Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Volume Ii Part 3

_March_ 5th.--The Esquimaux were about this time rather badly off for food, in consequence of the winds having of late been unfavourable for their fishery; but this had only occurred two or three times in the course of the winter, and never so much as to occasion any great distress. It is certain, indeed, that the quant.i.ty of meat which they procured between the 1st of October and the 1st of April was sufficient to furnish about double the population of working people who were moderate eaters, and had any idea of providing for a future day; but to individuals who can demolish four or five pounds at a sitting, and at least ten in the course of a day,[003] and who never bestow a thought on to-morrow, at least with a view to provide for it by economy, there is scarcely any supply which could secure them from occasional scarcity. It is highly probable that the alternate feasting and fasting to which the gluttony and improvidence of these people so constantly subject them, may have occasioned many of the complaints that proved fatal during the winter; and on this account we hardly knew whether to rejoice or not at the general success of their fishery. Certain it is, that on a particular occasion of great plenty, one or two individuals were seen lying in the huts, so distended by the quant.i.ty of meat they had eaten that they were unable to move, and were suffering considerable pain, arising solely from this cause. Indeed, it is difficult to a.s.sign any other probable reason for the lamentable proportion of deaths that took place during our stay at Igloolik, while, during a season of nearly equal severity, and of much greater privation as to food, at Winter Island, not a single death occurred. Notwithstanding their general plenty, there were times in the course of this winter, as well as the last, when our bread-dust was of real service to them, and they were always particularly desirous of obtaining it for their younger children.

They distinguished this kind of food by the name of _k=an~ibr~o~ot_, and biscuit or soft bread by that of _sh=eg~al~ak_, the literal meaning of which terms we never could discover, but supposed them to have some reference to their respective qualities.

Our lengthened acquaintance with the Esquimaux and their language, which a second winter pa.s.sed among them afforded, gave us an opportunity of occasionally explaining to them in some measure in what direction our country lay, and of giving them some idea of its distance, climate, population, and productions. It was with extreme difficulty that these people had imbibed any correct idea of the superiority of rank possessed by some individuals among us; and when at length they came into this idea, they naturally measured our respective importance by the riches they supposed each to possess. The s.h.i.+ps they considered, as a matter of course, to belong to Captain Lyon and myself, and on this account distinguished them by the names of _Lyon-oomiak_ and _Paree-oomiak_; but they believed that the boats and other parts of the furniture were the property of various other individuals among us. They were, therefore, not a little surprised to be seriously a.s.sured that neither the one nor the other belonged to any of us, but to a much richer and more powerful person, to whom we all paid respect and obedience, and at whose command we had come to visit and enrich the _Innuees_. Ewerat, on account of his steadiness and intelligence, as well as the interest with which he listened to anything relating to _Kabloonas_, was particularly fit to receive information of this nature; and a general chart of the Atlantic Ocean, and of the lands on each side, immediately conveyed to his mind an idea of the distance we had come, and the direction in which our home lay. This and similar information was received by Ewerat and his wife with the most eager astonishment and interest, not merely displayed in the "hei-ya!" which const.i.tutes the usual extent of Esquimaux admiration, but evidently enlarging their notion respecting the other parts of the world, and creating in them ideas which could never before have entered their minds. By way of trying their inclinations, I asked them if they would consent to leave their own country, and, taking with them their children, go to live in ours, where they would see no more _Innuees_, and never eat any more seal or walrus. To all this they willingly agreed, and with an earnestness that left no doubt of their sincerity; Togolat adding, in an emphatic manner, "_s.h.a.gloo ooagoot nao_" (we do not tell a falsehood), an expression of peculiar force among them. The eagerness with which they a.s.sented to this proposal made me almost repent my curiosity, and I was glad to get out of the sc.r.a.pe by saying, that the great personage of whom I had spoken would not be pleased at my taking them home without having first obtained his permission. Information of the kind alluded to was subsequently given to many of the other Esquimaux, some of whom could at length p.r.o.nounce the name of "King George" so as to be tolerably intelligible.

