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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmte en commen^ant par la pramlAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la derniAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la derniAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE". le symbols y signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre film«s A des taux de reduction diff«rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clich«, il est film« A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite. et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■ippli Oc^ >(./(,a4xj> -^^^io-* -x ^^MV u*<^ AECTIC GEOGEAPHY ADD ETHNOLOGY. ^^ A] Arctic Geography and Ethnology. A SELECTION OF PAPERS ON ARCTIC GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY. REPRINTED, AND PRESENTED TO THE AKCTIC EXPEDITION OF 1875, BY THE PEESIDENT, COUNCIL, AND FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1875. ■^ii LONDON : PRINTED BT WILLIAM CLOWES AND 80NS, STAMFORD (TRBET AKD CRABIMO CROSS. PREFACE. •©»- The President and Council of the Royal Geographical Society suggested that a selection of papers on various branches of science relating to the Arctic Regions, which are rendered inaccesp'Sle through being bound up in 'Transactions' and ' Proceedings ' with other irrelevant matter, should be reprinted for the use of the Arctic Expedition. This suggestion, so far as regards subjects other than geography and ethnology, was adopted by the Admiralty on the recommendation of the Council of the Royal Society, and a collection of papers and extracts from books on zoology, geology and physics, will be reprinted at the public expense for the use of the expedition. The present volume contains a series of papers on Arctic geographical and ethnological subjects, which it was thought might be useful to the oflBcers of the expedition ; and which has been prepared by a Committee appointed by the Council, and at the expense of the Royal Geographical Society. It is a contribution presented to the Arctic Expedition by the Society, in the hope that some use and instruction may be derived from it, and with the warmest and most heartfelt wishes for the success and safe return of the explorers, on the part of the Council and Fellows. The Volume is divided into two sections — on Geography and Ethnology. The first series of papers in the Geographical Section is by Dr. Robert Brown, F.R.O.S., who has twice visited Greenland, and who is one of the highest living authorities on all scientific subjects connected with that region. Dr. Brown, after briefly j?,«=;088 vi rUEFACK. describing the Greenland coust-liiie, gives an account of all tho different attempts that have been made to penotrato into th<^ interior, lie then treats of tlio Greenland glacier system, of the action of sea-ice, of the rise and fall of tlie coast, and of the formation of Ijords, and concludes with some speculations on the northern termination of Greenland, and on debateable points regarding the pliysical structure of the vast icy continent. Dr. Brown's series is followed by three pap(.'rs reprinted from the 'Journal' of the Royal Geographical Society. The lirst, by Baron von Wrangell, is interesting, as being the first proposal to attempt to reach the Pole by the route of Smith Sound. The second is a valuable criticism on the narrative of Dr. Kane's discoveries, by Dr. Rink, the eminent Danish Naturalist, and Director of the Greenland Board of Trade ; and the third is a paper on the Arctic Current around Greenland, by the Danish Admiral Irminger. The concluding series of Papers, in the Geographical Section, is by Admiral Collinson. The full results of that distinguished oflBcer's remarkable Arctic voyage have never been given to the public ; and both the Fellows of the Society and the officers of the Arctic Expedition are to be congratulated in having, on this occasion, elicited so valuable an instalment. Admiral Collinson gives his notes on the state of the ice, and on indications of open water, from the mouth of the Siberian river Kolyma, along the shores of Arctic America, to Bellot Strait. He also furnishes a narrative of all the expeditions that have explored the shores of Arctic America from Point Barrow to the Mackeiizie River, and from the J^Iackenzie to the Back River, including his own voyage, and concludes with some general observations on the ice. The Ethnological Sectioj. commences with two papers on the origin and migrations of the Greenland Eskhno, and on the Arctic Highlanders. Then follows a sketch of the Eskimo grammar, and a series of classified vocabularies taken from the lists of Egede, Kleinschmidt, Janssen, and Admiral Washington. PHEFACK. ▼ii on the on the Eskimo I'om the lington. The compilation of the list of names of places in Greenland has been a difficult task, and it is feared that it fulls short of what might have been prepared if more time could liavc been bestowed upon it. The intention has been to give the name of every place on the coast of Greenland from tho Dannebrog Islands, in latitude 65" 15' n. on the eastern side, round Cape Farewell, to the entrance of Smith Soimd ; with columns for the Eskimo names, their meanings, identifications of ancient Norman sites, Danish names, names and latitudes on the Admiralty Chart, and remarks. The Eskimo meanings have been kindly supplied by Dr. Rink, and the Norman iden- tifications are mainly due to the learning of Mr. Major. Much laborious assistance, in the preparation of this list, has also been given by Commander A. H. Markham, r.n., r.R.o.s., of H.M.S. Alert. A short but interesting paper follows, by Dr. Rink, on the descent of the Eskimo ; and the elaborate memoir by the late Dr. Simpson, r.n., of H.M.S. Plover, on the Western Eskimo, completes this Section. The volume concludes with a report, and a series of questions, which were prepared in 1872, by a Committee of the Council of the Anthropological Institute. CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, Skcretary R.G.S. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Preface PAGR V GEOGRAPHY. I. Os THE Physical Stkt'cture op Gri enlanu. By Dr. Roreijt Brown, f.r.os., &c 1 1. The Greenland Coast-line J The East Coast 2 The West Coast 3 2. The Intebiob of Greenland 4 Ocean and Landorffs Attempt in 1728 . . 6 Dalager's Journey in 1751 7 Kiel sen's Journey in 1830 9 Hayes' Journey in 1860 10 Eae's attempted Journey in 1860 12 Mr. Whymper's Expedition in 1867 12 Visits of Rink and others to the Inland Ice . . 13 Nordenskjokl's and Berggren's Journey in 1870 14 What is the Interior of Greenland ? 22 Are there any mountains in the Interior ? . . 23 What is Greenland ? 25 Can Greenland be crossed ? 26 8. Greenland Glaciers and Sea-ice 27 4. Glacier System op Greenland 29 The Interior Ice-fici 30 The Defluents of this Inland loo-field . . . . 38 The Iceberg 36 The Sub-glacial Stream 38 TheMoraines 45 Life near the Ice-Fjords ,47 h i i ; X TABLE OF CONTENTS. * PAr.R 5. Action of Sea-Ice 48 G. EisE AND Fall op the Greenland Coast .. .. 50 Rise 50 Fall 52 7. Application op the facts regarding Arctic Ice- action AS explanatory op Glaciation and OTHER Ice Remains in Britain 54 8. On the Formation op Fjords 58 Glaciers and Fjords 61 Grinding-powcr of Glaciers 62 Fillins-iip of Fjords 64 The Walls of Fjords 66 Volcanic Theory of the Formation of Fjords . . 67 Ramsay, Dana, Gcikie, and Murphy, on Fjords . . 68 9. The Northern Termination op Greenland .. 70 10, Debateable Points regarding the Physical Structure of Greenland 73 II. On the Best Means of reaching the Pole. By Admiral Baron von Wrangell 75 III. On the Discoveries of Dr. Kane, U.S.A. (1853-55). By Dr. Kink 80 IV. The Arctic Current around Greenland. By Admiral C. Irminger, op the Danish Navy . . 97 V. Notes on the State of the Ice, and on the Indi- cations OF Open Water from Behring Strait TO Bellot Strait, along the Coasts op Arctic America and Siberia, including the Accounts OF Anjou and Wrangell. By Vice-Admiral R . COLLINSON, C.E. Introduction 105 1. Behring Straits 106 Russian Expeditions cast of the River Kolyma 108 Baron Wrangell's Remarks 112 Kotzebue 112 Lutke .. 113 Voyage of the J5/ossom 113 Expeditions in Search of Sir John Franklin , . 114 The Herald 114 The Plover 115 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI PAOF. 48 50 50 52 .. 58 .. 61 .. 62 .. 64 .. 66 .. 67 is.. 68 .. 70 73 75 [di- IT •IC [TS R. , 105 . 106 la 108 .. 112 .. 112 .. 113 .. 113 .. 114 . 114 .. 115 1. Behkinq Stuaits, cohtinufd. PAOB F.nterprine nvA Investigator 116 The DcfduluH and Amphitrite 119 Whymper, 1865-66 120 Whaling Fleet .. 121 Dr. Simpson's Remarks 123 General 01)servat]ons 126 Native Names, Mackenzie Eivcr to Capo Hope 129 Extracts from the Plover's Log, 1852 130 2. A Shout Account of the Explouation of the PoLAK Sea 135 From Point Barrow to the Mackenzie River . , 135 Voyage of Mackenzie, 1789 135 Franklin's Second Voyage, 182:j 26 135 Dease and Simpson, 1837 137 Lientenant Pullcn's Voyage, 1850 138 Vovage of H.M.S. //(ye,s passed out of the mouths of the Siberian rivers, and white bears, which aflFord a lucrative object of chase tc the South Greenlanders. The most northerly point on the coast of Greenland which has ever been sighted, is the mythical land which is said to have been visited by Lambert in 1G70. But this record is so dubious, that \ve may really set down the furthest northern point reached by tho German Expedition on the 15th of April, 1870, viz., Cape Bismarck, or a little beyond, in lat. 77°, as the limit of our knowledge of the eastern shores. South of that parallel the coast-line has . been partially laid down by Scoresby, and by (ho expedition mentioned, until we come to lat. 69° 12', near Knighton Bay, when again the chart fails us. Between the points mentioned the coast is broken by fjords and bays, with numerous off-lying islands. The most exten- sive of these fjords is that of the Kaiser Franz .loseph, a beautiful inlet (with many tributaries), which stretches into the interior for an unknown distance. Scarcely less beautiful are Ardencaple Inlet and the Fligely and Tyrolese Fjords, though neither is equal in extent or grandeur to that named in honour of tho Austrian Emperor. Koldewey's, Clavering's and Shannon islands form the greatest extent of detached land. Petermann's Peak (14,000 feet), and Payer's Peak (7600 feet), are THE WEST COAST OF GREENLAND. 3 the highest points of land in that region. In Greenland, it may be remarked, there are few high elevations. " Greenland's icy monu- tains " are to some extent a hymnal myth ! Scoresby's Sound is an unexplored inlet of perhaps an extent even greater than any of those named. Davy Sound may also prove to be an extensive northern tributary of Scoresby's Sound. South of Knighton Bay, until we come to the White Saddle Island in lat. 65", we may be said to know nothing of the coast. Here and there a cape has been sighted and a name applied to it ; and practically a dotted line might fitly express all the exact know- ledge which we possesa in regard to it. From lat. 65^ to Capo Farewell, the southern termination of the country, the coast has been laid down from the sketches of the old Norsemen, and from the observations of Graah and others, who went in search of the " lost colonies," believed, but erroneously, to have been situated, up to the period of the Middle Ages, on the south-eastern portion of Greenland.* The coast-line is broken by fjords, with very few islands lying off their mouths. 2. West Coast. — Cape Farewell (called by the Greenlanders Kangekyadleh, or the cape running to the westward) is on a small island (Sermilik). From this point up lat. 73° 40' (Tessiussak or Kingatok) the coast has been more or less perfectly surveyed. Of the southern harbours and inlets we indeed possess some excellent charts by the Danish naval surveyors. At all events, no important points in its geography are unknown, and it may be said that, for all geographical purposes, the west coast of Greenland is perfectly well known within the limits of the Danish possessions. Its general character is much the same as the rest of the Greenland continent — not overlaid by ice — and will be described, so far as the nature of this men^oir requires, in a subsequent section (p. 29). Snkker- toppen("the sugar-loaf") and Sanderson's Hope (Kasorsouk) are about the highest points of the coast. North of these limits the unexplored or imperfectly known region commences. The bottom of Melville Bay is, for instance, entirely unknown. Great glaciers, fjords, and islands— one of which is said to constitute that pillar-like land to the entrance of the bay known as the Devil's Thumb — will most likely bo found to be the prevailing character of the coast. The bottom of few, if any, of the inlets north of this are known, and the outer coast-line very imperfectly. How much, or how little, we know of Smith ' Tlio " Oater Bygd " Las now been proved to have been on the west coast. b2 ' : 4 THE INTERIOR OF GREENLAND. Sound the charts and other documents will have so fully explained to the Expedition, that it is manifestly out of the province of the present writer to enter upon this subject. The physical charac- teristics of the country do not, so far as a mere study of the pub- lished sources of information which we possess in regard to it will allow us to judge, differ in any remarkable degree from the region alread)? spoken of. 2. The Interior of Greenland.* The interior of any considerable tract of land has always a mys- terious interest surrounding it, especially when its coasts have long been a familiar object on our maps. Indeed, now-a-days, when the broad features of the world, excepting those of some of the more remote Arctic and Antarctic regions, are tolerably well known, little remains to the geographical explorer but the investigation of the interior of some of the older continental masses of land. Even with his ambition so bounded, th j traveller need not, like a second Alexander, sit down and weep because there are no more worlds to conquer. The geography and resources of scarcely any great mass of land, from Australia to Greenland, with the exception of the long civilised and inhabited European countries, are well known, and some even very near to the great centres of population and enterprise of the world, such as Iceland and Greenland, aie little, if at all known, or even attempted to be explored. Yet the superficial area of Greenland cannot be less than 750,000 square miles — in a word, it is a continent. It is now upwards of 1000 years ' since the banished Iceland Viking, Eed Erik (Thorwards' son), discovered the land to which he applied the somewhat couleur- de-rose name of " Gronland." For upwards of 700 years it was settled on its southern shores, or visited for hunting, fishing, or trading pujposes, by his countrymen from Iceland and Norway. Thirteen bishops were ordained to preside over this frozen diocese, and churches and villages yet remain, in the shape of .massive rude ruins, to attest how strong a hold it had taken on the colonising spirit of Scandinavia. For nearly ^00 years exploring vessels of almost every European maritime n^iVion have passed along its ice-bound shores, either for the purpose of iixploring its northern termination or of tracing the trend of its unknown » Condensed and re-cast, with corrections, fn m * Das Innere von Oninland * (Petermann's ' Geog. Mittheilungen,' 1871). ' This date is not certpin ; some authors give it as a.d. 983. See also Konrad Maurer's ' Island, von seiner ersten Entdeckung bis zum Untergange des Frei- staat8'(1874). V' THE INTERIOR OP GREENLAND. 5 eastern coast. For upwards of 200 years thousands of English, Dutch, Danish, German, Norwegian, American, or French ships have visited it, hunted the whale and the seal in its waters, or every Kiimmer battled with their giant quariy in the more distant seas which wash its shores; and finally, it is now nearly a century and a half ago since the Danish Government first established trading-posts on the western coasts from near Cape Farewell to almost 74° N. latitude, where reside from year to year educated and intelligent Danish officers with the whole resources of the trading monopoly at their disposal. Yet, as far as any definite knowledge of the interior goes, we know almost as little to-day as wo did when Erikr Bauthri returned home again to Sneefjeld- jokelsfjord, boasting of the new country he had discovered.* True, we know that it is covered with an immense glacier expan- sion. But whether this glacier expansion is unbroken from north to south or from east to west we can only reason from analogy, and are not able to speak with the authority and confidence which actual observation gives. Before we hastily vent our indignation in the stereotyped phrase of " it being discreditable to the enterprise of the age " that this should be, let us glance for a moment at the causes of this. Though so near Europe, Greenland is yet in reality far off, communication with it being rare and slow, while once there, there is little to attract the attention of an explorer, who is apt to think his time more profitably and pleasantly spent in more fruitful and hospitable regions. Accordingly, while the mysteries of Afric. are explored at every risk of life and health, and the eucalyptus-thickets of Australia never lack Englishmen and Ger- mans willing to risk a grave among them, and the gorgeous wonders of Amazonian vegetation attract men to wander in a ve-struck admiration amongst it, the icy interior of familiar Greenland lies solitary, mysterious, and unknown. The Danish residents in Greenland are too occupievl with their duties, and, unless under special encouragement from the Government, can scarcely be ex- pected to undertake what has found no attractions for professional geographers and explorers. When I said that it is knoum that the interior i® an ice-waste covered with a huge mer de glace, I ought to have qualified this statement by saying that this is only a matter ' " It was a green land, a fair country, greener than Iceland," loudly in ale- house and market-place proclaimed this lusty, boisterous, roystering drinker of 61 and mead. The fact is, that, in bis own small way, this same bauished son of the banished son of Jadar, the Norwegian jarl, was a " promoter ' of a joint-stock company for coloniKation, and knew as well as anybody within the city of London or elsewhere wb"t was in a name. " For," quoth he, " if the land have a good name, it will cause many to come thither." pr 11 :ll \l 'I ill 6 OCEAN AND LANDORFF'S ATTEMPT IN 1728. of knowledge to those who have devoted attention to the subject, for, to the ordinary geographer and naturalist, the fact does not seem to be generally known. It will, therefore, be useful to give a summary of the different attempts — futile though most of them have been — to penetrate the interior of the frozen land, and to shortl}' sum up what the present state of our knowledge would lead us to deduce regarding the structure and configuration of this inte- resting Arctic Continent. 1. Ocean and Landorff'a Attempt in 1728. — As far as I can learn, this is the first attempt made to penetrate the interior of Greenland, and from the ignorance it displayed of the nature and character of the country to be passed over, we may well suppose that it was planned in a time of supreme unacquaintanco with the existence of the inland ice. Major Ocean ' and Capt, Landorff were respectively the governor and commandant designate of a fort which the Danish Government proposed to establish on the east coast of Greenland. They took with them an armed company, artillery and horses, from Denmark. The horses died on the passage out ; and so a grandly planned expedition failed, owing to its having been projected in utter ignorance of the nature of the country. Finding that it was all but impossible, on account of the great ice-stream wliich is ever poiuing down that coast, to reach the seat of Government, these gallant ofiScers proposed what appears to us now almost too ludi- crous and madcap a scheme to be seriously related : viz., to ride on horseback across the country from the west to the east coast. We must, however, remember that a century and a half ago little or nothing was known about Greenland except by vague tradition or the tales of the Eskimo, repeated by Hans Egede, who had just established his trading mission eight years, and was but imperfectly acquainted with the language of the Eskimo, and more than sus- picious of their veracity. It is also as well to bear in mind that some of the South Greenland fjords support a few cattle and sheep, and, therefore, in some respects, justify the name which Erikr Eauthri applied to the country when he first discovered it. They seem to have attempted it on foot, some will even say on horse- back; but history has preserved us but scanty details of this extraordinary attempt, for all that I can find regarding it is a doleful lament that the route taken was covered with glaciers and chasms. Egede seemed to have been well acquainted with the nature of the inland ice, for, in all the attempts either made by him ' According to my notes of the expedition. Nordenskjcild, however, in his ' liodugorcJse for eu Expedition till (jironlaud, 4r 1870,' srives the name aa " Paars." DALAGEirS JOURNEY IN 1751. 7 or under his direction, we never found him attempting to cross the country, but always to work laboriously round Cape Farewell. Soon after this the expanse of the inland ice over the interior seems to have been well known, for Cranz gives us a lucid description (;f it ; and Otho Fabricius, the celebrated naturalist and philologist, who was in the country about the same period, describes, in his 'Fauna Groenlandica,' published iu Copenhagen in 1780, the interior in these words (page 4) : " Interioribus ob plagam gla- cialem continuam inhabitabilibus." 