6th of August, and very shrewd. Here, in this Innuit Seamstresses,

Then I got up and went ashore with my sketching are two girls mending clothes in the open air—it is

materials, walked two miles, and painted the sketch late July, so that it is comparatively warm."
which I have entitled A Greenland Valley, getting " Their costume is just like that of the men, is

back to the ship about two p.m., August 7th. As it not?"

you see in it, the valley is full of fresh-water pools " There is not much difference, certainly. The
formed by melted ice and snow. It is carpeted women wear sealskin trousers, and an upper gar-
with moss and grass, and has many ferns and ment also of sealskin, with a hood-shaped pouch
flowers ; myriads of mosquitoes, butterflies, to carry the babies. That strip of bare flesh which
humble-bees, flies, and other insects swarm there, shows at her thigh, is for ventilation. In the dry
That anecdote will give you a better idea of the atmosphere one perspires very freely; in this con-
difficulties that are met there than any merely dition it would be fatal to rest in the open after
general descriptions would." exertion, unless some means of ventilation were
" Are the natives civilised ? " adopted."

•v.

" MELVILLE BAY. A GROUNDED ICEBERG ' BY F. W. STOKES

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