The weather was now so pleasant, and the temperature in the sun so comfortable to the feelings when a shelter could be found from the wind, that we set up various games for the people, such as cricket, football, and quoits, which some of them played for many hours during the day.

At the close of the month of March, we were glad to find that its mean temperature, being -19.75, when taken in conjunction with those of January and February, appeared to const.i.tute a mild winter for this lat.i.tude. There were, besides, some other circ.u.mstances, which served to distinguish this winter from any preceding one we had pa.s.sed in the ice.

One of the most remarkable of these was the frequent occurrence of hard, well-defined clouds, a feature we had hitherto considered as almost unknown in the winter sky of the Polar Regions. It is not improbable that these may have, in part, owed their origin to a large extent of sea keeping open to the southeastward throughout the winter, though they not only occurred with the wind from that quarter, but also with the colder weather, usually accompanying northwesterly breezes. About the time of the sun's reappearance, and for a week or two after it, these clouds were not more a subject of admiration to us on account of their novelty, than from the glowing richness of the tints with which they were adorned. It is, indeed, scarcely possible for nature, in any climate, to produce a sky exhibiting greater splendour and richness of colouring than we at times experienced in the course of this spring. The edges of the clouds near the sun often presented a fiery or burning appearance, while the opposite side of the heavens was distinguished by a deep purple about the horizon, gradually softening upward into a warm yet delicate rose-colour of inconceivable beauty. These phenomena have always impressed us the most forcibly about the time of the sun's permanent setting and that of his reappearance, especially the latter, and have invariably furnished a particular subject of conversation to us at those periods; but I do not know whether this is to be attributed so much to the colouring of the sky exactly at the times alluded to, as to our habit of setting on every enjoyment a value proportioned to its scarceness and novelty.

Another peculiarity observed in this winter was the rare occurrence of the Aurora Borealis, and the extraordinary poorness of its display whenever it did make its appearance. It was almost invariably seen to the southward, between an E.S.E. and a W.S.W. bearing, generally low, the stationary patches of it having a tendency to form an irregular arch, and not unfrequently with coruscations shooting towards the zenith. When more diffused it still kept, in general, on the southern side of the zenith; but never exhibited any of those rapid and complicated movements observed in the course of the preceding winter, nor, indeed, any feature that renders it necessary to attempt a particular description. The electrometer was frequently tried, by Mr.

Fisher, at times when the state of the atmosphere appeared the most favourable, but always without any sensible effect being produced on the gold leaf.

The difference in the temperature of the day and night began to be sensible as early as the first week in March, and the daily range of the thermometer increased considerably from that time. The increase in the average temperature of the atmosphere, however, is extremely slow in these regions, long after the sun has attained a considerable meridian alt.i.tude; but this is in some degree compensated by the inconceivable rapidity with which the days seem to lengthen when once the sun has reappeared. There is, indeed, no change which continues to excite so much surprise as that from almost constant darkness to constant day; and this is, of course, the more sudden and striking, in proportion to the height of the lat.i.tude. Even in this comparatively low parallel, the change seemed sufficiently remarkable; for, soon after the middle of March, only ten weeks after the sun's reappearance above the horizon, a bright twilight appeared at midnight in the northern heavens.

CHAPTER XIV.

Various Journeys to the Esquimaux Stations.--Preparations for the Hecla's Return to England.--Remarkable Halos, &c.--Shooting Parties stationed at Arlagnuk.--Journeys to Quilliam Creek.--Arrival of Esquimaux from the Northward.--Account of a Journey to the Westward for the purpose of reaching the Polar Sea.--The Esquimaux report two Fis.h.i.+ng-s.h.i.+ps having been Wrecked.--A Journey performed to c.o.c.kburn Island.--Discovery of Murray Maxwell Inlet.