2. Dalager' 8 Journey in 1751. — The Danish settlement of Fredriks- haab, situated in lat, 60° n., and long. 50° w, of Greenwich, was founded in 1742 by a Danish merchant, Jakob Severin* — the trade of Greenland not being the?i, as it is now, a strict monopoly of the Government. The first traders were Gelmeyden and Lars Dulager, men of much energy and rather celebrated in the simple annals of Greenland. Lars appears to have been the author of a work on Greenland," which 1 have not seen, though there are quotations from it, and from his private letters, both in the works of Cranz and Saabye on Greenland. From the former of these wo derive our information regarding this enterprising attempt to penetrate to the interior of the country. As it was one of thb first, it probably yet stands alone as one of the most interesting and energetic of all the attempts which succeeded it. He informs us that on the 28th ' of August, 1751, he sent the great boat to search for firewood, north of the " Iceblink," * and a day's journey north of Fredrikshaab, while he followed in his hunting-boat. A Greenlander had,-in the preceding month, pursued his game so high in the country that he could see, as he said, the mountains of the ancient " Kabhinaks," or Europeans, who had in the middle ages settled in South Greenland. Induced by this intelligence, he determined to seize the present opportunity of attempting a passage to the east side. On the 2nd of September, accompanied by the Greenlander, the Greenlander's daughter, and three other natives, he set out on his tour from a bay on the south of the " Iceblink." They tied their bag of provisions and their furs to sleep in together, and gave them to the girl to carry. The rest of the party took each a littlo skin kajak or ' Greenland boat on his head, and a musket on his shoulder, and in n ' Severin waa the founder of several other settlements. His name is perpe- tuated in " Jakobsbavn," a settlement on the southern shores of Disco Bay. * ' Giiinlandske rclationer, indeholdendo GrOnlandernes liv og levnet, deres skikke og vodtiigter, samt temi>eramont og superstitioner ; tillige nogle korte reflexioner over uiissionen, sammeuskrivet vcd Fredrikshaab's Colonie i Gron- laiid af Lars Dalager, Kjobmand.' • " Old style," I presume. * A projecting glacier in lat. 62° 30' n. 8 DALAGER'S JOURNEY IN 1751. ^ liiiit I I this manner took up their march. The first half-mile was along a brouk-side, and was level and easy walking ; but they had now a high and rugged rock to cross, and frequently fell down with their boats on their heads. By sunset they had reached a large bay on the other side, fourteen leagues in length, a hard day's pull for an export rower. In former times the Greenlanders could row into this directly from the sea, but, owing to many of the fjords having become filled up by glacier-mud and ice, this cannot be done now. The next day they launched their kajaks, and rowed for 4 miles straight across the bay to the north side. They then left their boats covered with stones and pursued their journey on foot to the north- east. Crossing a ridge of rocks, they came in the evening to firm ice. Early on the morning of the 4th, they set out over it to the nearest mountains of the Iceblink, at about 4 miles distant. '^ The road was as level as the streets of Copenhagen." An hour after sunset, they arrived at the top. The next day they occupied in hunting reindeer, one of which they killed, and the raw flesh of which fell to the Greenlanders ; for, as there was neither grass nor bi-ush to kindle a fire, Dalager was obliged to bo satisfied with a piece of bread and cheese. On the 5th they travelled about 4 miles to the highest rock on the borders of the Iceblink, but were seven hours on the road, as the ice was uneven and full of crevasses, which obliged them to make frequent detours. About 11 o'clock they came to the rock, and, after taking an hour's rest, began to ascend. Towards 4 o'clock they gained the summit, spent with fatigue. Hitherto they had only been travelling over the ground bordering the great interior mer de glace, or over some defluent glaciers ; but now an extensive prospect burst upon their view on all sides, striking them with wonder, particularly when the vast fields of ice were seen stretching across the country in the east coast, bounded in the distance by mountains whose tops were covered with snow like those on which they stood. At first these mountains seemed only 6 or 7 leagues distant, but when they looked towards Godthaab (lat. 64° 10' 36" n., long. 51° 45' 5" w.) and saw the mountains in its vicinity appear equally large though at least 100 miles off, they were obliged to enlarge their estimate. The adventurers remained till evening on the mountain-side, then descending a short way they lay down to rest ; but Dalager tells us that the activity of his thoughts, aided by the cold, drove away sleep. On the morning of the 6th they shot another reindeer close to their resting-place. All scruples had now vanished, and, craving for something warm, Dalager took a draught of its warm blood, which refreshed him much, and joined the Greenlanders in a raw haunch of venison. wmrrmnmawmirt KIELSEN'S JOURNEY IN 1830. » He would fain have gone further, but, on taking the state of the party into consideration, he resolved that it would be prudent to return. Though each had taken two pairs of Eskimo boots with him, they were now nearly b»refooted ; and the girl, having lost her tools, was unable to mend the dilapidated footgear. The mountains they saw were doubtless those of the east coast. The nearest lay n.e. or e,n.e., and are smaller than those on the west, if this may be decided from the smaller quantity of snow on their summits. Dalager thought that, so far as a journey to the east coast across the inland ice was concerned, there was nothing to preclude its possibility in the nature of the ground. The fields of ice were not so dangerous or so full of chasms, or these so deep as was supposed in his day, and is still generally believed in Greenland. Some are hollowed out like a valley, and others so narrow that they could easily be leaped over with the aid of their guns, or, not being long, can be avoided by a short circuit. On the other hand, he points out that there are difficulties almost insuperable in the way. No one could carry provisions sufficient for such a journey, even if they could supply themselves on the other side for the return journey, and the cold is intensely severe. On the 7th they got back to the fjord where they had left their kajaks. Then crossed next morning, and arrived at their tents before nightfall.* 3. Kiehevks Journey in 1830. — 0. B. Kielsen was a whale-fishing assistant at Holstenborg ^ in the Inspectorate of South Greenland, situated at the mouth of a large fjord. On the 1st of March, 1830, Kielsen penetrated in from this fjord with three sledges, and only provided with dogs' food for the first two days, as one is always moderately certain to fall in with reindeer in that section. The 3rd of March brought him to the last inhabited Greenland fishing- station at the bottom of the fjord, and from this he ran as straight as he could into the interior over the land. After having passed the night in a cleft in the rocks, he ran the whole of the next day. The land was for the most part rather level and unvaried, and his course lay over small lakes and streams. The ground also became more deeply covered with snow, which made travel more difficult, and led to a corresponding scarcity of reindeer and fuel. The 5th of March was devoted to reindeer-hunting for selves and dogs, and ' David Cranz'a ' History of Greenland, &c,' (English translation, 1820), vol. i. p. 18 ; and Hans Egede Saabye'a ' BruchstUcke eines Tagebuohea, gehalten in Gronland in 1770 bis 1778 aus dem D'anischen iibersetzt von G. Fries' (Ham- burg, 1817). » According to Inglefield, in lat. 66° 56' 46" N., long. 53" 42' w. Bonde, how- ever, gives it as 66° 56' N., and 53° 42' w. ; while IHrich, of the Danish navy, makes it 66° 66' 16" N., 53° 40' 37" w. i=^ 10 HAYES' JOUFINKY IN 1H(50. two were killed. At the same time from a high point ho could see the inland ice. Tho <)th of March saw thorn up botimes in tho morning, and by midday they camo to a considerable extended plain. Here tho land sloped inwards, and now they saw at their feet tho huge extended muss of tho groat interior ice. They now quickly ran over small hills, lakes, and streams, until they came to a moderately largo lake at tho end of tho inland ice, which was the limit of their journey. After an attempt to climb the ico, Kielscn returned, and had a most troublesome journey. When ho reached the fjord, he found that its frozen surface had broken up, so that ho had to go overland to the colony, which he reached on tho 9th of March, after having gone into tho interior on this journey 80 miles in a straight lino from Holstenborg.* 4. Hayes' Journey in 18G0. — The voyage of Dr. 1. 1. Hayes in the American schooner United States, to Smith Sound, in 1800-61, has been so frequently referred to in tho public journals that its objects and ends must be familiar to most of my readers. One of the minor excursions which ho took, while his vessel lay in winter- quarters, was to the interior of the country, and de- rvos in this place a notice, as not only one of tho most succ ful of these attempts to ponotrato tho inland ice, but as also the u.ont northerly of them. The particular oif-shoot of tho great interior mer de glace (for he was never on the real inland ico, whicli differs considerably from that which ho travelled over) on which he broke ground was that one named by Dr. Kane " My Brother John's Glacier," in Port Poulko, lat. 78° 17' 41" N.,.long. 72^ 30' 57" w. On the advice of his dog-driver, Jensen, ho dispensed with dog-sledges ; though he afterwards regretted this, as he had reason to believe that on some part of the journey they would have been available. Everybody was keen to go, as it was one of their first attempts at exploration after they got into winter-quarters ; but Hayes selected as com- panions Mr. Knorr, John McDonald, Harvey Heywood, Christian Petersen (a Dane), and tha Greenland Eskimo Peter. They set out ou the 22nd of October with one sledge and a small canvas tent, two buffalo-skins for bedding, a cooking-lamp, provisions for eight days, and an extra pair of fur stockings, a tea-cup and an iron spoon for each man. Their first camp was at the foot of the glacier, when the temperature was 11° Fahr. The second day they got to the top of the glacier, with hard work and some trifling accidents, one of which threatened to be rather serious, Dr. Hayes having, owing to ' Rink's ' Gronland Goograph. og Statlstisk beaki-evet,' Band ii. pp. 97-99. IIAYKS' JOURNEY IN 1860. 11 the party not being roped together, fullon through a crevatae; and, 118 none of the party Hoomed to have the Hlightest experience of gliicior travel, the wonder was that more minhaps did not occur. The ice waw ut first rough and broken, and almost free from snow. Ah they penetrated further in, the surface of the glacier became Hinoother, the great inefjuality nearer the edge was probably owing to the inequality of the surface over which it spread itself. After journeying for about 5 miles, they pitched their tent on the ice, and slept soundly, though the tem[)erature was several degrees lower tluin what it was the night before. On the following day they travelled JiO miles, and the ascent, which during the last march had boon an angle of about 6^, diminished to about one- third of that angle of observation ; and from a surface of hard ice they had come upon a plateau of compacted snow, through which no true ice could be got by digging down to the depth of three feet. At that depth, however, the snow assumed a more ^;elid condition, and, thougii not actually ice, they could not penetrate into it further without great difiSculty. The snow was covered with a crust which the foot broke at every step, making the travelling very laborious. About 25 miles were made the following day, the track being much the same character, and at about the same elevation. The tem- per lure had now fallen to 30° below zero (of Fahrenheit), and a fierce gale meeting them in the face, drove them to the shelter of their tent, and, after resting for a few hours, compelled them to 1 eturn, though Dr. Hayes had intended proceeding one day further when he first set out. The temperature was no>y 34° below zero during the night, though at Port Foulkes, during their absence, it was 22° higher. All of them were more or less frost-bitten, and one of the party seemed likely to give in altogether. The cold was so intense that all of them had to quit the shelter of the tent and run about on the ice to save themselves from getting benumbed. They were now at an altitude of 5000 feet above the sea, 70 miles * from the coast, in the midst of a vast frozen Sahara, immeasurable to human eye. Neither hill nor dale was anywhere in view. They had completely sunk the strip of land which lies between the mer de glace and the sea, and no object met the eye but their feeble tent, which bent to the storm. " Fitful clouds swept over the face of the full-orbed moon, which, descending towards the horizon, glimmered through the drifting snow that whirled out of the illimitable • In the American 'Proc. Philosoph. Soc.,' Dec, 1861, and 'Proc. Royal Geogr, Soc.,' vol. ix. p. 186, Dr. Hayes mentionoil tho distance which he penetrated into the interior as Ji/tij miles. With every respect to him, 1 think that he has OTer- t'stimated the distances travelled by his party on the glacier. 1 i; IJAK/S ATTKMPT IN IH60, E'I'C. : I' if. !i «i ' (listanco, and sctuldod over tho icy plainw ; to tho oye in tindnlating linos of downy Hoftness — to tho flesh in whowors of piercinj:; diuts." Tho storm now caiiKod tliom to run for life to an ohwation of 3000 feet lower before they stopped, when the wind was less severe, and the tonipemture 12"^ higher. Next day they reached Port Foulke without any Bcrions accident, the latter purt of their journey Iwing wholly by moonlight. TLayes' journey was under- taken at much too late a period of tho year ; but still, ho far as it went, it was conducted with nil the caprit and reckless courage in which his nation has never been wanting, either in battle or in geographical exploration, which demands bravery of a calmer and more enduring description. *' My Brother John's Glacier" pro- jects into a valley, about 2 miles from tho coast, towards which it is gradually approaching. Hayes' measurements show that it is moving seaward at a very rapid rate, viz. 94 feet in 8 months. This will, however, vary according to the season, the natiiro of tho ground traversed, and other mechanical and physical causes. 6. Bae^a attempted Journey in 1860. — While Hayes was struggling into winter-quarters in Smith Sound, an English surveying steamer, under the command of Captain Allen Young, was searching the South Greenland fjords, in connection with a projected Atlantic telegraph-cable to be laid vid Iceland and Greenland. This project has long ago passed into the limbo of forgotten schemes, now that the Altantic is traversed by two submarine cables, b\it during this survey (in the Fox) an attempt was made to penetrate tho interior of Greenland : attached to the expedition and in charge of the land party was Dr. John Itae — already most deservedly famous as an Arctic explorer. Tho expedition reached Fredrikshaab from Ice- land on the 2nd of October, and, on the 24th, while the fjord of Igalliko was being sounded. Dr. Kae considered that a short journey should be made to the interior of tho country for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability of travelling over it. The use of one seaman and a whale-boat was obtained from Captain Young to enable the party to return from the head of the fjord to Julianehaab. Four Eskimo women — who in South Greenland are commonly engaged in such labour — were engaged as rowers. They never reached the inland ice ; for, after travelling through a miry and boulder-covered valley 16 miles in from the head of the fjord, a heavy fall of snow stopped further travel, and they returned, after an absence of four days, to their boat — not, however, before the Qord was frozen up for several miles— and with much diflficulty they reached the Fox. Mr. Whympera Expe^Uf\y in 1867.— Towards the end of July 1867, illliUia VISITS OF KINK AND UTIIEHS TO THK INLAND ICK. Vi the present writer, iu company with Mr. Edward Whymper (who most carefully planned the trip and made every arrangement), Mr. Anthoii P. Togner, Mr. Jens Fleischer, and Aniao, a Greenland Eskimo (since deceased), made an attempt to penetrate this icy waste with dog-sledges. The season was too late, and our attempt was impeded by various circumstances. Accordingly we only wero enabled to proceed for a short distance, when, by the breaking down of our sledges, we wero forced to return. Even had this been the place for it, any detailed account of this attempt would take up too much space. The general results obtained by it I have already given. 7. Visits of Rink and othera to the Inland Ice. — The journeys or attempts which I have recorded at some length form the chief attempts which, as far as I can learn, ha/e been made to penetrate the interior of Greenland, or which have been recorded. Possibly there may have been others, tliough, from the well-known dislike of the Eskimo to travel over the interior ice, and the absence of any motive for enter[)riso in that direction on the part of the Danish oHlcers in charge of the government and trade of Greenland, I think that it is hardly likely that there have been many other attempts, and my friend. Dr. Rink, the most distinguished authority on all matters Greenlandic, and for no many years Koyal Inspector of South Greenland, whom I consulted on the subject, agrees with mo. However, in addition to those I have recorded at length, there are one or two of which I have no notes, or very brief ones, to mention. Dr. Rink himself, who has been close to and has partly viewed and delineated the margin of the inland ice in many diffi- cult places from GO*^ to yC N.E., has also ascended the ice itself, namely, at TesBiurssak, near Claushavn, in May, 1851 ; but only spent some hours in walking upon it and in examining its surface, without the intention of trying any inland excursion. I am also informed by Dr. Rink that a Danish gentleman who visited Greenland in 1862, for the purpose of magnetical obser- vations, has walked several miles over this inland ice near Pakitsok. The natives are generally reindeer-hunting close to the margin of the ice, and sometimes cross parts of it. A native gives an account of this in the Greenland Journal, * Atuagagdlintit ' of 1864, in the Eskimo language. As, for instance, he says (' Atuag.' p. 461), mentioning the localities from 64° to 65° n. : " On some of the hunting-grounds there are dangers to be encountered, namely, as follows ; — Tbe rivers issuing from the ice are very muddy, also when walking over the ice (it prejents itself) very fissured, the '■J M 14 NORDENSKJOLD'S and BEUGGREN'S journey in 1870. crevasses in which cannot bo crossed, but must be gone around, are tremendously deep. If somebody should fall into them he could never be saved. The reindeer-hunters used to come there. The land ice enlarges rapidly," &g. The late Mr. Olrik, so many years inspector of North Greenland and director of the Greenland trade in Copenhagen, and his brother-in-law and predecessor, the wel^-known conchologist — Inspector Moller — also visited the inland ice. In all likelihood, the feat of exploring the interior will bo Rgain atteiupted this summer by an eminent Arctic and Alpine explorer. 8. NordensJcjdld'a and Derggren's Journey in 1870.^ — The account of this interesting attempt I give in the leader's words. It is in- teresting not only as being the most successful one ever made on the inland ice, but in the fact that it was condtr.cted by a very ex- perienced Arctic explorer, and by men of science so eminent and accomplished as Professor Nordenskjcild and Dr. Berggren — a well- known botanist, lately Assistant-Professor in the University of Lund, and now engaged in botanical travels in New Zealand : — " If the inland ice were not in motion, it is clear that its surface would be as even and unbroken as that of a sand-field. But this, as is known, is not the case. The inland ice is in constant motion, advancing slowly but with different velocity in different places, towards the sea, into which it passes, on the west coast of Greenland, through eight or ten large and a great many small ice-streams. [For a description of these see p. 38.] This movement of the ice gives rise in its turn to huge chasms and clefts, the almost bottom- less depth of which close the traveller's way. It is natural that these clefts should occur chiefly where the movement of the ice is most rapid, that is to say, in the neighbourhood of the great ice- streams ; but that, on the other hand, at a greater distance from these the ground will be found more free from cracks. On this account I determined to begin our wanderings on the ice at a point as far distant as possible from the real ice-fjords. I should have preferred one of the deep * striim-f jords ' (stream-fjords) for this purpose ; but as other business, intended to be carried out during the short summer, did not permit a journey, per boat, so far southward, I selected instead for my object the northern arm of Auleitsivikfjord, which is situated GO miles south of the ice-ijord • From a translation of his ' Redogiirolse fiir en Expedition till Gronland &r 1870,' in the • Geological Magazine' (edited by Henry Woodward, f.k.s.), 1872 (vol. ix.), pp. 303-306, 355-3tJ'2. The passagts within brackets are mine, and here and there I liave ventured to make some slight emcndationH on the tian»la- tion (apparently by the learned traveller hiniHelf) when snch was obviously required, but in no case have I in any way altered his meaning. NORDENSKJOLD'S and BERGOREN'S journey in 1870. 