[26] This cairn, as well as the one built on Point Victory in 1830, was removed by the natives; fortunately they had not visited Point Victory whilst the Franklin cairn and record remained there, otherwise neither cairn nor record would have remained for us to discover.
[27] This channel is now named after the illustrious navigator, Admiral Sir John Franklin.
[28] This will be understood when it is recollected that W. of Simpson's Straits or Victoria Land, a navigable passage to Behring Strait is known to exist along the coast of North America. Franklin himself, with his companion Richardson, surveyed by far the greater portion of that distance. Franklin's and Parry's discoveries overlap each other in longitude, and for the last thirty years or more the discovery of the North-West Passage has been reduced to the discovery of a link uniting the two.
CHAPTER XVII.
Signs of release—Dearth of animal life—Owl is good beef—Beat out of winter quarters—Our game-list—Reach Fury Beach—Escape from Regent's Inlet—In Baffin's Bay—Captain Allen Young's journey—Disco; sad disappointment—Part from our Esquimaux friends—Adieu to Greenland—Arrive home.
SIGNS OF RELEASE.
To-day (2nd July) I took a long and delightful walk, but shot only two ducks; Petersen went in another direction, and got nothing; Christian, after toiling all day in his kayak, returned with only two divers and a duck. Lately he has obtained for us several king and long-tailed ducks (no eider ducks have been seen), two red-throated divers, and two brent geese, and caught an ermine in its summer coat. Yesterday one of the men brought on board a trout weighing 2 lbs.; he saw a glaucous gull and a fox disputing for it; the former seems to have killed and brought it to land.
The water now washes the south side of the Fox Islands, and extends to the south point of Long Island. The month of June has been somewhat warmer than usual, its mean temperature being +35½°.