About the first and second weeks in April, the Esquimaux were in the habit of coming up the inlet, to the southward of the s.h.i.+ps, to kill the _neitiek,_ or small seal, which brings forth its young at this season, and probably retires into sheltered places for that purpose. Besides the old seals, which were taken in the manner before explained, the Esquimaux also caught a great number of young ones, by fastening a hook to the end of a staff, and hooking them up from the sea-hole after the mother had been killed. Our large fishhooks were useful to them for this purpose, and the beautiful silvery skins of these young animals were occasionally brought to the s.h.i.+ps as articles of barter: those of the foetus of the _neitiek_ are more yellow than the others, and, indeed, both in colour and texture, very much resemble raw silk.

The first ducks noticed by the Esquimaux were mentioned to us on the 16th, and a few days afterward immense flocks appeared, all of the king-duck species, about the open water near the margin of the ice; but our distance from this was so great, that we never saw any of them, and the weather was yet too cold to station a shooting-party in that neighbourhood. Dovekies were now also numerous, and a gull or two, of the silvery species, had been seen.

On the 20th, after divine service, I took the opportunity of Captain Lyon and his people being on board the Fury, to communicate to the a.s.sembled officers and s.h.i.+ps' companies my intentions respecting the future movements of the expedition; at the same time requesting Captain Lyon to furnish me with a list of any of the Hecla's men that might volunteer to remain out, as it would be necessary to fill up, or, perhaps, even to increase the complement of the Fury.

Our preparations were therefore immediately commenced, a twelvemonths'

provision and other stores being received by the Fury, and various necessary exchanges made in anchors, cables, and boats; and, in the course of a single fortnight, the whole of these were transported from s.h.i.+p to s.h.i.+p without any exposure or labour to the men outside their respective s.h.i.+ps, our invaluable dogs having performed it for us with astonis.h.i.+ng ease and expedition. It was a curious sight to watch these useful animals walking off with a bower-anchor, a boat, or a topmast, without any difficulty; and it may give some idea of what they are able to perform, to state, that nine dogs of Captain Lyon's dragged sixteen hundred and eleven pounds a distance of seventeen hundred and fifty yards in nine minutes, and that they worked in a similar way between the s.h.i.+ps for seven or eight hours a day. The road was, however, very good at this time, and the dogs the best that could be procured.

The wind settling to the southward for a few days near the end of April, brought an increased, and, to us a comfortable degree of warmth; and it was considered an event of some interest, that the snow which fell on the 29th dissolved as it lay on our decks, being the first time that it had done so this season. We now also ventured to take off some of the hatches for an hour or two in the day, and to admit some fresh air, a luxury which we had not known for six months. The Esquimaux, about this time, began to separate more than before, according to their usual custom in the spring; some of them, and especially our Winter Island acquaintance, setting off to the little islands called Oolglit, and those in our neighbourhood removing to the northeast end of Igloolik, to a peninsula called _Keiyuk-tarruoke_, to which, the open water was somewhat nearer. These people now became so much incommoded by the melting of their snow-huts, that they were obliged to subst.i.tute skins as the roofs, retaining, however, the sides and part of the pa.s.sages of the original habitations. These demi-tents were miserable enough while in this state, some of the snow continually falling in, and the floor being constantly wet by its thawing.

Favourable as the first part of the month of May had appeared with respect to temperature, its close was by no means equally promising, and on the first of June, at two A.M., the thermometer stood at +8. This unusually low temperature, much exceeding in severity anything we had experienced at Melville Island at the same season, rendered it necessary to defer for a time a journey which it was proposed that Captain Lyon should undertake, across the land to the westward at the head of Quilliam Creek, and thence, by means of the ice, along the sh.o.r.es of the Polar Sea, in the direction towards Akkoolee. The object of this journey, like that of most of the others which had been performed in various directions, was to acquire all the information within our reach of those parts of the continental coast to which the s.h.i.+ps were denied access; and it was hoped that, at the coming season, some judgment might be formed of the probable state of the ice along that sh.o.r.e in the summer, by which the future movements of the Fury might be influenced. Captain Lyon was to be accompanied by two men, and a complete supply of every kind for a month's travelling was to be drawn on a sledge by ten excellent dogs, which he had taken great pains to procure and train for such occasions. As I was desirous of ascertaining, beyond any doubt, the ident.i.ty of the _Khemig_, to which I had sailed in the autumn, with that seen by Captain Lyon on his journey with the Esquimaux, I determined to accompany the travellers on my sledge as far as the head of Quilliam Creek, and by victualling them thus far on their journey, enable them to gain a day or two's resources in advance.