15 at Jakobzhavn, and 240 north of that of Godthaab. Tho inland ice, it is true, even in Anleitsivik Fjord, reaches to the bottom of the fjord ; but it only forms there a perpendicular glacier, very similar to the glaciers at King's Bay, in Spitzbergen, but not any real ice- stream. There was, accordingly, reason to expect that such fissures and chasms as might here occur would bo on a smaller scale. On the 17th of July, in the afternoon, our tent was pitched on the shore north of the steep precipitous edge of tho inland ice at Auleitsivikfjord. After having employed the 18th in preparations and a few slight reconnoitrings, we entered on our wanderings inward on the 19th. We set out early in the morning, and first rowed to a little bay situated in the neighbourhood of the spot occupied by our tent, into which several clayey rivers had their embouchures. Here the land assumed a character varied by hill and dale, and further inward was bounded b}' an ice- wall somewhat perpendicular and sometimes rounded, covered with a thin layer of earth and stones near the edge, only a couple of hundred feet high, but then rising at first rapidly, afterwards more slowly, to a height of several hundred feet. In most places this wall could not possibly be scaled ; we, however, soon succeeded in finding a place where it was cut through by a small cleft, sufficiently deep to afibrd a possi- bility of climbing up, with the means at our disposal — a sledge — which at need might be used as a ladder, and a line, originally 100 fathoms long, but which, proving too heavy a burden, had, before our arrival at the first resting-place, been reduced one-half. All of us, with the exception of our old and lame boatman, assisted in the by no means easy work of bringing over mountain, hill and dale, the apparatus of the ice-expedition to this spot, and after our dinner's rest, a little further up the ice-wall. Here [as usual] our followers left us ; only Dr. Berggren, I, and two Greenlanders (Isak and Sisarniak) were to proceed further. Wo immediately com- menced our march, but did not get very far that day. The inland ice differs from ordinary glaciers by, among other things, the almost total absence of moraine formations. The collection of earth, gravel, and stone, with which the ice on the landward edge is covered, are, in fact, so inconsiderable in comparison with the moraines of even very small glaciers that they scarcely deserve mention, and no longer newly-formed ridges of gravel, running parallel with the edge of the glacier, are to be met with, at least in the tract visited by us. The landward border of the inward ice is, however, dark- ened, we can scarcely say covered, with earth, and sprinkled with small sharp stones. Here tho ice is tolerably smooth, though furrowed by deep clefts at right angles to the border, such as that made use m 16 nordenskjOld's and bergghen's journey. of by us to climb up. But in order not immediately to terrify the Greenlanders by choosing the way over the frightful and dangerous clefts, we determined to abandon this comparatively smooth ground, and at first take a southerly direction parallel with the chasms, and afterwards turn to the east. We gained our object by avoiding the chasm, but fell in instead with extremely rough ice. We now under- stood what the Greenlanders meant when they endeavoured to dis- suade us from the journey on the ice, by sometimes lifting their hands over their heads, sometimes sinking them down to the ground, accompanied by to us an unintelligible talk. They meant by this to describe the collection of closely-heaped pyramids and ridges of ice over which we had now to walk. The inequalities of the ice were, it is true, seldom more than 40 feet high, with an inclination of 25° to 30°. But one does not get on very fast when one has con- tinually to drag a heavily-laden sledge up so irregular an acclivity, and immediately after to endeavour to get down uninjured, at the risk of getting one's legs broken, when occasionally losing one's footing on the here often very slippery ice, in attempting to mode- rate the speed of the downward-rushing sledge. Had we used an ordinary sledge, it would have been immediately broken to pieces ; but as the component parts of our sledge were not nailed, but tied together, it held together at least for some hours. Already the next day v/e perceived the impossibility, under such circumstances, of dragging with us the thirty days' provisions with which we had furnished ourselves, especially as it was evident that, if we wished to proceed further, we must transform ourselves from draught to pack horses. We, therefore, determined to leave the sledge and part of the provisions, take the rest on our shoulders, and proceed on foot. We got on quicker, though for a sufficiently long time over ground as bad as before. The ice became gradually smoother, and was broken by large bottomless chasms, which one must either jump with a heavy load on one's back — in which case woe to him who made a false step — or else make a long circuit to avoid. After two hours' wandering the region of clefts was passed. We, however, in the course of our journey, very frequently met with portions of similar ground, though none of any very great extent. We were now at a height of more than 800 feet above the level of the sea. Further inward the surface of the ice, except the occa- sionally-recurring cleft, resembled that of a stony sea-midden, bound in fetters by the cold. The rise upwards was still quite perceptible, though frequently interrupted by shallow valleys, the centres of which wei-e occupied by several lakes or ponds, with no apparent outlet, though they received water from innumerable rivers running lira NORDENSKJOLD'S and BERGGREN'S journey in 1870. 17 along the sides of the excavation. These rivers presented in many places not so dangerous, though quite as time- wasting, a hindrance to our progress as the clefts- —with this difference, however, that they did not so often occur; but the circuits to avoid them were so much the longer. During the whole of our journey on the ice we constantly enjoyed fine weather ; frequently there was not a single cloud visible in the whole sky. The warmth was to us, clad as we were, sensible ; higher up, in the shade, as much as 7° or 8° Centi- grade [19-4° or 17-6° Fahr.], but in the sun 25° to 30° Cent. [77 to 86° Fahr.]. After sunset* the water-pools froze, and the night was very cold ; we had no tent with us, and, although our party consisted of four men, o.ily two ordinary sleeping-sacks. These were open at both ends, so that two persons could, though with great difficulty, with their feet opposite to each other, squeeze themselves into one sack. With rough ice for a substratum, the bed was thus so uncomfortable that, after a few hours' sleep, one was awakened by a cramp in one's closely-contracted limbs ; and, as there was only a thin tarpaulin between the ice and the sleeping-sack, the bed was extremely cold to the side resting on the ice, which the Greenlanders, who turned back before us, described to Dr. Nordstrom [one of Professor Nor- denskjold's party in Greenland] by shivering and shaking throughout their whole bodies. Our nights' rests were, therefore, seldom long ; but our midday rest, during which we could bask in a glorious warm sun-bath, was taken on a proportionately more copious scale, whereby I was enabled to take observations for both altitude and longitude. On the surface of the inland ice we do not meet with any stones at a distance of more than a cable's length from the border ; but we find everywhere, instead, vertical cylindrical holes, of a foot or two deep, and from a couple of lines to a couple of feet in section, so close one to another that one might iji vain seek between them room for one's foot, much less for a sleeping-sack. We had always a system of ice-pipes of this kind as a substratum when we rested for the night ; and it often happened, in the morning, that the warmth of our bodies had melted so much of the ice, that one's sleeping sack touched the water wherewith the holes were always nearly full. But, as a compensation, wherever we rested, we had only to stretch out our hands to obtain the very finest water to ; drink. The holes in the ice filled with water are in no way con- nected with each other, and at the bottom of them we found every- where, not only near the border, but in the most distant parts of I the inland ice visited by us, a layer, some few millimetres thick, ' The render must, however, remember that at that season there was oon- I tinuouH daylight tliroughout the twenty-four hours. — IViV.'] I 18 NORDENSKJOLD'S and BERGGREN'S journey in 1870. of grey powder, often conglomerated into small round balls of loose consistency. Under the microscope, the principal substance of this remarkable powder appeared to consist of white angular transparent crystals. We ;0uld also observe remains of vegetable fragments; yellow, imperfectly translucent particles, with, as it appeared, evident surfaces of cleavage (felspar), green crystals (augite) and black opaque grains, which were attracted by the magnet. The quantity of these foreign components is, however, so inconsiderable, that the whole mass may be looked upon as one homogeneous substance. An analysis, by Mr. G. Lindstrom, of this fine glacial sand gave : — Silicic acid G2-25 Alumina 14'03 Sesquioxide of iron • 74 Protoxide 4*64 Protoxide of manganese 0'07 Lime 5-09 Magnesia 3-00 Potassa 2-02 Soda 4-01 Phosphoric acid 0*11 Chlorine 0-06 Water, organic stibstance (100" to red-heat) . . . . 2 • 86 Hygroscopic water (15° to 100") 0*34 100-12 Hardness inconsiderable, crystallization probably monoclinic. The substance is not a clay, but a sandy trachytic mineral, of a com- position (especially as regaids soda) which indicates that it does not originate in the granite region of Greenland. Its origin appears therefore to me very enigmatical. Does it come from the basalt region ? or from the supposed volcanic tracts in the interior of Greenland? or is it of meteoric origin? The octabedrally- crystallised magnetic particles do not contain any traces of nickel. As the principal ingredient corresponds to a determinate chemical formula, it would perhaps be desirable to enter it under a separate class in the register of science, and for that purpose I propose for this substance the name of Kryokonite (from Kpov ice, on sea or land; while the word glacier is, of course, UHod in the ordinary uoccptatiou of the term. * Vol. xxiii, p. 14.T (1853); ' Proc. of Soc, vol. vii. p. 70 (IHtiit). It was also descrilx'd hy Dr. Sntlierla;..! '"'om Ilink) in InglefieidV 'bummer Search for Sir .lohii Fnmkhn'(l853), Appendix, p. KiH, il' • I ■t 1 i- :1 H-i ■I I ,1 i rf '■ 28 GREENLAND GLACIERS AND SEA-ICE. to the labours of Smith of Jordanhill,* Lyell,'' Chambers,' Milne- Home,* Darwin," Fleming,^ Murchison,'' Peach,* Jamieson,^ Ramsay,'" Thomas Brown," Crosskey,'* McBain," Howden,'* Jolly," Archibald Geikie," James Geikie," and many other geologists, we are in poQsePsion of a body of facts which enable us to reason on the subject with a degree of certainty which would otherwise have been impossible. Let us then examine in a concise manner the subject of the present glaciation of Greenland and other Arctic countries, and ice-action generally. Previously to doing so, I may say that I have enjoyed oppor- tunities of studying ice-action in British Columbia, Washington Territory, Oregon, California, &c., and on the western and eastern shores of Davis Straits and Baffin Bay — that I have voyaged over the seas of Spitzbergen and Greenland — that I have passed a whole summer in the Danish possessions in Greenland, at a post situated in close proximity to the great ice-fjord Jakobshavn, one of the chief sources of icebergs in Mid-Greeniand — and that, as already men- tioned, I was one of those who attempted a journey over this great ' * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. vi. ; ' Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society,' vol. viii. ; and 'Newer Pliocene Geology.' * 'Proc. Geol. Soc.,' vol. iii. ; 'Antiquity of Man;' 'Elements' and 'Prin- ciples,' &c. &c. * ' Ancient Sea Marp;in8,' and ' Edin. New Phil. Journ.' 1853 and 1855. * 'Coal-fields of Mid-Lothian;' 'Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.,' vol. xvi. ; ibid. vol. xsv. 18G9, &c. » ' PhU. Trans., 1839.' * 'The Geological Deluge, ns interpreted by Baron Cuvier and Professor Buckland, inconsistent with the Testimony of Moses and the Phenomena of Nature ; ' ' Lithology of Edinburgh,' &c. ' 'Brit. Assoc. Rep.,' vol. xx. ; 'Proc. R.G.S.,' vol. vii. ; 'Russia in Europe.' &c. &c. » ' Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society,' Edin. 1861 ; ' Edia. New Phil. Journ.,' n. s. vol. ii. &c. * * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vols. xiv. xvi. xviii. xix. end xxiv. " ' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. xviii. ; ' Glaciers of Wales,' &c. " • Trnns. Roy. Soc. Edin.,' vol. xxiv. " ' Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow,' vols. ii. and iii. " ' Proc, Roy. Phys. Soc Edin.' 185!)-18G2. "♦ ' '['roc. Roy. Phys. Soc.,' and * Trans. Geol. Soc. Edin.,' vol. i. '» ' Trans. Geol. Soc. Edin.' vol. i. >« ♦ Scenery of Scotland; ' « Edin. New Phil. Journ.' 18G1 ; ' Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow,' vols. i. iii. &c. " 'Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow,' vol. iii.; 'The Great Jv,d Ago' (1874). That this list by no means exhausts the names of those who by their 'vritings have advanced the subject, or contains all the papers of those mentioned, is self- evident. The names of Bttld, Imrie, Hall, MacCulloch, Dick-Liiuder, Trevelyim, J. D. and E. Eorbes, Hibbert, Maxwell, Prestwieh, Miiclarcn, Craig, Lands- borougl), Mackenzie, Professor Jas. Thomson, Nicol, Gumming, Cleghorn, Smith, Miller, Hopkins, Brickenden, Bryce, Martin, Hall, Macinto^h, Murphy, I,;'bl)ock, tlie Duke of Argyll, Scarlrs, Wood, jun., Croll, De Rtmce, uid (,tl, t^< .ir^ familiar as having done good service; but I have only reforr i ^«> tho p; rs which have come immediately before me. ^e. ibid. Soc. iThat Ihavo BL-lf- Jlyiin, tinds- jnith, |l>uck, ■•■VB GLACIAL SYSTEM OF GREENLAND. 29 interior ice-cap. I may, however, mention that in 1867 we were not far enough north, or early enough in Davis Straits, to see anything of the action of sea-ice, and that, though I saw the " inland ice " close at hand for the first time that year, yet T added nothing to the knowledge which my observations during a much more extended voyage along the northern shores of Greenland and the western shores of Davis Straits enabled me to gain as early as 1861. Accordinglymany of these descriptions are written almost verbatim from my notes of that date, and the views I now enunciate were formed at that period also. I am, in addition, not ignorant of the remains of the glacial period in Scandinavia and Great Britain, as well as in North America and other countries. Though the facts here narrated will, in almost every case, be wholly derived from my own observation, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not present them as any thing new, but solely as the observa- tions and conclusions of an independent student of the subject, and as therefore of some value. If some of the facts here related are already familiar to the reader from other sources, I can only plead that few, if any, of them are yet sufficiently well understood, or received into the commonwealth of knowledge as confirmed facts, not to admit of being repeatedly described by independent observers. 4. Glacier-System of Greenland. Greenland is in all likelihood a large wedge-shaped island, or seiif. ' of islands, surrounded by the icy Polar basin on its northern shr;o ., a'.id with Smith Sound, Baffin Bay, Davis Straits, and the 8^ it'^l>".;^3n, or Greenland Sea of the Dutch, the "old Greenland ^e.; " •: 1 ' iie English whalers, completing its insularity on its western and c •-stern sides. The whole of the real de facto land of this great island ..sists, then, of a circlet of islets, of greater or less extent circlir.g round the coast, and acting as the shores of a great interior me' de glace — a huge inland sea of fiesh-water ice, or glacier, which covers the whole extent of the country to an unknown depth. Beneath this icy covering must lie the original bare ice-covered country, at a much lower elevation than the surrounding circlet of • .lands. These islands are bare, bleak, and more or less moun- 'di lous, reaching to about 2000 feet ; the snow clears off, leaving T; ;i for ^ egetation to bnrst out during the short Arctic summer. The breadth of this outskirting land varies, as do the spaces between the different islands. These inlets between the islands constitute the fjords of Greenland, and are the channels through which the ovei-flow of the interior ice discharges itself. It is on I ... r:t: pt fe '\m\ 1!, lil 1 <' y ;i : IS 30 THE INTERIOR ICE-FIELD OF GREENLAND. these islands, or outskirting land, that the population of Greenland lives, and the Danish trading-posts are built — all the rest of the country, with the exception of this island circlet, being an icy, landless, sea-like waste of glarier, which can bo seen here and there peeping out in the distance. On some of the large and more mountainous islands, as might be expected in such a climate, there are small independent glaciers, in many cases coming down to the sea, and there discharging icebergs ; but these glaciers are of little importance, and have no connection with the great internal ice-cover- ing of the country. I have called the land circling this interior ice desert " a collection of islands," because though many of them are joined together by glaciers, and only a few are wholly insulated by water, many of them (indeed, the majority) are bounded on their eastern siti V ^^ 's internal inland ice ; yet, whether boimded by water or by ice, joundary is perpetual, and whatever be the insulating medium, tL^y are to all intents and purposes islands. 1. The Interior Ice-field. — This is well known to the Danes in Greenland b}'^ the name of the " inlands iis," and though a familiar subject of talk amongst them from the earliest times, it is only a very few of the " colonists" who have ever reached it. The natives everywhere have a great horror of penetrating into the interior, not only on account of the dangers of ice-travel, but from a super- stitious notion that the interior is inhabited by evil spirits in the shape of all sorts of monsters. Crossing over the comparatively narrow strip of land, the traveller comes to this great inland ice (fig. 1, a). If the termina- tion of it is at the sea, its face looks like a great ice wall : indeed the Eskimo called it the Sermih soak, which means this exactly. The height of this icy face varies according to the depth of the valley or fjord which it fills. If the valley is shallow the height is low ; if, on the contrary, it is a deep glen, then the sea-face of the glacier in the fjord is lofty. From 1000 to 3000 feet is not un- common. In such situations the face is always steep, because bergs are continually breaking oflf from it ; and in such situations it is not only dangerous to approach it, on account of the ice falling, or the wave caused by the displacement of the water, but from the great steepness of the face it is rarely possible to get on to it in such situations.^ In such places Di. Eink has generally found that it rises by a gradual slope to the general level plateau beyond.'^ ' The " great glacier " of Humboldt is merely such an exposed gliicier-face, though of gnat extent. * Kane siwakd about the " escaladod structure " of the Greenland glacier ('Arctic Explorations ' [American ed.], vol, ii. p. 284). This phrase seems to THE INTERIOR ICE-FIELD OF GREENLAND. 