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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 altitude; 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 latitude. 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 Fishing-ships having been Wrecked.-A Journey performed to Cockburn 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 ships, 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 Es. quimaux 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 ships as articles of barter: those of the fœtus 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 after. ward 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 numer. ous, 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 assembled officers and ships' 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 ship to ship without any exposure or labour to the men outside their respective ships, our invaluable dogs having performed it for us with astonishing ease and expe dition. 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 per form, 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 be. tween the ships for seven or eight hours a day

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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 substitute skins as the roofs, retaining, however, the sides and part of the passages 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 shores 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 ships were de nied access; and it was hoped that, at the coming season, some judgment might be formed of the probable state of the ice along that shore 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 sup. ply 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 identity 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 ad vance. Another object which I had in view was to endeavour to find a lake mentioned by Toole. mak; who assured 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

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