terminate with the claws of the animal; and they were so long that they
came up the thigh under the coat, or "jumper," as the men called it, and
thus served instead of trousers. He also wore fur mittens, with a bag
for the fingers, and a separate little bag for the thumb. The hair on
these garments was long and soft, and worn outside, so that when a man
enveloped himself in them, and put up the hood, which well-nigh
concealed the face, he became very much like a bear or some such
creature standing on its hind legs.

Meetuck was a short, fat, burly little fellow by nature; but when he put
on his winter dress he became such a round, soft, squat, hairy, and
comical-looking creature, that no one could look at him without
laughing, and the shout with which he was received on deck the first
time he made his appearance in his new costume was loud and prolonged.
But Meetuck was as good-humoured an Esquimau as ever speared a walrus or
lanced a Polar bear. He joined in the laugh, and cut a caper or two to
show that he entered into the spirit of the joke.

When the ship was set fast, and the thermometer fell pretty low, the men
found that their ordinary dreadnoughts and pea-jackets, etc., were not a
sufficient protection against the cold, and it occurred to the captain
that his furs might now be turned to good account. Sailors are
proverbially good needle-men of a rough kind. Meetuck showed them how to
set about their work. Each man made his own garments, and in less than a
week they were completed. It is true, the boots perplexed them a little,
and the less ingenious among the men made very rare and curious-looking
foot-gear for themselves; but they succeeded after a fashion, and at
last the whole crew appeared on deck in their new habiliments, as we
have already mentioned, capering among the snow like bears, to their
own entire satisfaction and to the intense delight of Meetuck, who now