Another object which I had in view was to endeavour to find a lake mentioned by Toolemak; who a.s.sured me that, if I could dig holes in the ice, which was five feet thick, plenty of large salmon might be caught with hooks, an experiment which seemed at least well worth the trying.

On the 7th, the weather being more favourable than before, Captain Lyon and myself set out to the westward at half past eleven A.M., and the ice proving level, reached Khemig at half past five; when it was satisfactory to find that the route followed by Captain Lyon on his journey with Toolemak was precisely that which I had supposed, every feature of the land, of which the fog had before scarcely allowed him a glimpse, being now easily recognised, and every difficulty cleared up.

Proceeding at eight A.M. on the 8th, we soon met with numerous tracks of deer upon the ice, which, together with the seals that lay in great numbers near their holes, expedited our journey very considerably, the dogs frequently setting off at full gallop on sniffing one of them.

Landing at the head of Quilliam Creek at half past one, we took up an advantageous position for looking about us, in order to determine on the direction of Captain Lyon's route over land, which all the Esquimaux concurred in representing as a laborious one. We met with several reindeer immediately on our landing; and, while in pursuit of them, Captain Lyon discovered a lake two or three miles long and a quarter of a mile broad, a short distance from the tents, which we concluded to be that of which I was in search. As some of our party were suffering from snow-blindness, and, what is scarcely less painful, severe inflammation of the whole face, occasioned by the heat of the sun, we remained here for the rest of this day to make our final arrangements.

At nine A.M. on: the 9th we struck the tents, and Captain Lyon set off to the southward, while we drove over to the lake, which is one mile N.N.W. of the head of the creek, and, after three or four hours'

labour, completed a hole through the ice, which was very dark-coloured, brittle, and transparent, and, as Toolemak had said, about five feet thick. The water, which was eleven fathoms deep, flowed up within a couple of inches of the surface, over which lay a covering of snow eighteen inches in depth. In confident hope of now obtaining some fish, we proceeded exactly according to Toolemak's instructions; but, after four-and-twenty hours' trial at all depths, not even a single nibble rewarded our labour.

Coasting the south sh.o.r.e, on which I wished to obtain observations and angles for the survey, we the next day entered a small bay, where we pitched our tent; our whole party being now so snow-blind with endeavouring to distinguish the land from the ice (so entirely were both covered with snow), that we could literally no longer muster one eye among three of us to direct the sledge. I found a handkerchief tied close, but not too tightly, round the eyes for a whole night, to be a more effectual remedy for this disagreeable complaint than any application of eyewater; and my companions being induced to try the same experiment, derived equal benefit from it. Reaching Arlagnuk towards evening of the 13th, we found that our parties had each thirty or forty ducks ready for the s.h.i.+ps; and that the Esquimaux had lately altogether deserted this station, owing to the scarcity of walruses, and had removed to Ooglit, where these animals were said to be abundant at this season. Leaving our people on the morning of the 14th, I returned on board soon after noon, where I found that nothing worthy of particular notice had occurred during my absence.

