We found no inhabitants on our arrival, but on the 13th, a whole company of people from Killinek joined us.
Our transactions in the bay of Kangertlualuksoak, from the 7th, are here noticed more in detail.
August 8th. We landed, and went in search of our people, who had spent the night in tents on shore. Okkiksuk accompanied us to the top of a hill, overlooking the bay Ittimnekoktok, where we had anchored the day before. We saw it quite dry, and full of large fragments of rock. Turning towards the land, we discovered some wood at a distance. The weather being calm and warm, the musquitoes were excessively troublesome. The vallies here are overgrown with verdure, and the hills pretty well clothed with moss, and berry-bearing plants; but we could not continue our walk, on account of the musquitoes, which persecuted us unmercifully, and drove us back to our tents. All our men were out, two on that side on which we had landed, and the others having crossed the bay in their kayaks, were employed in hunting reindeer. Jonathan only remained at home. In the afternoon he accompanied us in the small boat, to a hill, situated to the South of our station, at about two miles distant, where we landed, and went up the country, but found nothing much worth notice. We observed, that round the headland near us, the water was very rough, with eddies and whirlpools, occasioned by the rising of the high tides. On returning to our little boat, we found it aground. We therefore gathered some drift-wood, of which there was plenty, and made a good fire, at which we sat down and regaled ourselves with some biscuit and beer. Having pushed the boat into the water, we set out, but owing to the violence of the current had hard work to get to the great boat, and did not arrive till dark. Jonas saluted us from on board, by firing off his piece in token of success, and we found that he had got two, and his companion three reindeer, and a small black bear. The carcases were left at the tents, where part was cooked, and a mess brought to us on board, which proved an agreeable repast after our fatigue. Jonas and his family spent the night on board, the rest of the Esquimaux in their tents on shore.
9th. Jonas having found a good harbour on the other side of the bay, and the current being here very strong, we sailed across and anchored there. The strand was even, and full of smooth rocks, above high water mark. The bottom of the bay is mud, and a slimy substance, covering all the stones and pebbles, left by the tide, makes walking very troublesome.
The land is not high, but pleasant, covered with moss, with many small ponds, and marks of being frequented by reindeer.
10th. We went farther up the bay in the skin-boat, with Jonathan, Uttakiyok, Thukkekina, Paul, David, and Okkiksuk. At a short distance from the place where we had landed yesterday, we came to a fine green terrace, overgrown with low shrubs and bushes, which delighted us much. From hence, a woody valley, extending to the left, seemed to invite us to take that course into the country, but we would not waste our time by examining it. On sailing farther up the bay, and turning round the abovementioned terrace, we came to a small inlet, dry at low water, on the left shore. Its banks were pleasantly covered with low bushes, interspersed with higher trees, and the place seemed to us very suitable for a settlement. From hence we perceived, at a short distance, on the opposite coast, a cape or headland, over which the tops of trees made their appearance. We sailed towards it, and found behind it a tract covered with low wood, chiefly larch and pine: on landing we saw the tracks of rein-deer, which had just left the spot. Jonathan, in an instant, ran like a young man for his gun, and with it into the wood. We followed him for two or three miles, but saw nothing but the track of the deer. The country inland seems in general level, with some low hills, and many ponds; without wood, but overgrown with rein-deer moss. No success attended our huntsman, and in the evening we met again in the boat. Brother Kmoch had kept up with Jonathan, and saw, among the bushes, the same kind of large partridge, or American wild pheasant, which is found about Okkak, but seems only to live in woods. It was a hen, with a covey of young birds, one of which which he caught, examined, and let go again, nor would he take or shoot the hen, out of compassion to the young brood.
Brother Kohlmeister had meanwhile gone farther up the bay, and thought he had discovered the entrance of the river, but no fresh water appearing, we must still have been a great way off its influx into the bay.
We now lighted a fire, boiled coffee, and cooked a dish of reindeer venison. The weather was warm, and the night fine and clear, but frosty. Having brought our travelling-beds with us on shore, ([see page 34]), we crept into them, and spent the night at the fire-side, the Esquimaux lying down anywhere about us. In the morning, the whole country was covered with hoar-frost, and the straw we had lain upon was frozen fast to the ground.