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es with young were very carefully and conveniently lodged in small square kennels, made of four upright slabs of ice covered with a fifth, and hav. ing a small hole as a door in one of the sides. The canoes were also laid upon two slabs of this kind, like tall tombstones standing erect; and a quantity of spare slabs lying in different places, gave the ground an appearance somewhat resembling that of a statuary's yard. Large stores of walrus' and seals' flesh, principally the former, were deposited under heaps of stones all about the beach, and, as we afterward found, in various other parts of the island, which showed that they had made some provision for the winter, though, with their enormous consumption of food, it proved a very inadequate one.

Leaving the Fury at seven A.M. on the 26th, and being favoured by a fresh easterly breeze, we soon cleared the southwest point of Igloolik; and, having passed the little island of Oogliaghioo, immediately perceived to the W.N.W. of us a group of islands, so exactly answering the description of Coxe's Group, both in character and situation, as to leave no doubt of our being exactly in Captain Lyon's former track. Being still favoured by the wind and by the total absence of fixed ice, we reach. ed the islands at eleven A.M., and, after sailing a mile or two among them, came at once in sight of two bluffs, forming the passage pointed out by Toolemak, and then supposed to be called Khemig. The land to the north, called by the Esquimaux Khi. adlaghioo, was now found to be, as we had before conjectured, the southern shore of Richards's Bay The land on our left or to the southward proved an

island, five miles and a quarter in length, of the same bold and rugged character as the rest of this numerous group, and by far the largest of them all. To prevent the necessity of reverting to this subject, I may at once add, that two or three months after this, on laying before Ewerat our own chart of the whole coast, in order to obtain the Esquimaux names, we discovered that the island just mentioned was called Khemig, by which name Ormond Island was also distinguished; the word expressing, in the Esquimaux language, anything stopping up the mouth of a place or narrowing its entrance, and applied also more familiarly to the cork of a bottle, or a plug of any kind. And thus were reconciled all the apparent inconsistencies respecting this hitherto mysterious and incomprehensible word, which had occasioned us so much perplexity.

At daylight on the 27th we crossed to a small island at the margin of the ice; and leaving the boat there in charge of the coxswain and two of the crew, Mr. Ross and myself, accompanied by the other two, set out across the ice at seven A.M. to gain the main land, with the intention of determining the extent of the inlet by walking up its southern bank. After an hour's good travelling, we landed at eight A.M., and had scarcely done so when we found ourselves at the very entrance, being exactly opposite the place from which Mr. Richards and myself had obtained the first view of the inlet. The patch of ice on which we had been walking, and which was about three miles long, proved the only remains of last year's formation; so forcibly had nature struggled to get

rid of this before the commencement of a fresh winter.

Walking quickly to the westward along this shore, which afforded excellent travelling, we soon perceived that our business was at an end, the inlet terminating a very short distance beyond where I had first traced it, the apparent turn to the northward being only that of a shallow bay.

Having thus completed our object, we set out on our return, and reached the boat at three P.M., after a walk of twenty miles. The weather fortunately remaining extremely mild, no young ice was formed to obstruct our way, and we arrived on board at noon the following day, after an examination peculiarly satisfactory, inasmuch as it proved the non-existence of any water communication with the Polar Sea, however small and unfit for the navigation of ships, to the southward of the Strait of the Fury and Hecla.

I found from Captain Lyon on my return, that, in consequence of some ice coming in near the ships, he had shifted them round the point into the berths where it was my intention to place them during the winter; where they now lay in from eleven to fourteen fathoms, at the distance of three cables' length from the shore.

It was not till the afternoon of the 30th that the whole was completed, and the Fury placed in the best berth for the winter that circumstances would permit. An early release in the spring could here be scarcely expected, nor, indeed, did the nature of the ice about us, independently of situation, allow us to hope for it; but both these unfavourable circumstances had been brought about by a contin

gency which no human power or judgment could have obviated, and at which, therefore, it would have been unreasonable, as well as useless, to repine. We lay here in rather less than five fathoms, on a muddy bottom, at the distance of one cable's length from the eastern shore of the bay.

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The whole length of the canal we had sawed through was four thousand three hundred and forty-three feet; the thickness of the ice, in the level and regular parts, being from twelve to fourteen inches, but in many places, where a separation had occurred, amounting to several feet. I cannot sufficiently do justice to the cheerful alacrity with which the men continued this laborious work during thirteen days, the thermometer being frequently at zero, and once as low as -9° in that interval. It was satisfactory, moreover, to find, that in the performance of this, not a single addi tion had been made to the sick-list of either ship, except by the accident of one man's falling into the canal, who returned to his duty a day or two afterward.

While our people were thus employed, the Esquimaux had continued to make daily visits to the ships, driving down on sledges with their wives and children, and thronging on board in great num. bers, as well to gratify their curiosity, of which they do not, in general, possess much, as to pick up whatever trifles we could afford to bestow upon them. These people were at all times ready to assist in any work that was going on, pulling on the ropes, heaving at the windlass, and sawing the ice, sometimes for an hour together. They al. ways accompanied their exertions by imitating the

sailors in their peculiar manner of “singing out" when hauling, thus, at least, affording the latter constant amusement, if not any very material assistance, during their labour. Among the numerous young people at Igloolik, there were some whose activity on this and other occasions particularly struck us. Of these I shall, at present, only mention two: Nōōgloo, an adopted son of Toolemak, and Kōngōlěk, a brother of " John Bull." These two young men, who were from eighteen to twenty years of age, and stood five feet seven inches in height, displayed peculiar tact in acquiring our method of heaving at the windlass, an exercise at which Kōngōlek became expert after an hour or two's practice. The countenances of both were handsome and prepossessing, and their limbs wellformed and muscular; qualities which, combined with their activity and manliness, rendered them (to speak like a naturalist), perhaps, as fine specimens of the human race as almost any country can produce.

Some of our Winter Island friends had now arrived also, being the party who left us there towards the end of the preceding May, and whom we had afterward overtaken on their journey to the northward. They were certainly all very glad to see us again, and, throwing off the Esquimaux for a time, shook us heartily by the hand, with every demonstration of sincere delight. Ewerat, in his quiet, sensible way, which was always respectable, gave us a circumstantial account of every event of his journey. On his arrival at Owlitteweek, near which island we overtook him, he had buried the greater part of his baggage under heaps of stones,

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