31 I :l 1 ! , I I'; ill a i iii 32 THE INTERIOR ICE-FIELD OF GREENLAND. However, where it does not xeach the sea, it is often possible to climb on it from the land by a gentle slope, or even in some cases to step up on it as it shelves up. Once fairly on the inland ice a dreary scene meets the view . Far as the eye can reach to the north and to the south is this same great ice-field, the only thing to relieve the eye being the winding black circuit of the coast-line land or islands before described, here and there infringing in little peninsulas on the ice, there the ice dovetailing in the form of a glacier on the land, and now and then the waters of a deep fjord penetrating into the ice-field, its circuit marked by the black line of coast surrounding it on either side, the eastern generally being the ice-wall of the glacier, the western being the sea. Travelling a short distance on this interior ice, it seems as if we were travelling on the sea. Tiie land begins to fade away behind us like the shore receding as we sail out to sea; while far away to the eastward nought can be seen but a dimj clear outline like the horizon bound- ing our view. The ice rises by a gentle slope, the gradient being steeper at first, but gradually getting almost imperceptible though real. In the winter and spring this ice-field must be covered with a deep blanket of snow, and the surface must then be smooth as a glassy lake ; but in the summer, by the melting of the snow, it is covered with pools and coursing streams of icy-cold water, which either find their way over the edge, or tumble with a hollow sound through the deep crevasses in the ice. How deep these crevasses go, it is impossible to say, as we could not see to the bottom of them, nor did the sounding-cord reach down except a short way. The depth of the ice-covering will of course vaiy ; when it lies over a valley it will be deeper, over a mountain-top less. All we know is, that just now it is almost level throughout, hill and dale making no difterence. However, with such a huge superincumbent mass of ice, the average height of the coast-lying islands is greater than that of the inland ice, and it is only after climbing considerable heights that it can be seen.* Therefore supposing this covering to be removed, I think the country would look like a huge, shallow, oblong vessel with high v/alls around it. The surface of the ice is ridged and furrowed after the manner of glaciers generally ; and have arisen from the translator of Dr. Rinks abstract in the ' Joum. Royal Geog. Soc.,' I. c, having mistaken the word " ice-stream " for " ice-steps." The " ice- steps," or " platform," so universally described by the authors who have followed the translation of Dr. Rink's remarks, have no existence in nature, or in the writings of the eminent geographer mentioned. ' In Rink's ' Gronland,' ii. p. 2, are two characteristio views of the appearance of the interior ice seen from such elevations. THE INTERIOR ICE-FIELD OF GREENLAND. 3;i this furrowing does not decrease as we go further inland ; on the contrary, as far as our limited means of observation go, it seems to increase ; so that even were it possible to cross this vast icy-desert on dog-sledges when the snow is on the ground, I do not think it would be possible to return, and its exploration would require the aid of a ship on the other side. On its surface there appears not a trace of any living thing except a minute alga ; and after leaving the little outpouring offshoot of a glacier from it, the dreariness of the scene is not relieved by even the sight of a patch of earth, a stone, or aught belonging to the world we seem to have left behind. Once, and only once, during our attempt to explore this waste did 1 see a faint red streak, which showed the existence of the red snow- plant (Protococcua nivdlia) ; but even this was before the land had been fairly left. A few traces of other alga were seen by Dr. Berg- gren, as I have already intimated (pp. 1 9 and 24). Animal life seems to have left the vicinity ; and the chilliness of the afternoon breeze, which regularly blew with piercing bitterness over the ice-wastes, even caused the Eskimo dogs to couch under the lee of the sledge, and made us, their masters, draw the fur hoods of our coats higher about our ears.^ Whether this ice-field is continuous from north to south it is not possible in the present state of our knowledge to decide ; but most likely it is so. Whether its longitudinal range is continuous is more difficult to decide, though the explorers already mentioned saw nothing to the eastward to break their view ; so that, as I shall immediately discuss, there seems every probability that in Greenland there is one continuous unbroken level field of ice, swaddling up in its snowy winding-sheet hill and valley, with- out a single break for upwards of 1200 miles* of latitude, and an average of 400 miles of longitude, or from Gape Farewell to the upper extremity of Smith Sound, and from the west coast of Greenland to the east coast of the same country, a stretch of ice- covered country infinitely greater than ever was demanded hypo- thetically by Agassiz in support of his glacier-theory. 2. The Defluenta of this Inland Ice-field. — Are there any ranges of mountains from the slopes of which this great interior ice descends ? As I have said, we are n jt in a position to absolutely decide; but ' For description of the effects of the ice in limiting animal and vegetable life vide the author's " Mammalian Fauna of Greenland," ' Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1868,' p. 337 ; and " Florula Discoana," ' Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin.,' vol. ix. p. 440. * Rink, ' Joum. R. G. S.' I. c, says 800 miles ; but throughout his valuable works he only speaks of the Danish portion of Greenland, of which it professes solely to be a description. Jamieson and other writers seem to think that it is only North Greenland that is covered. All the country, north and south, is equally swathed in ice. m V ' ' i5' 84 THE DEFLUENT8 OF THE INLAND ICE-FIELD. the probabilities are in favour of the negative. There are no ice- berg " streams " on the east coast of Greenland, and bergs are rare off that coast. If there were many icebergs, the field of floe-ice which skirts that coast, and which has prevented exploration except in very open seasons, would soon be broken up by the force with which the bergs, breaking off from the land, would smash through the ice- field, and, acting as sails, help, by the aid of the winds, as elsewhere, to sweep it away. I am therefore of opinion that the great ice- field slopes from the east to the west coast of Greenland, and that any bergs which may be seen on that coast are from local glaciers, or from some unimportant defluent of the great interior ice. Nor do I think a range of mountains at all necessary for the formation of this huge mer de glace ; for this is an idea wholly derived from the Alpine and other mountain-ranges where the glacier system is a petty affair compared with that of Greenland. I look upon Green- land and its interior ice-field in the light of a broad-lipped shallow vessel, but with chinks in the lips here and there, and the glacier, like viscous matter * in it. As more is poured in, the viscous matter will run over the edges, naturally taking the line of the chinks as its line of outflow. The broad lips of the vessel, in my homely simile, are the outlying islands or " outskirts ;" the viscous matter in the vessel the inland ice, the additional matter continually being poured in in the form of the enormous snow covering, which, winter after winter, for seven or eight months in the year, falls almost con- tinuously on it ; the chinks are the fjords or valleys down which the glaciers, representing the outflowing viscous matter, empty the surplus of the vessel. In other words, the ice floats out in glaciers, overflows the land, in fact, down the valleys and fjords of Greenland, by force of the superincumbent weight of snow, just as does the grain on the floor of a barn (as admirably described by Mr. Jamieson) when another sackful is emptied on the top of the mound already on the floor. " The floor is flat, and therefore does not conduct the grain in any direction ; the outward motion is due to the pressure of the particles of grain on one another ; and, given a floor of.infinite extension, and a pile of sufficient amount, the mass would move outward to any distance ; and with a very slight pitch or slope it would slide forward along the incline." To this let me add that if the floor on the margin of the heap of grain was undulating, the stream of grain would take the course of such undulations. The want, therefore, of much slope in a country, and the absence of any ' While, for the sake of illustration, speaking of ice as " viscous matter," I must not be understood as giving support to the " viscous tlieory " of glacier motion. THE DEFLUENTS OF THE INLAND ICE-FIELD. 35 groat mountain-range, aro of very little moment " to the movement of land-ice, provided we have mmo enmigh." ^ As the ice reaches the coast it naturally takes the lowest level. Accordingly it there forks out into glaciers or ice-rivers, by which means the overflow of this great ice-lake is sent off to the sea. The length and breadth of these glaciers varies according to the breadth or length of the interspace between the islands down which it flows.'' If the land projects a considerable way into the great ice-lake, then the glacier is a long one; if the contrary is the case, then it is hardly distinguished from the great interior ice-field, and, as in the case of the great glacier of Humboldt in Smith Sound, the interior ice may be said to discharge itself almost without a glacier. The face of Humboldt's glacier is in breadth about 60 miles. This, therefore, I take to be the interspace between the nearest elevated skirting land on either side. It thus appears that, between the inland ice and the glacier, the difference is one solely of degree, not of kind, though, for the sake of clearness of description, a nominal distinction has been drawn. The glacier, as I have said, will usually flow to the lowest elevation. Accordingly it may take a valley, and gradually advance until it reaches the sea. In the course of ages this valley will be grooved down until it deepens to the sea- level. The sea will then enter it, and the glacier-bed of former times will become one of those fjords which indent the coast of Greenland and other northern countries often for many miles ; or these may be much more speedily produced by depression of the land, such as I shall show is at present going on. By force of the sea the glacier proper will then be limited to the land, and its old bed become a deep inlet of the sea, hollowed out and grooved by the icebergs which pass outwards, until in the course of time, by the action of a force which I shall presently describe, the fjords get filled up and choked again with icebergs, in all probability again to become the bed of some future glacier stream.* Where there is no fjord at hand, or where these defluents are not sufficient to draw off the surplus supply of ice, the " inland ice " will " boil " over the cliffs, overflowing its basin, and appear as hanging glaciers, whence every now and again huge masses of ice (the aerial equiva- I v\ ■ : :! i; r t I , IM » 'Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc.,' xxiv. 1865, p. 166. ' Properly speaking, according to the ordinary nomenclature, the whole of the ice, from the "neve" downwards, should be called " glacier; " but as we have not yet penetrated sufficiently far into the interior to observe where the " neve" ends and the " glacier " begins, I have for the sake of distinctness adopted the above arbitrary nomenclature. ' The origin of fiords is more fully developed in Section iv. of this Memoir (p. 58). D 2 36 THE ICEBERG. lent of the bergs) are dotaehed, as the attraction of gravity overcoraes the cohesivenoss of the ice. These have been seen and described by Dr. Kane on many parts of the Arctic coast. I noticed them in the shape of " miniature glaciers between the cliffs," (' Trans. Bot. Soc' ix. 13) at Sakkak, lat. 70° 0' 28" n., and on the Waigat shore of Disco Island. In this latter locality they were the overflow of the inland ice of the island. They are also seen in the little local glaciers, where the bed they move in is shallow, and the seaward or outward end high, as near Omenak, where, however, I did not see them, but depend for my information on intelligent Danish oflfioers resident in that section. In Alpine regions, away from the coast, the glacier, as it pushes its way down into warmer regions, either advances or retreats, according to the boat of the summer ; but in either case it gives oif no great masses of ice from its inferior ex- tremity. The same is true of the Arctic glacier when it protrudes into some mossy valley without reaching the sea ; but when it reaches the sea another force comes into operation. We have seen (1) the inland ice-field emptied by (2)- the glacier ; we now ^ee the glacier relieving itself by means of (3) the iceberg or •' ice mountain," as the word means. 3. The Iceberg. — When the glacier reaches the sea (fig. 1, e) it grooves its way along the bottom under the water for a considerable distance ; indeed it might do so for a long way did not the buoyant action of the sea stop it. For instance, in one locality in South Greenland, in about 62° 32' n. lat., between Fredrikshaab and Fisk- ernaesset, or a little north of the Eskimo fishing-station of Avigait, and south of another village called Tekkisok, is a remarkable instance of this. Here the '* lisblink," or the " ice glance " of the Danes (i.e., the projecting glacier, though English seamen use the word iceblink in a totally diflTerent sense, meaning thereby the " loom " of ice at a distance), projects bodily out to sea for more than a mile. The bottom appears to be so shallow that the sea has no effect in raising it up ; and the breadth of the glacier itself is so considerable as to form a stout breakwater to the force of the waves.^ It was long supposed that the iceberg broke off from the glacier by the mere force of gravity : this is not so. It is forced off from the parent glacier by the buoyant action of the sea from beneath. The ice gioans and creaks ; then there is a crashing, then a roar like the discharge of a park of artillery ; and with a monstrous regurgita- tion of waves, felt far from the scene of disturbance, the iceberg is launched into life. The breeze which blows out from the land, On this subject see also Nordenskjold, I. c, p. 364-5. THE 1CKI3EUG. 37 generally for several hours every day, seems, according to my observa- tion, to have the effect of blowing the bergs out to eea ; and then they may be seen sailing majestically along in long lines out of the ice-tjords. Often, however, isolated bergs or groups of bergs will float away south or north. Bergs from the ice-streams of Baffin Bay will be found in the southern reaches of Davis Straits ; while others, bearing debris which could only have been accumu- lated in South Greenland, will be found frozen in the floes of Melville Bay, or Lancaster Sound. It is a common mistake, but one which a moment's reflection would surely dissipate, that bergs found in the south must all have come from the north, and that those further north must have come from the regions still farther northward. The winds and the currents waft them hither and thither, until by the force of the waves they break into fragments and become undistinguishable from the oozy fragments of floes around them. Often, however, they will ground either in the fjord or outside of it, and in this position remain for months, and even years, only to be removed by pieces calving or breaking off from them, and thus lightening them, or forced off the bank where they have touched bottom by the force of the displaced wave caused by the breaking off of a fresh berg. Ice much exposed to the sea only breaks off in small ice-calves, but not in bergs. This calving will sometimes set the sea in motion as much as 16 miles off. The colour of the berg is, of course, that of the glacier ; but by the continuous beating of the waves on it the surface gets glistening. The colour of the mass is a dead white, like hard-pressed snow, which in reality it is, while scattered through it are lines of blue. These lines are also seen in the glacier on looking down into the crevasses, or at the glacier-face, and are in all probability caused by the annual melting and freezing of the surface-water of. the glacier. Then another fall of snow comes in the winter ; then the suns of summer melt the surface to some slight extent ; this freezes, forming an ice different in colour from the compressed snow-ice of the glacier, and so ^n. I am aware, however, that this is a subject of controversy ; and ^\:>- view of mine is only brought forward as a probable explanation, suggested to me as far back as 1861, when I first saw glaciers in the upper reaches of Baffin Bay and on the western shores of Davis Strait, and long before I was aware that this streaked or veined character of glacier-ice had been a subject of dispute.* I if I 1:'. i 1 f ■>,■ ■:!i l\ I' i'- V )l^ ii mil ■4 .nt i [ ' These blue stripes are several feet in dimension, and in them are generally found the "dirt bauds" of foreign matter (stones, gravel, clay, &c.), the remains of the moraine. Dr. Rink thinks that the blue stripes are formed by a filling up of the fissures in the inland ice with water — " perhaps mixed with snow, gravel, y. I hi! Ill ! I mi 88 THK SUli-GLACIAL STREAM. The gioator portion of those bergs form long "Htreams" opposite their " ico-fjords," these streams being constantly reinforced by fresli additions froia the land, poured out from the fjord. Hence certain localities in Greenland are di -tinguished by their " ice-streams ;" these localities being invariably opposite the mouths of ice-fjords, or fjords with great glaciers at their landward end pouring out icebergs. Few, if any, as T have already stated, are found on the oast coast ; but on the west (or Davis Strait and Baffin Bay side, from south to north, in the Danish possessions), th© following localities, among others, chiefly known by their native names, are situated : — 1. 8ermilik ico-fjoid and ice-stream in about n. lat. .. 60 30 2. Hcrmoliarsuk „ 61 32 3. Narsalik „ 61 57 4. Godthaab „ 64 30 5. Jukobsbavn „ 60 12 6. Tosaukatek „ 69 48 7. Great Kariak „ 70 26 8. Litllo Kariak „ 70 36 9. Sermelik „ 70 41 10. Itifliarsuk „ 70 r)2 11. Innerit „ 70 50 12. Great Kangerdlursoak .... „ 71 25 13. Upemivik „ 72 57' We have now sketched the ice-field with the glacier and the ice- berg. Are there no other defluents of the " inland ice ? " This leads UP to speak of: — 4. The Suhglacial Stream. — What is under the inland ice is, I fear, a question we shall never be able to answer. No doubt the country is undulating; for I believe this immense glaciation overspread the country after the close of the Tertiary period, perhaps about the same period when Scotland lay under the ice cap. Continuously grinding over these rocks, a creamy mud must be formed, which mud must now be of considerable thickness, if not swept into hollows or washed out from beneath the ice. In the Alps the glacier is said to wear for itself a muddy bed, which Agassiz*^ calls la couche de hone or la houe glaciaire, and other authors la moraine profonde and stones ; and such a refrigeration of the water in the iissures may be sup- posed to be an important agency in setting in motion these great mountaiuti of ice." ' Rink : Om den geographiake Bcskuiienhed af de danske Handels distriktcr i Nord-Gronlanil : udsigt over Nord-gronlands Gcognosie. Det Kongl. danske Vidensk. Selakab. Skr., 3 Bind, 1853, p. 71, et lib. cit. Dr. Rink altogether resided for sixteen winters and twenty-two Hummers in (irreenlaud. * ' Etudes sur lee Glaciers et Systeme Glaciaire,' p. 574. THE SUn-OLACIAL STREAM. 30 (fig. 1, b) ; HO that, I thiuk, thoro can be little doubt that the Groon- land inland ice has triturated down a similar clayey bed. However, another iuHtinment in the arrangement, and, if I may use the term, " utilisation " of this mud, this moraine pro/onde, comes into play. Uink * has calculated the yearly amount of precipitation in Greenland in the form of snow and rain at 12 inches, and that of the outpour of ice by its glaciers at 2 inches. Ho considers that only a small part of the remaining 10 inches is disposed of by evaporation, and that the remainder must be carried to the sea in tho form of sub- glacial rivers. These subglacial rivers are familiar in all Alpine countries, and in Greenland pour out from beneath the glacier, whether it lies at the sea or in a valley, and in summer and winter. He also mentions a lake adjacent to the outfall of a glacier into tho sea, which has an irregularly intermittent rise and fall. " Whenever it rises, the glacier-river disappears ; but when it sinks, tho spring bursts out afresh," — showing, as he thinks, a direct connection between the two. Arguing from what has been observed in the Alps, he concludes that an amount of glacier-water equivalent to 10 inches of precipitation on the whole surface of Greenland is not an extravagant hypothesis ; and he accounts for its presence partly by the transmisswm of terrestrial heat to the lowest layer of ice, and partly by the fact that the summer heats are conveyed into the body of the glacier, while the winter cold never reaches it. The heat melts the surface-snow into water, which percolates the ice, while the cold penetrates a very inconsiderable portion of the glacier, whose thickness exceeds 2000 feet. As in tho Alpine glaciers, these subglacial rivers are thickly loaded with mud from the grinding of the glacier on the infrajacent rocks ; in fact, from the washings of the moraine p'ofonde. This stream flows in a torrent the whole year round, and in every case which I know of (in the Arctic regions) reaches the sea eventually, though, no doubt, parting on the way with some small amount of its suspended mud. After it reaches the sea it discolours the water for miles, finally depositing on the bottom a thick coating of impalpable powder. When this falls in the open sea it may be scattered over a considerable space ; but when (as in most cases) it falls in narrow long fjords, it collects at the bottom, shoaling up these inlets for several miles from their heads, until, in the course ol time, the fjord gets wholly choked up, and the glacier seeks another outlet or gets choked up with bergs, which slowly plough their way through the deep banks of clay, until they get so consolidated together as to shut off the land alto- ' * Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift,' 3rd eeriea, vol. i. part 2 (1862), and ' Proc. Roy. (jreog. Soc.,' vii. 76. h,' i i Ai ■\ u . '' ' if. 40 THE SUB-GLACIAL STREAM. I : \ i» i' t Ml. ■: gether.