On the 20th three or four other Esquimaux, strangers to us, arrived at Igloolik from the northward, and we found from two young men who visited us on the following day, that they came from _Too-n=o=o-nek_, a place undoubtedly situated somewhere on the western coast of Baffin's Bay, or about some of the inlets communicating with it, as they had there seen several _Kabloona_ s.h.i.+ps employed in killing whales. It is not improbable, from the various accounts of the direction and distance of Toonoonek, communicated by the Esquimaux through the usual medium of their charts, that the part of the seacoast so named lies at no great distance from Pond's Bay, in lat. 72-1/2, which has lately become a common rendezvous of our Davis's Strait fishermen. Of this fact we had, in the course of the winter, received intimation from these people from time to time, and had even some reason to believe that our visit to the Esquimaux of the River Clyde in 1820 was known to them; but what most excited our interest at this time was the sledge brought by the new comers, the runner being composed of large single pieces of wood, one of them painted black over a lead-coloured priming, and the cross-bars consisting of heading-pieces of oak-buts, one flat board with a hinge-mark upon it the upper end of a skid or small boat's davit, and others that had evidently and recently been procured from some s.h.i.+p. On one of the heading-pieces we distinguished the letters _Brea_--, showing that the cask had, according to the custom of the whalers, contained bread on the outward pa.s.sage. The nature of all these materials led us to suppose that it must have been procured from some vessel wrecked or damaged on the coast; and this suspicion was on the following day confirmed by our obtaining information that, at a place called Akk=o=odneak, a single day's journey beyond Toonoonek, two s.h.i.+ps like ours had been driven on sh.o.r.e by the ice, and that the people had gone away in boats equipped for the purpose, leaving one s.h.i.+p on her beam ends, and the other upright, in which situation the vessels were supposed still to remain.[004]

We observed on this occasion as on our first arrival at Igloolik, that the new Esquimaux were obliged to have recourse to the others to interpret to them our meaning, which circ.u.mstance, as it still appeared to me, was to be attributed, as before, to our speaking a kind of broken Esquimaux that habit had rendered familiar to our old acquaintance, rather than to any essential difference in the true languages of the two people.

Toolemak having some time before promised to accompany me to the fis.h.i.+ng-place, taking with him his wife, together with his sledge, dogs, and tent, made his appearance from Ooglit on the 23d, bringing, however, only the old lady and abundance of meat. Having lent him a tent and two of our dogs, and hired others to complete his establishment, we set out together at five A.M. on the 24th, my own party consisting of Mr.

Crozier and a seaman from each s.h.i.+p. Arriving at Khemig towards noon, we found among the islands that the ice was quite covered with water, owing, probably, to the radiation of heat from the rocks. The weather proved, indeed, intensely hot this day, the thermometer in the shade, at the s.h.i.+ps, being as high as 51, and the land in this neighbourhood preventing the access of wind from any quarter. The travelling being good beyond this, we arrived within four or five miles of the head of Quilliam Creek at ten P.M., where we pitched the tents for the night. In this day's journey ten dogs had drawn my sledge a distance of forty statute miles since the morning, the weight on the sledge being about twelve hundred pounds, and half of the road very indifferent. It is the custom of the Esquimaux, even when meat is most abundant, to feed these invaluable animals only once a day, and that in the evening, which they consider to agree with them better than more frequent meals; we always observed the same practice with ours, and found that they performed their journeys the better for it.

On the morning of the 25th, while pa.s.sing close to a point of land, Toolemak suddenly stopped his sledge, and he and his wife walked to the sh.o.r.e, whither I immediately followed them. The old woman, preceding her husband, went up to a circle of stones, of which there were two or three on the spot, and, kneeling down within it, cried most loudly and bitterly for the s.p.a.ce of two or three minutes, while Toolemak also shed abundant tears, but without any loud lamentation. On inquiring presently after, I found that this was the spot on which their tent had been pitched in the summer, and that the bed-place on which the old woman knelt had been that of their adopted son _Noogloo_, whose premature death we had all so much regretted. The grief displayed on this occasion seemed to have much sincerity in it, and there was something extremely touching in this quiet but unaffected tribute of sorrow on the spot, which so forcibly reminded them of the object of their parental affection. I have much gratification in adding, in this place, another circ.u.mstance, which, though trifling in itself, deserves to be noticed as doing honour to these people's hearts. They had always shown particular attachment to a dog they had sold me, and which bore the same name as a young man, a son of their own, whom they had formerly lost. In the course of this journey, the old woman would constantly call the dog "Eerninga" (son), which the affectionate animal never failed to repay by jumping up and licking her face all over, whenever his trace would allow him; and at night, after Toolemak had fed his own dogs, he frequently brought to our tent an extra piece of meat, expressly for _Ann=owtalik_, to whom these poor people seemed to take a mournful pleasure in now transferring their affection.

