Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/180

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NIKUJAR THE PILOT.
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new-comers, starting from our ship early in the morning. Ugarng's boat and crew took me there. The party consisted of himself, his wife Nikujar and child, Kokerjabin (Kudlago's widow), Sterry, and myself, besides other Esquimaux.

When we were one mile from Look-out Island the sun was lifting his bright face from the sea. The whole ridge of mountains, running south-easterly to "Hall's" Island of Frobisher, was in plain sight, covered with white, and as we approached them, no opening into the harbour where the vessels were supposed to lie could be seen. But Nikujar being a capital pilot, knowing every channel and inlet within

NIKUJAR, THE BOAT-STEERER AND PILOT.

two hundred miles of our anchorage, the steering-oar was given to her; and there, seated upon the logger-head, with her pretty infant in its hood behind her neck, she steered us correctly to the spot.

With a few good strokes of the oars, we soon entered the snug little cove where the Parkers had taken shelter. In a moment or two after passing the steamer we were standing