* Supposing that the deposit only reaches 3 inches in the year, there is a bank or flat 25 feet thick formed in the course of a century. However, any one who has seen these muddy sub-glacier streams, and the way in which they deposit their mud, must be convinced that this estimate is far below the mark, and that an important geological deposit, which has never been rightly ac- counted for (if even noticed, as far as my observation goes), is form- ing off the coast of Greenland and wherever its great glaciers pro- trude into the deep quiet fjords. It ought also to be noticed that the fjords which have been the scenes of old ice-streams, in almost every instance end in a valley at the head, this valley being due, first, to the glacier which reclined on it and hollowed it out and, secondly, and further down, to the filling up of it by the glacier-clay. This form of Qord is not only common in Greenland, but also in every other part of the world where 1 have studied their form and formation. After carefully examining and studying this cIblJ, I can find no appreciable difference between it and the brick-clay, or fossiliferous Boulder-clay. Mr. Milne Home,'* among other arguments against the theory that Boulder-clay has been formed by land-ice, remarks that he saw nothing forming in Switzerland at all comparable to Boulder-clay. Eeserving to ourselves a doubt on that subject, I can only say that long after my opinion regarding the identical cha- racter of the subglacial-stream-clay and the fossiliferous brick-clay was formed, a very illustrious Scandinavian Arctic explorer visited Edinburgh and declared, as soon as he saw the sections of Boulder- clay exhiljited near tb it city, that this was the very substance he saw forming in under the Spitzbergen ice. Many theoretical writers, however, confound the ordinary non-stratified azoic clay, and the finer, stratified fossiliferous clay. In this clayey bed the Arctic Mollusca and other marine animals find a congenial home, and burrow into it in great numbers. How- ever, as new deposits are thrown down, they keep near the surface, to be able to get their food ; so that if to-day a catastrophe were to overwhelm the whole marine life of the Arctic regions, it would be found (supposing by upheaval or otherwise we were able to verify the fact) that the animals would only be imbedded in the upper strata of clay, and that the bottom one, with the exception of a few dead shells, would be azoic ; yet I need not say how erro- neously we should argue if, from this, we drew the inference that. ' I am glad to find that, independently, this identical view is held by Mr. J. W. Tayler, who resided lor several years in Greenland, ' Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc.,' V. p. 90 (1861). •^ ' TrauP. Roy. Soc. Edin.,' vol, xxv. p. 661 ; and ' Estuary of the Forth ' (1871). by Mr. '(1871). THE SUB-GLACIAL STREAM. 41 at the time the bottom layers or strata of this laminated clay were formed, there was no life in the Arctic waters, or that they were formed under circumstances which prevented their being fossili- ferous. The bearing of this on the subject in question need scarcely be pointed out. It ought to be noted that, supposing we were able to examine the bottom of the Arctic Sea (Davis Straits, for instance), it would be found that this clayey deposit would not be found over the whole surface of it, but only over patches. For instance, all of the ice-fjords would be found full of it to the depth of many feet, shoaling off at the seaward ends ; and certain other places on the coast would be also covered with it ; but the middle and mouth of Davis Straits and Baffin Bay, and the wide inteivals between the different ice-fjordu, would either be bare or but slightly covered with small patches from local glaciers ; yet we should reason most grievously in error, did we conclude therefrom that the other portions of the bottom, covered with sand, gravel, or black mud, were laid down at a different period from the other, or under other different conditions than geographical position. These ice-rivers seem, in the first place, to have taken their direction according to the nature of the country over which the inland ice lies, and latterly according to the course of the glaciers. No doubt they branch over the whole country like a regular river-system.' When the glacier reaches the sea, the stream flows out under the water, and, owing to the smaller specific gravity of the fresh water, rises to the surface, as Dr. Rink describes. " like springs " — though I do not suppose that he considers (as some have supposed him to do) that that water was in reality spring- water, or of the nature of springs. ' It may be somewhat superfluous for me to say that these subglacial streams are totally different in nature from the streams which iiowed iu the old water- courses found under ',he drift iu v-ivious parts of the world. These were tlie beds of the preglacial rivers, and arf known to miners aa "sand-dykes," " washouts," (Sec. On the North Pacific slo;)e of the Rocky Mountains they are very common, and are eagerly sought for by the gold-minurd, the "old beds" tifenerally yielding a considerable amount of gold. In California, so thoroughly have they been explored by the gold-diggers that, if proper records had beci; kept, a map of the preglacial rivers might now be drawn, almost as detailed as ' aat of the postglacial or present river-system. The qourses of these ancient rivers appear to have been generrlly in the same direction, and to have liad their outlets in the valleys near about the same places as the present rivers. Sometimes these channels seem to cross nearly at right angles. The old Yuba channel, for instance, when its course was interrupted and diverted, ran through tlio site of the present village of " Timbuctoo," crossing the bed of the present river at Park's Bar ; thence running in a north-westerly course, and falling into the Rio do las Plumas (Feather River), near Oroville, a considerable distance from its present junction with that river at Marysville. These old channels exhibit the same windings and pre- cipitous falls as the present river; and they have been cut in varicas places by canons and ravines ; and portioi^ of tlie older deposit, carried down, mingle with the loose gravel and sand detached by more recent aqueous action. '■ ' ■ J 't i :i III ii '1 ii: : 42 THE SUB-OLACIAL STREAM. \¥\ Here are generally swarm" of Entomostraca and other marine animals, which attract flighi of gulls, which are ever noisily fight- ing for their food in the vicinity of such places. We lived for the greater portion of a whole summer at Jakobshavn, a little Danish post, 69° IS' n., close to which is the great Jakobshavn ice-fjord, which annually pours an immense quantity of icebergs into Disco Bay. In early times this inlet was quite open for boats ; and Nunatak (a word meaning a " land surrounded by ice ") was once an Eskimo settlement. There is (or was in 1867) an old man (Manyus) living at Jakobshavn whose grandfather was born there. The Tessi- usak, an inlet of Jakobshavn ice-fjord, could then be entered by boats. Now-a-days Jakobshavn ice-fjord is so choked up by bergs that it is impossible to go up in boats, and such a thing is never thought of. The Tessiusak must be reached by a laborious journey over land ; and Nunatak is now only an island surrounded by the in- land ice, at a distance — a place where no man lives, or has, in the memory of any one now living, reached. Both along its shore and that of the main fjord are numerous remains of dwellings long imin- habitable, owing to it being now impossible to gain access to them by sea. The inland ice is now encroaching on the land. At one time it seems to have covered many portions of the country now bare. In a few places glaciers have disappeared. I believe that this has been mainly owing to the inlet having got shoaled by the deposit of glacier-day through the rivers already described. I have little doubt that — Graah's dictum' to the contrary, notwitL 'anding — a great inlet once stretched across Greenland not far from this place, as represented on the old maps, but that it has also now got choked up with consolidated bergs. In former times the natives used to describe pieces of timber drifting out of this inlet, and even tell of people coming across ; and stories yet linger among them of the former occurrence of «nch proofs of the openness of the inlet." ' * Reiso til Ostkysten af Grunliintl,' 1832, and translated by Maedongall, 18'!7. * '* There ia another bay which I could not iiivostigato to its bottom on account of the iuniiense masaea of ice that were setting out, and which in called by t ho natives Ikak and Ikarsek {Sound). It runs between Karsarsuk and Kiiigdtok, and its length is from Karsarsuk to its end about 15 German miles ; it is Kitnutecl in 72° 48', and the sea, at its entrance, is ccjvered ))y numert)us islands. AH the nalivea living in this neighbourliood assured me uuaniuiously thut there had btjen a j)a8sage formerly to tlio other side of the land. They told me also that they Were afraid that, with heavy north-easterly gales, the ice would go off again, and that the people from the other aide, whom they describe as barbarians, would come over and kill them. They stated that, from time to time, carcasHos of whales, which had lieen killed on the other aide, pieces of wood, and fragments of utensils, were to bo seen driving uut of this buy." — Giosecke in Appendix to Scorcsby's ' Journal of a Voyage to the Nortiieru Whalelishery,' p. 4(!8. Owing to au erroneous note and rcfereikce obtained at .becoudhaud, I made it a])poar, in the THE SUB-GLACIAL STREAM. 43 All that wo know is, that such a transcontinental passage, if over it existed, is now shut up. The glacier and the ico-stream have not changed tlioir course, though, if the shoaling of the inlet ' goes on (and if the glacier continues at its head, nothing is more certain), then it is just possible that the friction of the bottom of the inlet may overcome the force of the glacier, and that the ice may seek another course. As the neighbourhood is high and rocky, this is hardly possible with the present contour of the land. At the present day, the whole neighbourhood of the mouth of the glacier is full of l)erg8 ; and often we nhould be astonished on some quiet sunshiny day, without a breath of wind in the bay, to see the " ice shooting out " (as the local phrase is) from the ice-fjord, and to make up with the little bay in front of our door in Jakobshavn Kirke covered with huge icebergs, so that we had to put off our excursion to the other side of the inlet ; and the natives would stand hungry on the shore, as nobody would dare put off in his kayak to kill seals, afraid of the falling of the bergs. In a few hours the bay would be clear, until another crop sprang out from the fjord. At any time it would be dangerous to venture near these bergs ; and the poor Greenlander often loses his life in the attempt, as the bergs, even when aground, have always a slight motion which has the effect of stimng up the food on which the seals sub- sist. Accordingly the neighlx)urhood of these bergs is favourable for seals, in the attempt to capture which the liapless kayak or not unfre([uently loses his life by falling ice. \ tti wo would row between two to avoid a few hundred yards' circuit, the rower vvould pull with muffled oars and bated breath. Orders would b* given in whispei's; and even were Sabine's gull or the great auk to swim past, I scarcely think that even the chance of gaining such a prize would tempt us to n: a the risk of firing, and thereby endangering our lives by the reverberations bringing down pieces of crumbling ice hanging overhead. A few strokes, and we are out of danger ; original paper of which this memoir is a partial reprint, as if this fjord spoken of in tiie preceding extract was Jakobshavn fjord, and that Jakobshavn fjord wns open to Ixiatsiu (Jiesecke's day. The erroi was of no great importance, but 1 have to thank Prof. Nordenskj«>ld for calling my attention to it. There is a tradition among the whalers that a whale was " strnck " on the East Coast of Grcoidand, near Scorcsby Sound, and was killed a few hours afterwards near Omenak Ejord, with the same harpoon in it — a certain proof of a passage across — if the utatement it true. Perhaps, owing to the fewer icebergs on the East Coast, Franz Joseph's Fjord or Scoresby Soniid may bo the open easterly ttirrnination of one of these fjords now cloaod by ice on the west Hide. See, on the question of the former or j)resent connection of the fjords on the East and West Coosts, Saabye's ' Green- land • (English '.rrans., 1818,") pp. 98-107. ' These inletJi are, in fact, the " friths '' of these ice-rivers. Indeed, the term is ar-tually used by some authors. 1^ Am ' ' 44 THE "SHOOTING OUT" OF ICEBERGS. ill I » and then the pent-up feelings of our stolid fur-clad oarsmen find vent in lusty huzzahs ! Yet, when viewed out of danger, this noble assemblage of ice palaces, hundreds in number being seen at such times from the end of Jakobshavn Kirke, was a magnificent sight ; and the voyager might well indulge in some poetic frenzy at the view. The noonday heat had melted their sides ; and the rays of the red evening sun glancing askance aioong them would conjure up fairy visions of castles of silver and cathedrals of gold floating in a sea of summer sunlight. Here was the Walhalla of the sturdy Vikings, here the city of the sun-god Freyr, Alfheim, with its elfin caves, and Glitner, with its walls of gold and roofs of silver, Gimle, more brilliant than the sun, Gladsheim, the home of the happy, and there, piercing the clouds, was Himlenberg, the celestial mount, where the bridge of the gods touches heaven.' Suddenly there is a swaying, a moving of the water, and our fairy palace falls in pieces, or with an echo like a prolonged thunder-peal, it capsizes, sending the waves in breakers up to our very feet. Some of these icebergs are of enormous size. Hayes calculated that one stranded in Baffin Bay, in water nearly half a mile in depth contained about 27,000,000,000 cu- bical feet of ice, and must have weighed not less than 2,000,000,000 tons. It is most probable that the cause of this " shooting out " of bergs from the ice-fjord of Jakobshavn is due to the force gene- rated by the detachment of a fresh berg from the glacier at th3 extremity of the fjord. Occasionally, at the time of this " shooting out," the waters of Jakobshavn harbour (a little fjord, the locality of a now extinct glacier) will rise and fall with such tremendous force as to snap a ship's cable. Actually the cable of the * Mari- anne,' a brig of 200 tons, was so broken in 1866. This wave is well- known to the Greenland Danes, under the name of the ' kaaneel.' '' Various theories aie afloat about it and its cause, which is not very well known; but as it only happens when the ice is *' shooting otit " in great quantities, it is most likely caused by the displacement of the vgluine of water confined in the inlet; and this wave is also lelt ouiside ; but its force is lost in the open sea. It is also exhibited at Omenak and other harbours, when the ice is shooting out of the ice-fjords in their vicinities ; but these harbours being situated at a greater distance from the scene of action, it is not so much felt as at JakobsLavn, close to the ice- fjord. From November to June, the fjords being frozen, there is no " shooting out " of bergs but in July, and more especially in Hayes, op, e. p. 24. - 1 spoil the uor«l phonetically. TFE MORAINES. 45 August, and on until late in a\itumn, they pour out in great numbers. In concluding what I have got to say regarding the subglacial rivers, I cannot help remarking that the eflfect of this great ice- covering over Grcc-z^and must be to thoroughly denude any soft sedimentary strata which might have reclined on the underlying igneous rocks at the time when the whole country got so over- spread. Now we know that during the later Miocene epoch the country supported a luxuriant vegetation, as evinced by the remains which I and others have collected from these beds.* I was struck, when studying this subject in Greenland, with the fact (though I have no desire to push the theory too far) that the only places where I did not see former ice-action were the very localities where these Miocene beds repose. These localities are a very limited district on either side of the Waigat Strait, on Noursoak Penin- sula, and Disco Island, neither of these localities having apparently been overlain at any time by the great inland ice. Noursoak Penin- sula juts out from the land, and only nourishes small glaciers of its own ; and Disco Island is high land, possessing a miniature inland ice or mer de glace, with defluent glaciers of its own. If the great inland ice had ever ground over this tract, I hardly think it possible that the soft sandstone, shales, and coal-beds could have survived the eflfects of this ice-file for any length of time. 5. The Moraines. — Moraines are usually classified as lateral, median, terminal, and j^rofonde^ or under the glacier. From the simple character of the Greenlander glacier, as described, it will be readily seen that the median moraine, formed by the junction of two lateral moraines, must be rare, while the terminal takes, ex- cept in rare instances, another form. Ordinary Alpine glaciers, when grinding down between the two sides of a mountain-gorge, get accumulated on their sides rubbish, such as earth, rocks, &c., which fall either by being undermined by the glacier, by frost, or by land-slips, until two lateral moraines are formed. If the glacier anastomoses with a second, it is evident that two of the lateral moraines will unite in the common glacier into a median one. When the glacier terminates, this moraine, carried along with it, is deposited at its base, and forms the terminal moraine. Over the ' Hoer, in the ' Philosophical Transactions, 1869,' pp. 445-488. In this treatise of Prof. Heer I have printed a few notes on the geology of these Miocene beds ; but, orving to an accident, I did not see them in proof. Hence there are several errors. The title of the paper is also apt to mislead. These geological and other points I have since corrected in a full account of the geology of the Waigat Straits, &c., with illustrative map (• Trans. Geol. Soc, Glasgow,' vol. v. part i. p. 5f)). * The term moraine profonde was first used by Hogard in his ' Coup d'oeil eur le terrain erratique dea Vosges' (1851), p. 10. .' H it;.; 1 iil: I" 46 THE MORAINES. lower face of a glacier, according to the heat of the day, some ma- terial is always falling, a thimbleful of sand, it may be, trickling down in the stream of water ; or a mass of stone, gravel, and earth may thunder over the edge. If the glacier advances, it pushes this moraine in front of it, or, it is possible, may creep over it and carry it on as a moraine profonde. This moraine profonde consists of the boulders, gravel, &c., which the glacier, grinding along, has carried with it, and which, adhering to its lower surface, help to grind down infrajacent rocks, and at the same time get grooved in a cor- responding direction. If the Greenland glacier does not reach the sea, then the programme of the Alpine glacier is repeated ; but when the lower end breaks on reaching the head of the Qord, then a different result ensues. The terminal moraine (if there is any ; for none comes over the inland ice, which leads me to believe that it does not rise in mountains ; and often the glacier is so short as to take little or none from the sides of its valley) floats off on the surface of the iceberg, and the moraine profonde either drops into the sea, or is carried further on in the base of the iceberg : very frequently this moraine profonde is composed of boulders and gravel, and it is rare that they are not dropped before the berg gets out of the fjord. The berg itself very often capsizes in the inlet, and de- posits what load it may have on its surface or bottom at the bottom of the sea ; and when it gets out of the inlet, as I have already described, it often ranges itself in the outside ice-stream ; and if it there capsizes, then the boulders lie on the bottom there, so that, if the floor of the sea were raised up, a long line of boulders would be found imbedded in a tenacious bed of laminated clay, with fossil shells and remains of other Arctic animals, skeletons of seals, heaps of gravel here and there, and so on, in what would then be a mossy valley, most likely the bed of some river. Again, allow me to re- mark that a berg may not capsize by pieces breaking off from above the water, but it may also lose its equilibrium (as is well known) by being worn away, as is most frequently the case, at the base, or (as is less known) by pieces calving off from below. If the berg ground on a bank or shoal, or in any other water not deep enough for its huge bulk to float in, it will often bring up from the bottom boulders, gravels, &c., deposited by former bergs, and carry them on until this material is deposited elsewhere ; when grounding, it will graze over the submerged boulders, or rocks just under water, grooving them in long grooves ; for an iceberg, it cannot be too often remembered, is merely a mountain of ice floating in the sea. In my earlier voyages in the Arctic regions I was rather inclined to under- rate the transporting-power of bergs, as I saw but few of them with any ing writ incli T( LIFE NEAR THE ICE-FJORDS. 