Landing close to the head of the inlet on the south sh.o.r.e, we proceeded with difficulty a couple of miles over land till we came to a river, the limits of which the warmth of the weather was just rendering discernible, and which, our guides informed us was to be our fis.h.i.+ng place. It was interesting to observe that, in every case of doubt as to the situation of a place, the best route, or the most advisable method of overcoming any difficulty, Toolemak invariably referred to his wife; and a consultation of some minutes was held by these two before they would determine on what was to be done, or even return an answer to our questions respecting it. Pitching our tents upon the banks of the river, we went upon the ice, which was still quite solid except close to the sh.o.r.es, and soon made two or three holes for a hook and line, the thickness of the ice in the middle being from six to seven feet. The Esquimaux fishhook is generally composed of a piece of ivory, having a hook of pointed iron, without a barb, let into it. The ivory they consider useful in attracting the salmon, but they also bait the hook with a piece of blubber well cleared of its oil by chewing, and securely tied on with a thread of sinew, so as to cover nearly the whole of the hook. A small piece of bone, reindeer's horn, or wood, serves as a rod, and with this they keep the bait constantly in motion up and down, the bait being from one to three feet below the surface of the ice.

Previous, however, to commencing the fishery, the old lady, who took the princ.i.p.al part in this employment, muttered some words, to me altogether incomprehensible, over the hole, to which Toolemak, in a formal manner, added something about fish and _Kabloonas_; and the whole of this preparatory ceremony seemed intended to propitiate the spirit to whose department the salmon particularly belonged. The lady (for it seems she is a female) did not, however, appear to lend a very favourable ear to our wants or Toolemak's rhetoric; for, after many hours' patient trial on this and the following day, only two fish were seen and one caught to repay our labour.

On the 27th Toolemak and his wife went over to a small shallow lake, on the opposite side of the river, where they caught three or four fish of the salmon kind, but none more than one pound in weight. He then came back to the tent, and made a small spear according to their own fas.h.i.+on; but with this, to his great disappointment, he could not strike a single fish. A sort of _fish-gig_, which we made out of four large hooks lashed back to back at the end of a light staff, succeeded much better, the bait being played in the usual manner to attract the fish, which were then hooked up with great ease and certainty by this instrument. In this manner we soon caught a dozen of the same kind as before; and the rest of our party had in the mean time killed a deer.

Toolemak began now to be extremely impatient to return home, his princ.i.p.al anxiety arising, I believe, from a childish desire to know what I should give him for his trouble; and when, in writing a note to Lieutenant Nias, I enumerated the articles I intended to present to him, he expressed more delight than I had ever before seen escape him. Among these was one of the rifle-guns supplied as presents, together with a sufficient quant.i.ty of ammunition to last him one summer, after which the gun would probably become useless itself for want of cleaning. It was astonis.h.i.+ng to see the readiness with which these people learned to fire at a mark, and the tact they displayed in everything relating to this art. Boys from twelve to sixteen years of age would fire a fowling-piece, for the first time, with perfect steadiness; and the men, with very little practice, would very soon become superior marksmen.[005] As, however, the advantage they could derive from the use of firearms must be of very short duration, and the danger to any careless individuals very considerable, we did not, on any other occasion, consider it prudent to furnish them in this manner.

