“The man-of-the-woods is wise,” said Oolalik. “If we follow the track we shall soon find out.”
“Yes,” said Aglootook, putting on his most prophetic air. “Go on the track straight as we can go—that is my advice, and we shall be quite sure to come to something.”
Cheenbuk acted on the advice. Having buried the body of the unfortunate sailor in a snow-grave, and taken possession of the carbine and other things, they leaped on the sledge again, and continued to advance along the track, which, though in some places almost obliterated, was easily followed. They had not advanced more than a mile when another mound was discovered, with another seaman below it, whom they buried in the same way, and close to it a third, whose costume being in some parts a little finer, they correctly guessed to be a chief.
At last they came in sight of a large mound, and on uncovering it found a boat with four dead men lying near it. All seemed to have died of starvation, and the reason why some of them had forsaken the boat was obvious, for it was crushed out of shape by ice; the bottom having been cut completely away, so that all the provisions they had to depend on had no doubt been lost.
“This is not the big canoe,” remarked the Indian, while they examined it. “The big one must have been sunk, and they had to try to escape in the little one.”
The party spent a long time in examining the boat, and as there was a good deal of iron about it which might be useful, they resolved to re-visit it on the homeward journey.
Setting off again, they now made straight for the land discovered by Nazinred, which now lay like a dark blue line of hills in the far distance. From the abrupt termination of the land at either extremity of the range it was judged to be a large island.
As the night was clear and the ice level, the party travelled all that night, and arrived at the island about daybreak the following morning.
The shore was rocky and desolate, with high cliffs behind it, so that further progress to the eastward was evidently impossible, unless by passing round the island to the north or south of it.
“I said you would come to something,” said the magician, sententiously, as they drew near to the forbidding coast.