47 any earth, rocks, or other land-matter on them. Though still believ- ing that this has been exaggerated to support their theories by some writers, ignorant, unless by hearsay, of the nature of icebergs,* lam inclined to think that I was in error. Towards the close of my voyage, in 1861, I had occasion to ascerd to the summit of many bergs when the seamen were water- ing the vessels from the pools of water on their summits ; and I almost invariably found moraine, which had sunk by the melting of the ice into the hollows, deep down out of sight of the voyager sailing past, but which would have been immediately deposited if the berg had been capsized. In 1867 I saw many bergs with masses of rock on them, and only at the mouth of Waigat one with a block of trap (?) so large, that it looked, even at a distance, like a good-sized house. The Greenland glaciers — or defluents of the inland ice — carry little moraine. The termininal moraines are therefore little marked in comparison with what a glacier of the same size would deposit in the Alpine or other mountain regions abounding in glaciers. Indeed, the Swiss glaciers in almost no degree repre- sent, even on a small scale, the great Greenland glaciation. It is unique. 6. Life near the Iw-fjorda. — In the immediate vicinity of the Jacobshavn ice-fjord (and I take it as the type of the whole) ani- mals living on the bottom were rare, except on the immediate shore or in deep water ; for the bergs grazed the bottom in moderately deep water to such an extent as almost to destroy anima. and vegetable life rooted tc the bottom. In this vicinity buncnos of alga9 were floating about, uprooted by the grounding bergs ; and the dredge brought up so little material for the zoologist's examination that, unless in deep water, his time was almost thrown away. Again, the heads of the inlets, unless very broad and open to the sea, are bare of marine life, the quantity of fresh water from the sub-glacial stream and the melting bergs being such as to make the neighbourhood (as in the Baltic) unfavourable for sea-animals. Some inlets are said to be so cold that fish leave them. I have not been able to CLufirm this in the Arctic regions. When stream- emptying lakes fall into the head of these fjords, having salmon in them, then seals ascend into the lakes in pursuit of them. Other localities, owing to the capricious distribution of life, would be barer » I have found, however, that much of the " discoloration " in bergs is caused by the brpwn leaves of the Cassiope tetragona and other plants, growing among the rocks abutting on tlie glaciers, and blown down upon them. The supposed inlluence of icebferga in dispersing plants by carrying their roots and seeds in moraine I have shown to be in- reality very little.— (' Ocean Highways,' 1873.) ■ I ; ;:'! i il |i ^A i Mr :.3!' 48 ACTION OF SEA-ICE. or more abundantly inhabited. Again, in shallow inlets, except for Crustacea or other free-swimming animals, the bottom, continually disturbed by the dropping of moraine or the ploughing up of bergs, would be unfavourable for life. Accordingly, if the bed of the Arctic Ocean in these places were raised, and we found the mouth of a valley with laminated beds of clay rich in Arctic shells, and the head bare of life, but still showing that the beds had been assorted by marine action, supposing we were (as in Scotland) ignorant, except by analogy, of the history of this, should we not feel justified in saying that the beds at the one place and the other were deposited under different conditions, and were in all likeli- hood of different ages ? How just that apparently logical inference would be I need scarcely ask. 6. Action of Sea-Ice. We have in the previous section in the most outline form sketched the subject of Greenland glacial action. As the object of this paper is not to form a summary of our knowledge on the subject, I have not entered into a discussion of any points on the physics of ice, further than was necessary to a right understanding of the subject in hand. Suffice it to say that all sea-ice forms originally from the " bay-ice " of the whaler, as the thin covering which first forms on the surfaces of the quieter waters is called, and that this " bay-ice " is almost entirely fresh, the effect of Arctic freezing temperature being to precipitate the salt. Hence, when we talk of the tempera- ture requisite to freeze salt water, it is merely equivalent to saying that this temperature is requisite for the precipitation of the saline constituents of the water. The water of the Arctic Sea is, accord- ing to Scoresby, of the specific gravity 1'0263.^ At this specific gravity it contains 61 oz. (avoird.) of salt to every gallon of 231 cubic inches, and freezes at 28^° Fahr. The specific gravity of this ice is about 0*873. To enter upon this subject, of which the above is only the summary of a long series of experiments, is foreign to the object of this paper. From this bay-ice is formed the floe, from the floe the pack-ice, and other forms familar to Arctic navi- gators. In the summer the ice in Davis Strait on either side breaks up sooner than that in the middle of the Strait, which remains for > In an interesting series of experiments by Dr. Walker of the Fox Expedition, it was shown that the bay-ice was never entirely free from salt. If sea water is frozen its specific gravity is 1'005, showing salts, especially chloride of sodium or common salts. Fresh water is often frozen on the surface of the salt.— (' Journ. Boy. Dublin Soc, I860,' vol. ii. pp. 371-380.) ACTION OP SEA-ICE. 49 a considerable time, forming the "middle ice" of the whalers. Still, however, a narrow belt remains attached to the shore during a considerable portion of the summer. This is called by the Danes in Greenland the " iis fod," and by the English navigators the "ice-foot." As the spring and summer-thaws proceed, land-slips occur, and earth, gravel, and avalanches of stones come thundering down on the ice-foot, there to remain until it breaks off from the coast, and floats out to sea with its raft-like load of land-debris. As the summer's long sunlight goes on, the ice, worn by the sea, parts with its loa'^ , and this may be shortly after its leaving the lands or it may float tolerably far south. The ice-foot, however, rarely carries its load as far south as the mouth of Davis Strait ; and sea- ice is seldom seen far out of the Arctic regions, while, as we all know, bergs often float far out into the Atlantic. Often fields of ice Avill float along and, like icebergs, graze the surface of rocks only a wash at low tides ; and therefore its action might be mistaken for that of icebergs or land-ice. In other cases I have known the ice- foot, laden with debris, to be driven up by the wind and high-tides on to low-lying islands, spits, and shores, piling them with the load thus carried from distant localities, so that blocks of trap from the shores of Disco or the Waigat might be drifted up on the beach at Cumberland Sound or on the gneissose shores of South Greenland. It has even been found that in shallowish water the ice will freeze to the bottom of the sea ; and in such situations the gravel, blocks, &c., there lying will freeze in and be carried out to sea, to be deposited in course of time in a manner similar to the superin- cumbent loads of the ice-foot, though more speedy. The same phenomenon holds good of the Baltic. In the Sound, the Great Belt, &c., the ground-ice often rises to the surface laden with sand, gravel, scones, and sea-weed. Sheets of ice, with included boulders, are driven up on the coasts during storms and " packed " to a height of 60 feet. How easily such sheets of ice, with included sand, gravel, or boulders, may furrow and streak rocks beneath may be imagined.^ The patches of gravel on the pack-ice are owing, I think, to portions of the gravel-laden ice-foot having got among the ordinary materials of the pack ; for I do not think that ice formed in deep water, unless when it passes over rocks, and therefore may take up fragments of stone or earth, has any geo- logical significance. » Forchhamraer in ' Bull, de la Soc. Ge'ol. de Fiance, 1847,' t. iv. pp. 1182-83; Lyell's 'Principles' (11th Ed.), vol. i., p. 383. E I ; i . ■ ■i! I ft V - ■ i .": I i y f m I >i ml ! I> V. ., 60 lllSE AND FALL OF THE GREENLAND COAST. Tho conclusions which we are forced to draw from what I have said regarding tho deposi ting-power of glacier-streams, bergs, and sea-ice must be : — 1. That the bottom of Davis Strait must be com- posed of various materials ; 2, That particular materials must pre- dominate in particular localities ; 3. That the bottom in the vicinity of ice-fjords and in fjords must be chiefly composed of clay, with boulders, gravel, and earth either scattered over it or in patches ; 4. That the mouth and centre of Davis Strait and various banks, such as Rif kol, must be chiefly composed of earth, gravel, boulders, &o., with little or none of the glacier-clay ; 5. That life must not be unift)rmly distributed through this bottom; 6. That though the lines of travelled blocks, boulders rubbed by grounding bergs, ice, or by being brought out as part of the moraine profonde, will be found scattered over eveiy portion of the sea, still they will chiefly be found in the lines of fjords and of the iceberg-stream ; 6. That the clayey bottom of deep inlets will be little disturbed, while that of shallow ones will be grooved and torn up by ground- ing bergs, &c. Rise and Fall of thk Greenland Coast. It may be asked — Have we any data for the conclusions in the foregoing paragraphs, further than logical inferences from observed facts justify us in drawing ? Yes, we have ; for there has been a rise of the Greenland coast, laying bare the sea-bottom, as just now there is a fall going on. This fact is not new ; on the contrary, it is notorious, but has been much misunderstood. We have the Danes telling us on the most irrefragable evidence that the coast is falling, while the Americans who wintered high up in Smith Sound, saw there, and in all the country they visited to the north of Wolstenholme Sound, raised sea-beaches and terraces, and accord- ingly say that it is rising in that direction, while, in truth, both of them are right, but not in the exclusive sense they would have us to imagine. There has been a rise ; there is a fall going on. We now supply the proofs. 1. Bise. — In Smith Sound both Kane's and Hayes's expeditions observed a number of raised terraces 110 feet above high tide-mark, the lowest being 32 feet. These were composed of small pebbles, &c. Hence they concluded that the coast was rising. I think it can be easily enough shown that this is only a portion of the old rise of the Greenland coast. The interval between this locality and the Danish possessions, commencing at 73° n. lit., has been so little examined either by the geographer or the geologist that we can lUSE AND FALL OF TITE GREENLAND COAST. .M say notliing about it ; but more to tho south, and along the whole extent of the Danish colonies, this raised portion of the sca-bottoni is seen. 'I'ho hills are low and rounded, and everywhere scattered with perched blocks, boulders, &c., many of them brought from northern or soxithern localities. In other localities, in the hollows or along the sea-shore, we see several feet of the glacier-clay (tho " brick- clay," in factj full of Arctic shells such as are now living in tho sea, Echinodermata, Crustacea, &c., while in other places, as might be expected from what I have said, the clay is bare of life. Tliis clay corresponds identically in many places with some of tho " brick-clays " of Scotland, though, as might bo expected from tho difference these clays partake of from the different rocks the tri- turition of which has given origin to them, they are in some pliines of different shades of colouring. In this glacier-clay (or shall I call it upper laminated Boulder-clay ?) all the shells found are of species still living in the neighbouring sea, with the exception of Glycimeris siUqiia, and Fanopcsa norvegica ; but as both of these are found in the Newfoiindland Sea, we may expect them yet to be shown to be living in Davis Strait.* I have seen this " fossili- ferous clay " up to the height of more than 500 feet above tho sea, on the banks overlooking glaciers. At the Illartlek glacier, in 69" 27' N. lat., this glacier-clay, deposited on the bottom of the sea by some former glacier, now formed a moraine ; and on the surface of the ice I picked up several species of shells which had got washed out by tho streams crossing over the glacier face. This Illartlek glacier does not reach the sea ; but supposing (as is doubtless the case elsewhere) that this clay had fallen on a glacier giving off ice- bergs, then the shells deposited in the old sea-bottom would be again carried out to sea, and a second time transferred to the bottom of Davis Strait ! I found this clay everywhere along the coast and in Leer Bay, south-west of Claushavn ; in knots of this clay are found impressions of the Angmaksaett (Mallotus arcticua, 0. Fabr.), a fish still quite abundant in Davis Strait.* However, though this glacier- clay was found everywhere along the coast, yet it should be noticed that this was chiefly when glaciers had been in fjords, &c., and that often for long distances it would be sparingly found only in valleys 3r depressions. Other evidences of the rise of the Greenland coast are furnished ' Morch in Tilljeg No. 7 til Rink's ' Gronland,' Bind 2, S. 143. ^ " In general, I may say," remarks Agassiz, when speaking of the closeness with which Tertiary fishes agreed witli recent ones, " that I have not yet found a single species which was perfectly identical with any marine existing fish, except the little species {Mallotus), which is found in nodules of clay, of unknown age, in Greenland." I am convinced that the age I have given is correct. b2 'i i, * r ''s\ hi ^)2 IIISK AND VA\A. OF TIIK (IIIKKNLAND COAST. by ruinH of houses being found hij;li above the water, in places whore no (ireonl.'inflor wonhl over tliink of bnihb"ng them now. On ITiindo (Dog) iHljind, in the diHtrict of Egiidesmindo, there are said to 1)0 two wnch houHes, and two little lakes with marine bIioIIs naturalised in them, and remains of fish-bones, &c., on the shores. I only heard Ihis when it was too late, so that to my regret I had to leave the cionntry without paying a visit to this remarkable locality. 2. Fall. — This has been long known ; but it is only within the last thiity years that special attention has boon drawn to the sub- ject, chiefly by Dr. Pingel,' who passed some time in Greenland. IMie facts are tolerably well known, how houses aie found jammed in by ico in places where they never would have been built by the natives, as Proven, and so on. It may, however, bo as well to recapitulate these proofs. lietween 1777 and 1779 Arctander noticed that in Igalliko Fjord (lat. 60^ 4lV N.) a small rocky island, " about a gun-shot from the shore," was entirely submerged at spring-tides ; yet on it were the walls of a house (dating from the period of the old Icelandic colonists) 52 feet in length, 30 in breadth, 5 in thickness, and 6 high. Fifty years later the whole of it was so submerged that only the ruins rose above the water. The settlement of Jiilianeshaab was founded in 1776 in the same fjord ; but the foundations of the old store-house, built on an island called " The Castle," are now dry only at very low water. Again, the remains of native houses are seen under water near the colony of Fredrikshaab (lat. G2° N). Near the great glacier which projects into the sea between Fred- rikshaab and Fiskernaesset, in 62'' 32' N., there is a group of islands called Fulluarlalik, on the shores of which are the ruins of dwell- ings which aie now overflowed by the tide. In 1758 the Moravian TJnitas Fratrum founded the mission establishment of Lichtenfels, about 2 miles from Fiskerntesset (lat. 63" 4') ; but in thirty or forty 3'ears they were obliged once, " perhaps twice," to remove the frames or posts on which they rested their large omiaks, or " women's " (seal- skin) " boats." The posts may j'et be seen beneath the water. To the north-east of Godthaab (lat. 64" 10' 36" N.,hmg. 51° 45' 5" w,'^) on a point called Vildmansnrcs (Savage Point) by Hans Egede, in 1721-30, several Greenland families lived. These dwellings are now desolate, being overflowed at high tide. At Nappersoak, ' ' Proc. Geol. Snc.,' vol, ii. p. 208. ^ According to observations by the late Cap.t. v. Fnlbc, of the Royal Dani.sli Nnvy, furnished to me by t'apt. II. Ii. M. Hoiin, of the Hydrogrnpliic Depart- ment, Oopenhfigen. UlSR AND FALL OF TIIR GREKNLAND COAST. :).t 4r> milas north of Sukkoitoppen (lat. O^y 26' 23" n., long. 52" 45' 25" w.), tho ruins of old Greonlaucl hoiiscH uio also to bo seen at low water. In Disco Bay I had another curioii; instance brought under my attention by Ilr. Noilsen, at tho date of my visit, Colonibestyrcr of Clau.shavn. The blubber-boiling house of that post was originally built on a little rocky itdet, about one-eigluji of .a mile fioni tlio nhoro, called by tho Danes " Speck-IIuseOe," and by the Eskimo " Krowe- Icnwak," which just moans the same thing, viz. " lilubber-house Island." For many years the island liad been gradually sinking, until, in 18G7, the year of our visit, llr. Noilsen had been under tho necessity of removing tho house from it, us tho island had been gra- dually subsiding until tho floor of the house was flooded at high tide, though, it is needless to say, sufficiently far above high-water mark when originally built. On another island in its vicinity tho whole of the Claushavn natives used to enctimp in the summer, for tho treble purpose of drying seals' flesh for winter use, of getting free from disturbance by tho dogs, and of getting somewhat relieved from tho plaguo of mosquitoes; but now tho islaml is so circum- scribed that the natives do not encamp there, the space above water not allowing of room for more than three or four skin tents. These facis are sufficient evidence that the coast of Greenland is falling at the present time ; and i doubt not that if there were observers stationed in Smith Sound for a sufficiently long time, it would bo found that the coast is also falling there, though hitherto only Kano and Hayes havo stayed there, but for too short a period to decide on the matter ; and I cannot see that there is the slightest reason why tho fall should halt at Kingatok (n. lat. 73^ 43'), tho most northern Danish post, and the most northerly abode of civilised man. Circumstances have only allowed of its being noted so far. Hr. Keilsontold me that he considered that Disco Island, opposite Claushavn, was rising, because the glaciers were on the increase. I think that if there is no mure evidence than this for that sup- posed fact, we may lay it aside as erroneous, because the glaciers are undoubtedly increasing by the increase of the interior mer de glace on the island, and by the regular descent which they are making to the sea. Disco Island is a miniature edition of Green- land ; it has its inland ice, its defluent glaciers, and its sub-glacial rivers, which sweep the denuded material from beneath the ice. I have made an attempt to estimate the rate of fall ; and though we have no certain data, yet I believe that it does not exceed 5 feet in a century, if so aiuch ; so that none of us will live to see Greenland overspread l>y the sea. Such at least are the views 1 ..!•'.■ J,, i,. 'Hi'^:: r r i r4 APPLICATION OF FACTW RKGARDING ICE-ACTION. have arrived at from a careful study of this question. Little doubt remains in my mind as to its correctness. The only serious reason for hesitating to ask the reader to accept this elucidation of the subject is, that it would appear that for some indefinite period theie has been a gradual elevation of most of the circumpolar region going on. The facts in regard to this have been carefully collated by Mr. H. Iloworth,^ though it must be acknowledged with apparently a foregone conclusion, or at least a strong bias to the doctrine he has espoused, and to his memoir the reader can be safely recommended. One fact I may mention, which I am not aware has been noticed by Mr. Ho worth. A few years ago the Norwegian walrus hunter discovered a group of small islets north of N ovai Seraliii. They were merely sandy patches scattered, with boulders dropped from icebergs which had at one time floated over them, raised but a few feet above the sea — " . . . . inlands salt and bare, The haunt of seals and ores and Beamows' clang." On some of the islets — notably on Hellwald's and Brown's — were found West Indian fruits washed up by the Gulf Stream ; hence they were named " The Gulf Stream Islands." Yet only about two centuries ago the Dutch took soundings on the veiy spot where these islands have since been gradually raised above the sea. It is also said that the w^ vie (^Balcena mysticetus) has left the Spitzbergen Sea, owing to the waters having got too shallow for it, on account of the gradual rise of the bottom. On Franz Joseph's Land there are also raised beaches. The whole question is an important and interesting one for the naturalists of the present Arctic Expedition to attempt the solution of. Here I may point out what seems to be a fallacy in the reasoning of those authors who write about the denuding powers of rivers, and calculate that such and such a country will be overwhelmed by the sea in so many millions of years. Whatever the land loses by denudation the sea gains ; and therefore the two forcee keep pace with each other. We thus see in Greenland two appearances : (1) In the interior what Scotland once was ; (2) on the coast what Scotland now is. 7. Al'PHCATlON OF THE FaCTS REGARDINa ARCTIC ICE-ACTION AS EX- PLANATOUY OF GlACIATION AND OTHER ICEREMAINS IN BRn'Am. In the paper referred to,'' and in the geological portion of the • ' Jonrn. of the Roy. Geog. 8w\,' vol. xliii. (187a). p 240. - 'Quart. Journ. (Jeol. Soc.,' vol. xxvii. p. 071 ; also 'Popular Srieuce Roview,' August, 1871, and April, 1875; and more popularly in Kingsley's ''J'owu Geology,' pp. 48-52. APPLICATION OF FACTS REGARDING ICE-ACTION. 