LIFE WITH THE ESQUIMAUX.
CHAPTER I.
Journey to the Unknown, or "Dreaded Land"—Sylvia Island—Lupton Channel—Jones's Tower—A Butterfly—Cape Daly—Hummocky Ice—Ancient Piles of Stones—Discover a new Channel—Dr. Kane's Channel—Immense number of Seals—Extensive View—Davis's Straits—Resolution Island and high Land to the North—Sudden appearance of a Steam-ship—Mount Warwick—Return Journey—Mode of making Traces and Walrus Lines—Note-book Lost—Its Recovery—Ancient Dwellings of Innuits—Rapid Journey back to the Ship—Dangerous Travelling—Ice breaking up—Safe Arrival on Board—Means of sustaining Life in these Regions.
On Wednesday, the 5th day of June, 1861, a day or two after the departure of the Sekoselar Innuits, I prepared myself for another trip, intending this time to visit what the Innuits term the "Dreaded Land," which comprises all the islands eastward of Bear's Sound and Lupton Channel, between Frobisher Bay and Field Bay. As was necessary, I left on board the ship some instructions how to find me and my companions in case the ice, which was becoming very precarious, should break up, and leave us on some of the islands, unable to get away. My intention was to fall back upon the land should the ice break up, and then, if we had to be sought, it would be necessary to look for us somewhere between Hall's Island and Bear Sound.[1] On the 5th of June, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, in company with Ebierbing and Koodloo, I left Rescue Har-
- ↑ Hall's Island, lat. 62° 88′ N. long. 64° 00′ W. and Bear Sound, lat. 62° 31′ N. long. 64° 50′ W. were so named by Frobisher; the former after Christopher Hall, master of the Gabriel, of the expedition of 1576; the latter after James Bear, master of the Michael, one of the expedition ships of 1577.
