CHAPTER V.
SMITH SOUND.
| “Now far he sweeps, where scarce a summer smiles, On Behring’s rocks, or Greenland’s naked isles. Cold on his midnight watch the breezes blow, From wastes that slumber in eternal snow, And waft across the waves’ tumultuous roar The wolf’s long howl from Oonalaska’s shore.” Campbell. |
No sooner were the ships secured and breakfast discussed, than there was a regular rush for the shore. Some went for a scramble over the neighbouring glacier, named by Dr. Kane, “My brother John’s glacier;” some went to collect specimens; others to take various scientific observations; and others to hunt and shoot—this spot having been found wonderfully prolific of game, more especially of reindeer, during Dr. Hayes’s stay. No signs of any inhabitants were visible. This surprised us, as we were fully expecting to meet the natives of the village of Etah, situated only a couple of miles from the anchorage. A visit to the village during the course of the day proved the huts to be standing, but quite deserted. Traces of their having been recently inhabited were manifest, and portions of seal and walrus meat were discovered in caches, as if the migration was only temporary and a return was meditated. No other signs, however, of any living human being were found.
Leaving to others the exploration of the country in the immediate vicinity of the harbour, Captain Nares and myself started, in one of the whale-boats, with four men, for the purpose of visiting Life-boat Cove, where some of the officers and crew of the “Polaris” spent their second winter, 1872-3, and also to search for an iron boat on Littleton Island, said to have been left there by Dr. Hayes in 1860.
Sailing round Sunrise Point, we encountered a fresh northerly wind dead in our teeth, against which, under oars, we made but slow progress, whilst the cold spray flew aft into our faces where it almost froze. After about five hours’ hard pulling Life-boat Cove was reached, and very glad we all were to get on shore and stretch our legs and restore the circulation of our blood.
Immediately on landing we met with traces of the late occupants. These consisted of a large cairn—which, however, had been demolished by others previous to our arrival, probably by the searching expedition sent out in the “Tigress” in 1873—a basket lined with tin, and a trunk, neither of which contained anything of importance; indeed, their contents and the strong odour pervading them convinced us that they were now the property of Eskimos. Strolling on a little further, a boat was seen, which, although somewhat of European shape, appeared to be of Eskimo construction, as it was simply a framework covered with skins; yet it was undoubtedly built under a white man’s superintendence.
Continuing to advance until we reached the western extreme of the spit of land on which we had landed, we conjectured, from the amount of débris by which we were surrounded, although no remains of a house were visible, that we were on the site of the Americans’ winter quarters. Trunks, boxes, stoves, pieces of wood, gun-barrels, and odds and ends of all descriptions lay strewed about over an area of half a square mile—a desolate scene of ruin and misery!