55 Royal Society's ' Manual of the Natural History of Greenland,' as well as in the instructions by the distinguished head of the (> co- logical Survey of Great Britain — than whom there is no higher authority on the subject in Britain — will doubtless enter fully into the application of the foregoing facts as affording some explanation of the puzzling deposits of late geological age in Britain, and other portions of the northern hemisphere, and known as the " glacial beds " or remains. Wo are still far from understanding fully all the phenomena presented by these glacial remains. Still, as it is only by the study of a country like Greenland, which is in a condition similar to that which Scotland and a great portion of the northern hemisphere are believed to have been during the glacial period, it may be well, though this is not the place for geological details, to briefly recapitulate the general conclusions which I have arrived at from the study of Greenland ice : — (1.) The brick clays or laminated fossiliferous clays of Scotland, &c., are exactly the same as the clays now filling up the Greenland fjords from the mud-laden streams which flow from under the glaciers, and are due to the same or similar agents acting during the " Glacial period." These agents must have been acting at that period, and the clay formed from these sub-glacial streams has never yet been accounted for. (2.) The non-fossil iferous " till," though there are still appear- ances in this non-stratified deposit that we cannot account for, is in all likelihood the representation of the moraine profonde of the great ice-cap. Had it been moraine dropped from icebergs, as has been argued, even supposing that icebergs could deposit it so uniformly over great tracts and to such a thickness, it would have been fossiliferous and stratified. It is neither. (3.) Kaimes, Osars,' Escars, &c., are only the "banks" of the old glacial seas. Some may be of fresh-water origin, but most are marine. (4.) The angular " travelled blocks " (the " foundlings " of the Swiss mountaineers) have been dropped by icebergs floating over the submerged country. The rounded ice-borne boulders are part of the moraine profonde. The conclusions thus briefly summarised, with the deductions as to the former state of Scotland, will be found fully stated in the memoirs and works referred to. Lastly, the observer ought to guard against supposing that, in the old glacial seas or on the glacial lands, life was poor. If we are to judge the past by the present, we have no right to suppose any such thing. The rarity of life in many of the glacial beds need not be ' A Swedish word so pronouncod, but written Asar or Aasar, 1 i\ ■l< \ W" f : I'll j III ml r i I M II 56 APPLICATION OF FACTS REGARDING ICE-ACTION. I 1 ' 1 wondered at when we consider the capi-icious and oven sporadic distribution of life in the fjords of Greenland. It is possible also^as Lyell suggests, that animal life was originally scarce ; for " wo read of the waters being so chilled and freshened by the melting of icebergs in some Norwegian and Icelardio fjords that the fish are driven away and all the moUusca killed." ^ He also points ont most jnstl)' that, as the moraines are at the first devoid of life, if trans- ported by icebergs to a distance, and deposited where the ice melts, they may continiio as bai'ren of every indication of life as they were where they originated. That the freshening of the water of fjords does destroy or prevent animal life developing, I have already shown ; but 1 doubt whether the chilling lias much, if any, effect ; and the recent researches of Carpenter, Jeffreys, Thomson, and others, show that the idea which was sTiggestcd, that the sea might then be too deep for animal life, is without foundation ; for life seems, as far as our present knowledge goes, to have no zero ; besides, the shells found in the glacial formations are not deep-sea shells. Again, we must be careful to avoid concluding that the plant- and animal-life on the dreary shores or mountain-tops of the old glacial Scotland v/as poor. In Greenland, the ouTskirting islands support a luxuriant phanerogamic vegetation of between 300 and 400 species of plants f the sea is full of fishes and inverte- brates, which shelter in forests of Algaj. Plants even ascend to tho height of 4000 feet. Millions of seals and whales, and of many species, sport in these waters, or aie killed in tliousands every spring on the pack-ice or land-floes. Every rocik is swarming and noisy with the cries of water-fowl ; reindeer browse in countless herds in some of the valleys; tho Arctic fox barks its hue/ hue! from the dreariest rocks in the depth of winter ; and the polar bear is on the range all tho year round. Land-biixls from soi'thern regions come here for a nesting-place,' and from the snowy valleys the Greenlanders will bring in the depth of winter sledge-loads of ptarmigan into the Danish posts. Life is so abundant that the Danish Government find it profitable to keep up trading-posts there, and the collect'ng and preserving of the skins, oil, and ivory of the native animals afford profitable employment to a con- siderable population. Independently of tho fish eaten, the seals Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man,' p. 2G8. ^ The present writer, in little more than two montiis, amid many otlier occu- pations, collected on the shores and in the vicinity of Ui.-oo Bay alone, 12!) Hpecies of tlowtriug plants and vascnl r cryptof^ams, more thun 40 mosses, 11 Uepaticuj, more than 100 Lichens, inchu nLC many new species, f^lioiit ,50 Alp;a3, and several Fungrii]ilis of (iroenland Mammals in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London ' for 1808, and in ' Petermunn's Geographisclie Mittiieilungen,' 18Gi). Il: ;i 11 . M i;l i' il 1 i if If i n 58 THE FORMATION OF FJORDS. 8. On the Formation of Fjohds.' Intersecting the sea-coasts of various portions of the world, more particularly in nortliern latitudes, are deep, narrow inlets of the sea, surrounded generally by high precipitous clitfs, and varying in length from 2 or 3 miles to 100 or more, variously known as " inlets," '* canals," " fjords," and even, on the wo»tern shores of Scotland, as "lochs." The nature of these inlets is everywhere identical, even though existing in widely-distant parts of the world, so much so as to suggest a common origin. On the extreme north-west coast of America they intersect the sea-line of British Columbia to a depth, in some cases of upwards of 100 miles, the soundings in them showing a great depth of water, high precii^itous walls on either side, and generally with a valley towards the head. On the eastern shore of the opposite Island of Vancouver no such inlets are found, but on the western coast of the same island they are again found in perfection ; showing that, in all probability, Vancouver Island was isolated from the mainland by some throe of Nature prior to the formation of the present "canals" on the British Columbia shore, but that the present inlets on the western shore of Vancouver Ibland formed, at a former period, the sea-board termination of the mainland, and were dug out under conditions identical with those which subsequently formed the fjords now intersecting the coast. Jervis Inlet may be taken as the type of nearly all of these inlets here, as well as in other portions of the world. It extends in a northeriy direction for more than 40 miles, while its width rarely exceeds 1^ mile, and in some places is even less. It is hemmed in on all sides by mountains of the most rugged and stupendous character, rising from its almost perpendicular shores to a height of from 5000 and GOOO feet. The hardy pine, whore no other tree can find soil to sustain life, holds but a feeble and uncertain tenure heie ; and it is not uncommon to see whole mountain sides denuded by the blasts of winter or the still more certain destruction of the avalanche which accompanies the thaw of summer. Strikingly grand and magnificent, there is a solemnity in the silence and utter desolation which prevails here during the months of winter, not a native, not a living thing to disturb the solitude ; and though in the summer a few miserable Indians may occasionally be met with, and the reverberating echoes of a hundred cataracts disturb the ' Abriilf^ed, witli nddit.imis iu IS la Is |o that I am adopting other men's ideas, I hasten to say I have recently learned that, without exactly explaining tlie formatio;. ^t fjords as I have done, both Professors Dana and Kamsay had some years previously hinted at a similar explanation ; and more recently. Dr. Archibald Ge'Vie, Murchison Professor of Geology in the University of Edinburgh, a- id Director of the Geological Survey of Scotland, has suggested that possibly the "lochs" on the west coast of Scotland might be so accounted for. Though none of these gentlemen took exactly the same view as I have done, or gave it such a general application, yet I am glad to have the support of men so able as they. I may be, therefore, excused if I add them as supporters of the glacier-bed t'leory of fjords. Professor Eamsay ' says : " i^'urthermore, as the glacialated sides and bottoms of the Korwegian tjords and of the salt-water lo hs of Scotland seem to prove, each of these arms of the sea is only the prolongation of a valley down which a glacier flowed, and was itself tilled with a glacier. ... In parts of Scotland, some of these lochs being deeper in places than the neighbouring sea, 1 incline to attribute this depth to the grinding power of the ice that of old flowed down the valley's, when, possibly, the land may have been higher than now." Professor Geikie gives utterance to very similar views.^ More recently still, Mr. J. Murphy, in a paper read to the Geological Society,'^ some mouths after mine was read to the Eoyal Geographical Society, apparently in entire ig- norance of the writings of his predecessors, gives utterance to views even more decided regarding the part glaciers have played in the formation of fjords. His words are worth quoting . " Not many coasts in the world u^'e cut up into fjords ; and nearly all that are 8o are western coasts in high latitudes. The fjord-formation is found in >.!'rth- Western Europe, including Norway, the West of Scotland, and the West of Ireland ; in North America from Van- couver island northward, and in South America fi-om the Island of Chiloe southward. From Vancouver Island to Chiloe is an im- mense stretch of nearly straight coast-line; but, at these liinits, its character changes quite abruptly. The transition from straight to indented coast-lines coincides pretty equally with that from dry to moist climates; and the change from the dry climate of <'hili to the moist one of Western Patagonia is accompanied, as we might expect, by a depression of the snow-line on the Andes. It is now generally believed that the prevalence of lakes in high latitudes is, M ' Op. cit., vol. xviii. p. 20i{. « • Scenery of Scotland,' pp. 127, 183, &c. ' ' Quiirterly Journal of the Gcnlngicftl Society,' vol. xxv. p. 354. II- M !'■ 1 \i I n II ifl !,:!:: I i'l 70 NOHDENSKJOLD ON FJORDS. in some way, a result of glacial action : it can scarcely be dauhted that this is equally true of fjords, and the coasts I have mentioned are those on which glacial action must necessarily be the most energetic ; because west coasts in high latitudes are exposed to west wiT^ds (Maury's ' countertrades'), which deposit on the mountains in snow the moisture they have taken up from the sea." 7. Nordenshjuld on Fjords. — There is no scientific man living better acquainted with the varied phenomena of Arctic ice-action and Physical Greography than Professor Nordenskjold, and these are his words, speaking of the Greenland shore :^ — *' The deep Qords evidently scooped out by glaciers." I do not pit these authorities against the opponents of the glacier- bed theory of fjords; but only to show that, in supposing that glaciers and fjords have an intimate connection, I am not alone, as might be supposed from merely reading the arguments brought against my paper in this Society's ' Journal.' 9. The Northern Termination of Greenland. What will be found to be the northern termination of Greenland is one of those geographical problems which, like the more trivial question of " What songs the Sirens sang," though d, subject of legi- timate speculation, is yet at the same time a matter which can only be settled by an Expedition like the one now preparing. Dr. Peteriiiann has hazarded the opinion that Greenland stretches across the Pole and joins Wrangol Land north of Behring Strait. Without being able to express any decided opinion pro or con., this hypo- thesis of the illustrious German geographer, except that it is just as reasonjbh; »« any other — but not more so — and as ingenious as is everything which emanates from the mind of my excellent friend, I think that recent discoveries p(jint to the northern torminatiuu being somewhat diflFcrent. Most likely it will bo found that Greenland will end in a broken series of islands forming a Polar archipelago. That the continent (?) is itself a series of such islands a^id islets — consolidated by moans of the inland ice — I have already shown to 1)0 highly probable, if not absolutely certain, as Giesccke and Scoresby affirmed (p. 25). It is not likely that the northern portion will be widely different. 'J'ho far (host view we have as yet had of it points to a group of broken islttu. The open sea, or sea at least without any continuous I t Kodopiirolff for on ExjioditiMn till (IWltiliuul, Ar 1870' (Oversigt af K. Vet.-Akud. I'iJth. 1870, No. 10), nail tiunci. ' iiwl Magaziuo, 1872,' p. 801. '. \.i.\.-.,» A\VvO».'H\-.».V?. V'; THE NORTHERN TERMINATION OF GREFNLAND. 71 i or extensive floes, would seem to show that there in no narrow strait which would prevent the sea being cleared of ice in that direction. Farragut Point, and the other headlands which figure dimly on the map of the Polaris expedition, are probably capes of such islands. ISowhere in the Arctic Ocean have we found great unbroken stretches of land, and Greenland will most probably prove no exception to the rule. That huge glaciers, like the Humb«jld glacier or those of Melville Bay, do not form the northern wall appear to me almost certain from the following facts : High up on the Greenland shore of Smith Sound we find the musk-ox ((Vi&o« moschatus) ; but this laige and essential Arctic mammal is perfectly unknown south of Wolstenholme Sound. The glaciers 8».»uth ai that point seem to have formed an impassable barrier to its further progress, for the little difference in climate could have but a NTiall effect on its range. In the winter season any portion of Greenland in suflBciently cold for it, and Smith's Sound in the summer is not much colder than most of the other parts of the continent. There must be, thorefore, some physical cause for its being confined to that portion of the Greenland coast. Now comes in another most remark- able fact. On Shannon Island and the vicinity, in 74° n.l. (several degrees southward of where it roams on the opposite coast), the German Expedition to East Greenland found the musk-ox in great abundance. Again, so far as we know, it is as perfectly unknown on the south-eastern Greenland shores as it is on the south-western. How did it come across, for across Greenland it must have come ? It is an American animal, and is nowhere found in Arctic Europe or Asia. It coiild not have travelled 700 or 800 miles across the inland ice, for such a large animal, independently of other con- siderations requires a large quantity of food, which it could not have obtained on that icy waste. It must necessarily have passed over on dry land, where willows or other dwarf Arctic plants, on which ,it subsists, could be found. It might easily travel short distances on the frozen ice from island to island, and thus double the northern termination of Greenland, and stretch down the east coast for some distance, until again it met with an impassable barrier to its southern progress. Take one further zoological illustration — and these illustrations, though seemingly trivial in themselves, are yet of extreme zoo- geographical interest — as tending to show that the Greenland land must end not far north of latitude 82^ or 83°. In J 822, Scoresby discovered a lemming near Scoresby's Sound on the cast coast, which was named M.is Grce aland icua. It is now known to be a (ilimatic variety of the Euroi)oan species, viz., Mi/offes (orqtuUus. Hi I • 1 : 1 ;i fit ; I ': ? ! t |; hj "2 THE NORTHERN TERMINATION OF GREENLAND. Scoresby's specimen .remaiued for long unique in the Edinburgh Museum, until in 1869 and 1870 the German Expedition found it in abundance on the same coast. This fact was interesting in itself, for it is unknown in the region, so far as has been ex- plored further to the south, and in all parts of the west coast of Greenland explored up to the date of the Polaris Expedition. How- ever, that Expedition found it not at all uncommon on the shores of the niost northern reaches of Smith Sound (or the continuation of the gulf which goes under that name). The variety appears the same as on the east coast, but different from the lemming of the western shores of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, which is Myodes hudsonius. Again the question suggests itself, how has this animal found its way across Greenland to the east coast, or vice versa ? That its route has not been across the inland ice we may consider certain ; we may be sure it has been where food and footing could be found. In its migrations it will most likely be found to have been a com- panion of the musk-ox. The European ermine (Mustela erminea, L.) was also found by the German Expedition on the north-eastern coast, but is quite unknown on the west. If it should be found in Smith Sound also, the fact would fcrm another remarkable zoo- geographic il problem for the English Polar Expedition to solve. Lastly, it is, I venture to suggest, probable, or at least not im- probable, that the aborigines, who to a small number now, but at one time in greater numbers, inhabited the east coast of Greenland did not stretch up from Cape Farewell as colonists from the west coast, but doubled the northern end of the country from the Smith Sound region. Like the Smith Sound people, the east coast Eskimo seem to want the ka}ak ; and it would be an interesting point to compare the implements, &c., of the remnant of '' Arctic Highlanders" now living in Smith Sound, with the Eskimo of the south-eastern coast, and with the remains which the German Expedition discovered in the graves, which are noAV the only repre- sentatives of the fur-clad hunters and fishers who once inhabited that part of the coast explored by these intrepid voyagers. If it should be found that the Greenland coast trends on the east towards the west and on the west towards the east, as there is some ground for believing, it is just possible that the English Arctic Expedition might be able to double the northern extremity of the continent, more especially if a sea comparatively free of fixed ice (I will not venture to say " an open Polar sea ") be found to lave its northern shores. Once on the eastern shores of Green- land, the observations of Captain David Gray, a Peterhead whaler, who last summer penetrated through the Spilzbergen ice-stream, ! ';'? (D. Edinburgh ;ioa found nteresting i been ex- st coast of on. How- ie shores of jntinuation ippears the ling of the I is Myodes this animal ersa^ That der certain ; Id be found, been a com- erminea, L.) orth-eastern Id be found arkable zoo- to solve. sast not im- now, but at »f Greenland •m the west the Smith east coast interesting of " Arctic Eskimo of Itho German only repre- !e inhabited Irs. lends on the |t, as there is jthe English [n extremity krely free of ") be found les of Green- lead whaler, ice-stream, DEIUTEABLE POINTS REGARDING GREENLAND. 73 and found open water to the north,' would seem to point out that the course of the expedition would then be clear. Such a feat in geographical importance and naval enterprise would be only second to the doubling of the northern termination of America — in other words, to the discovery of the north-west passage as achieved by M'Clure. 