To contemplate the destiny of this little tribe is indeed painful. There is much in this rude people deserving of admiration. Their brave and courageous struggles for a bare subsistence, against what would seem to us the most disheartening obstacles, often being wholly without food for days together and never obtaining it without encountering danger, makes their hold on life very precarious. The sea is their only harvest-field; and, having no boats in which to pursue the game, they have only to await the turning tide or changing season to open cracks, along which they wander, seeking the seal and walrus which come there to breathe. The uncertain fortunes of the hunt often lead them in the winter time to shelter themselves in rude hovels of snow; and, in summer, the migrating water-fowl come to substitute the seal and walrus, which, when the ice-fields have floated off, they can rarely catch.
From the information which I obtained through Hans and Kalutunah, I estimated the tribe to number about one hundred souls,—a very considerable diminution since Dr. Kane left them, in 1855. Hans made for me a rude map of the coast from Cape York to Smith Sound, and set down upon it all of the villages, if by such name the inhabited places may be called. These places are always close by the margin of the sea. They rarely consist of more than one hut, and the largest village of but three. Of the nature of these habitations the reader will have already gathered sufficient from my description of Kalutunah's den at Etah.
SCIENTIFIC COLLECTIONS.
Awaiting the thawing out of the schooner, I could only employ my time in the immediate vicinity of Port Foulke with such work as I found practicable. The pendulum experiments of the previous autumn were repeated, and several full sets of observations were made for the determination of the magnetic force. The survey of the harbor and the bay was completed; the terraces were leveled and plotted; and the angles on "My Brother John's Glacier" were renewed. In all of these labors I found an intelligent and painstaking assistant in Mr. Radcliffe. This gentleman also labored assiduously with the photographic apparatus; and, through his patient coöperation, I was finally enabled to secure a large number of reasonably good pictures. Some valuable collections of natural history were also made, and in this department I had much useful assistance from Mr. Knorr and Mr. Starr. The ice in the harbor offered them a fine opportunity as the cracks opened, and their labors were rewarded with one of the finest collections of marine invertebrata that has been made from Arctic waters.[13] My journey to the glacier occupied me a week. We pitched our tent near Alida Lake, and went systematically to work to measure and photograph our old acquaintance of the last autumn.
[13] I am indebted to Dr. William Stimpson for a careful examination and comparison of this collection, the results of which were published by him in the "Proceedings" of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, for May, 1863. The collection contains little that is wholly new; but, as Dr. Stimpson has remarked, "They possess great interest from having been found, in great part, in localities much nearer the Pole than any previous expeditions have succeeded in reaching on the American side of the Arctic Circle. They include some species hitherto found only on the European side; and, we may add, the number of species collected by Dr. Hayes is greater than that brought back by any single expedition which has yet visited those seas, as far as can be judged by published accounts." The collection embraces, of Crustacea, 22 species; Annelida, 18 species; Mollusca, 21 species; Echinodermata, 7 species; Acalephæ, 1 specie; and, besides these, a considerable number of Nudibranchiata, Actiniæ, etc., which cannot well be determined from alcoholic specimens.
AN ENLIVENING SCENE.
We arrived at the lake in the midst of a very enlivening scene. The snow had mainly disappeared from the valley, and, although no flowers had yet appeared, the early vegetation was covering the banks with green, and the feeble growths opened their little leaves almost under the very snow, and stood alive and fresh in the frozen turf, looking as glad of the spring as their more ambitious cousins of the warm south. Numerous small herds of reindeer had come down from the mountains to fatten on this newly budding life. Gushing rivulets and fantastic waterfalls mingled their pleasant music with the ceaseless hum of birds, myriads of which sat upon the rocks of the hill-side, or were perched upon the cliffs, or sailed through the air in swarms so thick that they seemed like a dark cloud passing before the sun. These birds were the hitherto mentioned little auk (uria allæ), and are a water-fowl not larger than a quail. The swift flutter of their wings and their constant cry filled the air with a roar like that of a storm advancing among the forest trees. The valley was glowing with the sunlight of the early morning, which streamed in over the glacier, and robed hill, mountain, and plain in brightness.
Hans had pitched his tent at the further end of the lake, and Kalutunah came up with Myouk and Alatak, and joined him. Jensen quickly shot a deer, and Hans brought us some auks; and, before going to work, we drew around a large rock, of which we made a table, and partook of a substantial dinner of Carl's preparation, washing it down with purest water from the glacier, while listening to the music of gurgling streams and the song of birds.
GLACIER MOVEMENT.
The face of the glacier had undergone much change. Blocks of immense size had broken from it, and lay strewn over the valley at its base; while the glacier itself had pressed down the slope, crowding rocks, and snow, and the débris of ice before it in a confused, wave-like heap. The progress toward the sea had been steady and irresistible.