On the morning of the 28th Toolemak had left us for the s.h.i.+ps, carrying with him our venison to be left there, and having first explained when and where the Esquimaux catch the fish with which he had supplied us the preceding summer; for it now appeared that they were not found in great abundance, or of that magnitude, in the river, but at the mouth of a very small stream about two miles lower down the creek on the same side.

Their method is, to place in the bed of the stream, which is quite narrow, and seldom or never so deep as a man's middle, though running with great force, two or three separate piles of stones, which serve the double purpose of keeping off the force of the stream from themselves, and of narrowing the pa.s.sage through which the fish have to pa.s.s in coming up from the sea to feed; thus giving the people an opportunity of striking them with their spears, and throwing them on the sh.o.r.e without much difficulty.

On the afternoon of the 1st of July we s.h.i.+fted our tents overland, and down the creek as far as the salmon stream. In performing this short journey over bare ground, I was enabled to form some conception of the difficulties likely to be encountered by Captain Lyon and his companions; for, even with our light load, the dogs could scarcely move at times. One of the strongest of eleven fell down in a fit occasioned by over exertion; the poor animal lay on his side, foaming at the mouth for a minute or two, but soon recovered sufficiently to be able to walk; and, being taken out of the sledge, was quite strong again the next day.

We had scarcely arrived at the stream, when Toolemak's account was very satisfactorily confirmed by our finding on the ice near its mouth part of two fine salmon, above two feet in length, that had been thrown up by the force of the torrent, and a similar one was seen in the water. Our provisions being now out, we prepared for returning to the s.h.i.+ps the following day; and I determined in a short time to send out Mr. Crozier with a larger party, well equipped with everything necessary for procuring us both fish and deer. We therefore left our tent, spare ammunition, and various other articles that would be required here, buried under a heap of stones near the stream, and on the morning of the 2d set out for the s.h.i.+ps. The change which one week had made upon the ice it is quite impossible to conceive, the whole surface being now checkered with large and deep pools of water, where not a symptom of thawing had before appeared. This continued the whole way to the s.h.i.+ps, which we reached at eight P.M., finding Captain Lyon and his party returned, after a laborious but unsuccessful endeavour to penetrate overland to the westward. On my arrival at the s.h.i.+ps I found several new Esquimaux on board, who, to the number of twenty, had lately arrived from _Toon=o=onee-r=o=ochiuk_, a place situated to the westward and northward of Igloolik, and somewhere upon the opposite coast of c.o.c.kburn Island. This party confirmed the former account respecting the two s.h.i.+ps that had been forced on sh.o.r.e; and, indeed, as an earnest of its truth, one man named _Adloo_, who was said to have actually seen them in this state, was a day or two afterward met by our people at Arlagnuk, while travelling to the southward, and having on his sledge a great deal of wood of the same kind as that before described.

This information having excited considerable interest, Lieutenant Hoppner, who had taken great pains to ascertain the facts correctly, volunteered his services to accompany some of the Esquimaux, who were said to be going northward very shortly, and to obtain every information on this and other subjects which might be within the scope of such a journey. On the night of the 4th, having heard that a party of the Esquimaux intended setting out the following morning, Lieutenant Hoppner and his people went out to their tents to be in readiness to accompany them. We were surprised to find the next day, that not only Lieutenant Hoppner's intended guide, but the whole of the rest of these people, had altogether left the island, and, as it afterward proved, permanently for the summer. We were now, therefore, for the first time since our arrival here, entirely deserted by the natives, only two or three of whom again visited the s.h.i.+ps during the remainder of our stay. It appears probable, indeed, that these wandering people are in the habit of residing at their various stations only at particular intervals of time, perhaps with the intention of not scaring the walruses and seals too much by a very long residence at one time upon the same spot. What made this appear still more likely was the present state of their winter habitations at Igloolik, which, though offensive enough at about the same time the preceding year, were then wholesome and comfortable in comparison. Besides quant.i.ties of putrid walrus flesh, blubber, and oil, carca.s.ses of dogs, and even of human beings recently deceased, were now to be seen exposed in their neighbourhood. What remained of the corpse of Keim=o=oseuk was of course wholly uncovered; a second, of a child, on which the wolves had feasted, was also lying about; and a third, of a newly-born infant, was discovered in the middle of a small lake by Mr. Richards, who caused them all to be buried under ground.

