Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/315

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296
LIFE WITH THE ESQUIMAUX.

The reader may observe that the capital letters here and there appended to the descriptions in the list refer to spots of ground indicated by those letters respectively in Plan No. 1 of the Chart Sheet. The form and general appearance of each of the twenty articles are exhibited in the preceding engraving, taken from a photograph. Of course they are reduced in size.

On the 18th, after coasting by Tikkoon, visiting the bluff Ne-pou-e-tie Sup-bing, crossing the Countess of Warwick's Sound, and entering Victoria Bay, I landed at Ekkelezhun, where I had found the heap of coal in the previous fall. Here I again carefully examined the place, and on the next day commenced my return, encamping at night near a bay or inlet—Sabine Bay[1]—on the east side of Sharko. While exploring this inlet, I was led to the discovery of a monument, built within the previous five or six years, on the top of a mountain in the rear of our encampment, and which I learned from the Esquimaux had been erected by an English whaling-captain named Brown. From this monument I took numerous compass bearings and sextant angles, and then, returning to the boat, started back for Cape True, where we arrived in the evening. Without delay I proceeded up, along the coast, one mile, and renewed my observations to connect with those made at Brown's Monument, and thus—as far as lay in my power with the instruments I possessed—completed the link of bearings and sextant angles, that now extended all round Frobisher Bay. I now wanted to make another trip to the "south-east extreme"—the Hall's Island of Frobisher. On my mentioning my desire to the natives, all of them, at first, refused to accompany me, owing to their dread of the place; but at length Sharkey, the bold Innuit who was of my company in the late sledge-journey up Frobisher Bay, consented to go, if I would allow his wife to be of the party. Mate Lamb and four of the ship's crew also went with me, as the ship's company were doing nothing, except now and then capturing a walrus and eating it, simply living at Cape True

  1. Named by me after Edward Sabine, of London, England. The entrance to Sabine Bay. is in lat. 62° 39′ N. long. 65° 05′ W.