[SECOND VOYAGE
FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A
NORTHWEST PASSAGE.
CONTINUED.]
[CHAPTER X.]
Departure from Winter Island.—Meet with some Esquimaux travelling to the Northward.—Obstruction and Danger from the Ice and Tides.—Discovery of the Barrow River, and its Fall.—Favourable Passage to the Northward.—Arrival off the Strait of the Fury and Hecla.—Progress opposed by a fixed barrier of Ice.—Communicate with the Natives of Igloolik.—Unsuccessful Attempt to get between the Ice and the Land—Land upon the Calthorpe Islands.—The Fury drifted by the Ice between two Islands.—Account of a Journey performed in Sledges up an Inlet to the westward.
The gale, which had for some time been blowing from the northward, veered to the N.W.b.W., and increased in strength on the 1st of July, which soon began to produce the effect of drifting the ice off the land. At six o'clock on the 2d, the report from the hill being favourable, and the wind and weather now also sufficiently so, we moved out of our winter's dock, which was, indeed, in part broken to pieces by the swell that had lately set into the bay. At seven we made sail, with a fresh breeze from W.N.W., and having cleared the rocks at the entrance of the bay, ran quickly to the northward and eastward. The ice in the offing was of the "hummocky" kind, and drifting rapidly about with the tides, leaving us a navigable channel varying in width from two miles to three or four hundred yards.
The closeness of the ice again obliging us to make fast on the 3d, we soon after perceived a party of people with a sledge upon the land-floe. I therefore sent Mr. Bushnan, with some of our men, to meet them and to bring them on board, being desirous of ascertaining whereabout, according to their geography, we now were. We found the party to consist, as we expected, of those who had taken leave of us forty days before on their departure to the northward, and who now readily accompanied our people to the ships; leaving only Togolat's idiot-boy by the sledge, tying him to a dog and the dog to the ice. As soon as they came under the bows, they halted in a line, and, according to their former promise, gave three cheers, which salutation a few of us on the forecastle did not fail to return. As soon as they got on board they expressed extreme joy at seeing us again, repeated each of our names with great earnestness, and were, indeed, much gratified by this unexpected encounter. Ewerat being now mounted on the plank which goes across the gunwales of our ships for conning them conveniently among the ice, explained, in a very clear and pilot-like manner, that the island which we observed to lie off Cape Wilson was that marked by Iligliuk in one of her charts, and there called Awlikteewik, pronounced by Ewerat Ow-l=itt~ee-week. On asking how many days' journey it was still to Amitioke, they all agreed in saying ten; and back to Winter Island oon=o=oktoot (a great many), so that we had good reason to hope we were not far from the former place. I may at once remark, however, that great caution is requisite in judging of the information these people give of the distances from one place to another, as expressed by the number of se=eniks (sleeps) or days' journeys, to which, in other countries, a definite value is affixed. No two Esquimaux will give the same account in this respect, though each is equally desirous of furnishing correct information; for, besides their deficiency as arithmeticians, which renders the enumeration of ten a labour, and of fifteen almost an impossibility to many of them, each individual forms his idea of the distance according to the season of the year, and, consequently, the mode of travelling in which his own journey has been performed. Instances of this kind will be observed in the charts of the Esquimaux, in which they not only differ from each other in this respect, but the same individual differs from himself at different times. It is only, therefore, by a careful comparison of the various accounts, and by making allowances for the different circumstances under which the journeys have been made, that these apparent inconsistencies can be reconciled, and an approximation to the truth obtained.
Many of our officers and men cordially greeted these poor people as old acquaintances they were glad to see again, and they were loaded, as usual, with numerous presents, of which the only danger to be apprehended was lest they should go mad on account of them. The women screamed in a convulsive manner at everything they received, and cried for five minutes together with the excess of their joy; and to the honour of "John Bull" be it recorded, he sent by one of the men as he left the ship a piece of sealskin, as a present to Parree, being the first offering of real gratitude, and without any expectation of return, that I had ever received from any of them. I never saw them express more surprise than on being assured that we had left Winter Island only a single day; a circumstance which might well excite their wonder, considering that they had themselves been above forty in reaching our present station. They had obtained one reindeer, and had now a large seal on their sledge, to which we added a quantity of bread-dust, that seemed acceptable enough to them. As our way lay in the same direction as theirs, I would gladly have taken their whole establishment on board the ships to convey them to Amitioke, but for the uncertain nature of this navigation, which might eventually have put it out of my power to land them at the precise place of their destination. The ice again opening, we were now obliged to dismiss them, after half an hour's visit, when, having run to the Hecla's bows to see Captain Lyon and his people, they returned to their sledge as fast as their loads of presents would allow them.