Our stock of meat for the dogs being nearly expended, and no seahorses having yet been seen near the sh.o.r.e, I sent Mr. Ross with a sledge to Tern Island on the 13th, in expectation of being supplied by the Esquimaux. Mr. Ross returned on the 14th without success, the whole of the natives having left the island after plundering the birds' nests, as they had done the preceding year.

Finding that our valuable dogs must be now wholly dependant on our own exertions in providing meat, a boat from each s.h.i.+p was carried down to the neighbourhood of the open water, and shortly afterward two others, to endeavour to kill walruses for them. This was the more desirable from the probability of the Fury's pa.s.sing her next winter where no natives were resident, and the consequent necessity of laying in our stock for that long and dreary season during the present summer. Our people, therefore, pitched their tents near the old Esquimaux habitations; and thus were four boats constantly employed, whenever the weather would permit, for the three succeeding weeks.

On the 16th Lieutenant Hoppner and his party returned to the s.h.i.+ps, having only been enabled to travel to the south sh.o.r.e of c.o.c.kburn Island, on account of their guides not yet proceeding any farther. Two of the Esquimaux accompanied our travellers back to Igloolik, and, being loaded with various useful presents from the s.h.i.+ps, returned home the following day.

CHAPTER XV.

Extraordinary Disruption of Ice in Quilliam Creek.--Some Appearance of Scurvy among the Seamen and Marines.--Discovery of Gifford River.--Commence cutting the Ice outside the s.h.i.+ps to release them from their Winter-quarters.--Considerations respecting the Return of the Expedition to England.--Unfavourable State of the Ice at the Eastern Entrance of the Strait.--Proceed to the Southward.--s.h.i.+ps beset and drifted up Lyon Inlet.--Decease of Mr. George Fife.--Final Release from the Ice, and Arrival in England.--Remarks upon the practicability of a Northwest Pa.s.sage.

Among the various changes which the warmth of the returning summer was now producing around us, none was more remarkable than that noticed by Captain Lyon in an excursion to Quilliam Creek, and which, in a note received from him by the return of the sledges on the 17th, he thus describes: "Between the two points forming the entrance of the creek, we saw a high wall of ice extending immediately across from land to land, and on arriving at it, found that, by some extraordinary convulsion, the floe had burst upward, and that immense ma.s.ses of ice had been thrown in every direction. Several blocks, eight or nine feet in thickness, and many yards in diameter, were lying on the level solid floe; yet we were for some time at a loss to discover whence they had been ejected, till at length we found a hole or pool, which appeared so small as to be hardly capable of containing the immense fragments near it; yet from this place alone must they have been thrown."

Captain Lyon subsequently added, that "the water, which was found to be quite fresh, was running rapidly to seaward in this opening; and it seemed probable that the vast acc.u.mulation from the streams at the head of the creek, although at about ten miles distance, had burst a pa.s.sage, and thus ejected the ice. The force employed for this purpose may be conceived, when I mention that, of several ma.s.ses of ice, one in particular was above eight feet thick, full forty yards in circ.u.mference, and lay more than five hundred yards from the pool. No traces could be found of the manner in which these bodies had been transported, as not a single small fragment was seen lying about, to warrant the supposition that they had fallen with a shock. Neither were there any marks observable on the smooth uncracked floe to cause a suspicion that they had slidden over it, the general appearance of the floe at this place being the same as at all other parts of the inlet, and bearing no marks of having had any rush of water over it."

The weather was now, at times, extremely sultry, bringing out swarms of moschetoes, that soon became very troublesome, even on board the s.h.i.+ps.