10. Debateable Points regarding the Physical Structurk of Greenland. Attention need scarcely be called to the fundamental point of all, viz., the improvement of ov r knowledge of the geography of the coast-line ; to that, no doubt, the main efforts of the Expedition will be devoted. We know, as has been shown, comparatively little of the interior, and even the few expeditions which have attempted to penetrate eastward have only reached a few miles from the coast. Are there any mountains in the interior ? — a ques- tion which I have ventured, reasoning from the facts before us, to answer in the negative : but Dr. Kink, incomparably the greatest of all authorities on Greenland, is (p. 58) by no means so positive on this question ; perhaps he is right. What is the nature of the soil under the ice ? Is it of the same character as the boulder-clay of Britain ? The many points which ought to be investigated under these heads will appear in the geological instructiontj or will be evident to the reader after perusing the section on the " Green- land Glaciers and Ice." Has the ice an abrading power ? This is almost perfectly cer- tain ; yet some observers — and still more some theorists — have attempted to deny this. Make every examination of the raised beaches on the shores of Smith Sound, and try, if possible, to test the question whether the shores of Smith Sound are actually rising, or are falling like the southern coast. On this point Mr. James Geikie, of the Geological Survey of Scotland — a most competent authority en all questions touching glacial deposits — suggests to me that " it would be very interesting to have determined whether the raised beaches of Greenland give any indication of changes of climate, such as having been observed in these deposits in Spitzbeigeii. Great banks of Mytilus edulis, Cyprlna islandica, and Litto'rina liltorea, occur in that island, and now are even found living in the Spitz- bergen sea. It is true that Mytilus is occasionally seen attached to algai in tliose regions, but such rare birds are but poor representa- ' Petermanu'a ' Goographiaeho Mittheiluugen,' March 1875. I .11 ii If 74 DEBATEABLE POINTS REGARDING GREENLAND. i tives of the banks of the same shell which are met with in the same island. Mr. Nathorst, of the Swedish Geological Survey, tells me that in 1870 he examined these shell-banks, and found one made up of Mytilus resting upon a scratched rock surface (now far removed from any glacier), and the scratches ran parallel with the fjord. The Mytilm still lives in Greenland, as does also Cyprina islandica, but Littorina littorea does not. Heer notices these circum- stances in his paper ' Die Miocens Flora und Fauna Spitzbergens.' ^ It would be worth while, I think, for the naturalists attached to the Arctic Expedition to examine any raised beaches they may come across, with a view to discover whether the facts bear on the con- clusions drawn by Swedish geologists, for it is difficult to believe that a considerable change of climate could take place in Spitz- bergen without also leaving traces in North Greenland." All these questions are of deep philosophical interest, and to their solution the members of this Expedition are invited to apply them- selves. We have shown, and the other portions of this manual only confirm the remark, that in Greenland there is still much for the geographer to do, and that when an ancient mariner wrote, 200 years ago, that " Greenland is a country very farre Northward, . . . the land wonderful! mountainous, the mountaines all the year long full of yce and snow, the plaines in part bare in summer-time . . . where growes neither tree nor hearbe . . . except scurvy-grass and sorrell . . . the sea ... as barren as the land, aflPording no fish but whales, sea-horses, seals, and another small fish . . . and thither there is a yearely fleet of English sent," ^ he only wrote in accordance with the knowledge of his time — and time has not confirmed honest Edward Pellham's dictum. « ' Ofversigt af Kongl. Svenska Vet. Akad. Fuvhand.' Band. 8, N'. 7, p. 23. « In reality, though after the fashion of hia time styling it " Greenland," the devout old mariner— -first of that long lino of English seamen who have had the courage to winter in Spitzbergen, and the good fortune to come back to tell the tale— was describing Spitzbergeu ; but the (^notation is sufficiently apropos to remain without any very strict geographical criticism. ( 75 ) 11. ON THE BEST MEANS OF REACHING THE POLE. By Admiral Baron von Wranqkl.* The vast accumulation of ice — which covers the northern seas in immense fields, high hills, and small islands — subjects the navi- gator in these waters to incessant danger and anxiety : to struggle with the elements, to overcome obstaCiCS, to be familiarised with dangers — all this is so habitual to the seaman, that he is some- times even dull without it. The contirual, uniform, and quiet navigation in the regions of the trade- .vjnds excites in the sailor a desire for change : he encounters a squall, ■jvith joy, welcomes even a storm in the seas beyond the tropics not without a certain pleasure ; and, confident in his skill, in the activity and indefati- gable energy and experience of his crow, in the strength of his vessel and soundness of all her parts, he does not fear the terrible powers which so often put to the trial all his patience and all his coolness. Such being the ordinary feeling of the seamen, it is not astonishing that the Frozen Ocean has long attracted the naviga- tors of all nations, but in particular those of England — that country which has an indisputable right to be regarded as the first of all maritime nations. Without taking into consideration the great number of whalers, who have carried on their trade among the mountains of ice in the most remote latitudes of the Atlantic, England has sent out fifty-eight distinct expeditions to discover a shorter passage to the Pacific, either by the north-west or north- cast channel, from the time of John Cabot (1497) to George Back ( 1836) : not one of these has been crowned with complete success. In all those enterprises, however, one common aim, not specified in the instructions, has ever been kept in view ; and this aim has been more or less attained by every successive attempt — the maintenance of the spirit of enterprise and the support of a laud- .; K,;iiiliil 1 1 m m :;'!1 1 ':l;i 76 PAIUIY'S VIKWS. able national pride, in the attainment of the laurels of disinterested exploits, for the advantage of science, trade, and navigation— the true sources of power and glory to every maritime people. When, after nearly three centuries and a half, scientific men, and even navigatoi's, were persuaded of the improbability of the existence of a north-west or noi'th-east passage to the Pacific, practicable for trade, the evident aim for new enterprises was transferred to the invisible point of the earth — the North Pole. The expedition of Captain Buchan, and the fourth voyage of the indefagitable Parry, were undertaken expressly with that view. This question, supported by the celebrated Barrow, has been again moved in England, and has resulted in the exchange of opinions on this subject between navigators and scientific men. Captain Sir William Edward Parry, in a letter, dated the 25th of November, 1845, to Sir John Barrow, proposes in a short out- line a new plan for the expedition. Following the principles there traced, a party would not, he thinks, meet with any of the difficulties encountered by Parry himself in the latitude of 82° 45' N., or about I"" to the N. of the extreme point of Spitz- bergen, M^iich wa« the starting-point of the Polar Expedition. Having unequivocally assigned as the chief causes of failure in those attempts — to which, however, no others can be compared with respect to the difficulties overcome — l.st., the broken, uneven, and spongy state of the ice, covered with snow ; and 2ndly., tlio drift of the whole mass of ice in a southerly direction — Captain Parry proposes, in order to avoid these unfavourable circumstances, that the ship euiployed in the projected expedition should winter at the northern point of Spitzbergen, and the party particularly designed for the attainment of the Pole should leave the vessel in April. About 100 miles north of this point there should be pre- viously prepared a store of provisions, so that the party, at the commencement of its journey, should not be too heavily laden ; and about the time of its return, according to the reckoning of Parry, in the course of May, there should be sent out another detachment with provisions to meet it about 100 riiles further from the place where the ship is wintered. Captain Parry founds his hopes of success on the supposition that, in April and May, the party would proceed about 30 miles a-day along the ice, which would then oifer an immovable, solid, and unbroken surface. He also thinks it advisable to provide the expedition with reindeer. Finding it difficult to make these ideas of Captain Parry accord with those which I entertain respecting the state of the ice and the circumstances indispenbable to success in travelling along its broke 1821. fccord 1 and its EMPLOYMENT OF REINDEER. 77 surface, I beg leave to express my doubts, and submit my ideas on this subject. Expeditions were undertaken in the years 1821, 1822, and 1823, in the Siberian Frozen Sea, from two points of departure, distant one flora the other, in the diiection of the parallel, more than 1000 miles, viz., from the mouths of the rivers Lena and Kolvma. These expeditions occupied an interval from about the end of February to the beginning of May (O.S.), and the state of the ice does not at all seem to have been such as Captain Parry sup- poses it to be, to the north of Spitzbergen, in the course of April and May (N.S.). liieutenant (now Rear- Admiral) Anjou was stopped by thin and broken ice moving in different directions, in 1821. April 5 (O.S.) at the distance of 20 J talian miles"! from the nearest shore \^-J>^ *^« I«^*"d 1822. March 22. 22 Italian miles J I^o^elnoy. „ April 14. 60 „ E. of New Siberia. {N. of the islands at the mouths of the Lena. The expedition commanded by the author, which took its de- parture from the mouth of the Kolyma, encountered the same impediments : — In 182 L April 3, at 120 Italian miles ^^ ^ , ,,1822. „ 12, atlGO , IN. of the nearest „ 1823. March 23, at 90 „ ) ^"'^'■®- But on the 27th of March the masses of ice, which were separated from each other by large channels of open water, were driven about by the wind and threatened the voyagers with destruction. My hypothesis is founded on the above facts, collected during a three years' navigation in a sea whose depth is not more than 22 fathoms, and which is, so to say, landlocked to the south by the Siberian coast, and there defended from the winds and waves over a space of 180° of the compass ; whereas the sea on the meridian of Spitzbergen has a considerable depth, and is exposed to the swell of the whole Atlantic. Therefore I cannot concur in Captain Parry's hopes that the ice can be in a state favourable to the execution of a journey towards the north in April and May. Captain Parry's calculations as to the possibility of advancing 30 miles a-day seem to imply the employment of reindeer, and would render it necessary to provide the expedition with those animals : we must, therefore, conclude that that officer expects to obtain the necessary rapidity by the assistance of reindeer. If I i^ :• li'lll 78 SMITH SOUND ROUTE. i: ii I Hi! am warranted in this supposition, I must remark that reindeer are far from being capable of advancing over the uneven surface of the ice, and are besides too weak to carry heavy burdens. Sir John BaiTow, in his work ' Voyages of Discovery and Re- search within the Arctic Regions,' &c., publishes the above-men- tioned letter of Captain Parry, disapproving, however, his proposed plan, and anticipates greater success in the enterprise by accom- plishing it in small sailing-vessels, fitted with the Archimedian screw (like the ships Erehus and Terror), and steering northward on the meridian of Spitzbergen : in other words — Barrow proposes the repetition of the former attempts, notwithstanding their failure, expecting success from more favourable circumstances. But here a question is naturally suggested — may there not exist means of reaching the Pole other than those which have been hitherto resorted to — means not liable to tho various inconveniences already encountered during the several expeditions undertaken from the coasts of Siberia towards the north upon the surface of the ice, and which must be encountered in proceeding on foot, as Captain Parry proposes ? The last Siberian expeditions were executed in a particular kind of sledges, called " Narty," drawn by dogs. The expedition, un- dertaken from the mouth of the Kolyma, travelled in this manner in 1823 (from the 26th February to the 10th May) 1533 miles, of which the greater part was along the shore towards the island of Koluchin, seen by Captain Cook during his navigation in a north- west direction from Behring's Straits. We proceeded upon the ice along the shore very successfully, but as soon as we left it the difficulties and impediments increased. If the coast of Siberia had a direction parallel to the meridian, the Kolyma expedition would have travelled 1 1° of latitude in one direction and the same in returning ; therefore, if the point of departure had been the 79° of north latitude, the expedition might have reached the Pole and returned to its starting-point. The utmost limits of the coast of Greenland towards the north remain yet unknown ; but the meridian direction of its mountains and coasts allows us to suppose that, in proceeding along them, it is possible to approach the Pole nearer than from any other direction or even to reach that point. The northernmost point of Greenland, Smith's Sound, seen by Captain Ross, is in latitude 77° 66' n.; and in latitude 76° 29', and on the island Wolstenholme, there is a village of Esquimaux. Taking all this into consideration, my opinion may be expressed in the following plan : — The ship of the expedition should winter PLAN OP TRAVEL. 79 near the Esquimaux village, under the 77th parallel, on the western coast of Greenland. There should be previously despatched to this point, in a separate party, at least ten narty, witli dogs, and active and courageous drivers ; the latter the same, if possible, as were employed in the Siberian expeditions,* likewise stores and provisions in sufficient quantity. In autumn, as soon as the water freezes, the expedition should go to Smith's Sound, and from thence further towards the north. On arriving at 79°, it should seek on the coasts of Greenland, or in the valleys between the mountains, for a convenient place to deposit a part of the provisions. In February the expedition might advance towards that place ; and in the beginning of March another station, two degrees further north, might be established. From this last point the Polar detach- ment of the expedition would proceed during March over the ice, without leaving the coasts, keeping along the valleys, or on the ridge of mountains, as may be found most expedient, but deviating as little as possible from the line of the meridian, and shortening the distance by crossing the straits and bays. A part of the men, dogs, and provisions, should await their return at the last station. The expedition, to reach the Pole and to return, must traverse in a direct line nearly 1200 miles, or, including all deviations, perhaps not above 1530 miles, which is very practicable, with well- constructed sledges, good dogs, and proper conductors. If the most northern limits of Greenland, or the Archipelago of Greenland Islands, should be found at too great a distance from the Pole, and the attainment of that point seem impossible, the expedition might at any rate draw up the description of a country hitherto absolutely unexplored, and would, even by so being, render an important service to geography in general. ' The success of such an enterprise would chiefly depend on the kind of dogs, the experience and courage of the conductors, and the form of the sledges. It certainly will not advance rapidly if Esquimaux or Tchouktschi dogs are employed, because these are entirely unaccustomed to such long journeys ; nor with Esqui- maux or Tchouktschi drivers, — men without courage or activity. ii \ \ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // ^ <^^. 1.0 I.I 1.25 l^|2^ WIS 1^ 1^ 1 2.2 1^ ■* I- •UUu llllim 1-4 IIIIII.6 — 6" V] <^ 7i /: C^ / >^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREIET WMSTIR.N.Y. )..'.f') (716)073-4503 <.^ y^^ 1 w ( 80 ) III. ON THE DISCOVEKIES OF DR. E. K. KANE, u.s.a. (1853-55). By Dr. Rink, Director of The Royal Greenland Board of Trade, and formerly Inspector in Greenland for the Danish Government.* The author of the work above quoted makes the following remark in the Introduction : " This book is not a record of scientific inves- tigations ;" and adds, that his aim has been to publish a narrative of the adventures of his fellow travellers, and that he has attempted very little else. Nevertheless, on perusing this promised " simple story " of a voyage, we find it embellished with scientific theories extending far beyond the bounds of such a narrative. As these speculations relate to a subject, the examination of which has occupied me during nine years, namely, the Physical Geography of Greenland , I feel called on to subject them to a somewhat closer inquiry. As his richly and elegantly illustrated work has awakened great sensation, nay even partly placed the other Polar expeditions in the shade, I am led to think that a communication of my views respecting this matter will not be entirely without interest to the Society. It is well known that the active and undaunted American tra- veller, Dr. Kane, unfortunately so early carried oflf, attempted, in the year 1863, to go farther north up Smith Sound than Captain Inglefield, the year previously, had done ; but that he only suc- ceeded in taking his ship a trifling distance farther than Ingle- field ; that he was then frozen in, lost his ship, and in the year 1855 saved himself and party by returning, in boats, to the Danish colony of Upemivik. From his two years' winter quarters in Van Renssellaer Bay, on the east side of the Sound, he, by the help of dog and drag sledges, undertook expeditions in different directions, partly across to the American side, but mainly along the coast, pursuing it northward, to find, if possible, the northern end of Greenland. > From the ' Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,' Vol. xxviii. GREENLAND FJOltDS. 81 What was discovered on these tours rawst he regavdetl as the real profit of the expedition, and I will hero confine myself to the two points which have cast the chief lustre over it. Firttt, that which concerns the unknown interior of Greenland, the glaciers and floating icebergs that issue thence, about which the author expresses himself on occasion of having discovered a glacier on the coast of Greenland, between 79° and 80° n. lat., to which he has given the name of Humboldt. Secondly, a sledge expedition under- taken by Morton (one of the ship's crew who it seems was steward), in conjunction with Hans, a Greenlander from Fiskernajsset ; whereby they are said to nave come to the margin of an open sea, which is presumed to occupy the whole region around the North Pole, and to be kept open by a branch of the Gulf-stream ; and, besides this, to have discovered the most northern lands on our globe, which, according to their description, are likewise laid down on the chart and called " Victoria and Albert," " Washington," Ac, Lands. As regards the first of these points, I must repeat what I have explained in my work on North Greenland,' namely, how the whole of the inner mainland, regarded from the outer land, appears buried under one uniform covering of ice, which sends its branches down into all deep ^ords ; how these branches are pushed down into the sea, and yield annually large masses of ice in the form of floating icebergs or calves. The glacier discovered by Kane, which he has named " the great glacier of Humboldt," and which has called forth much admiration, even in well-known geographical journals, has been represented as the crowning point of the discoveries made by the expedition, but which is really nothing more than what can be observed in the interior of most of the Greenland fjords, from the southernmost to the most northern reached point. The reason why Kane has not had an opportunity to observe these, and that the one discovered by his expedition has therefore appeared to him so remarkable, lies in the simple fact, that such ice formations in general lie hid behind the numerous high islands and peninsulas, which almost form the outer coast of Greenland towards Davis Strait, and which, with regard to snow and ice, do not show any other phenomena than the higher parts of the mountain chains of Europe. Now as the difibrent discovery-ships, that have sailed in search of the North- West Passage and of Franklin, have always rapidly hurried through Davis Strait, and have only touched at one or other of the Danish colonies, it is no wonder that the numerous > De Dauskti ilaadolsdiatrikter 1 Nordgtonlaud.' a nil U'H 82 OPEN POLAR SEA. rcmarkaltlo ico-fjords, which require a longer time to travel tlironp;li and examine, h.ive more or less escaped attention. Kane had thuH either not seen these ice formations, or only had an (xjcasion of seeing them from a great distance, before ho came to the place wliore ho was frozen in and had to pass two winters, llnmholdt glacier does not even seem to ])elong to the most rcmarkahle among them, as even in the very southernmost of our Greenland districts, at Julianohaal), wo have opportunities of observing just as remark- able phenomena of this kind. With respect to the second point — namely, the Open Polar Sea, discovered by Morton the steward and the Grcenlander Hans — tlio manner in wliich Morton's journey is described by Petersen,' the Dane, who accompanied the expedition as interpreter, seems to give a clearer picture of its result than that which Kane has sketched. This discovery of an Open Sea gives Kane occasion to make a comparison with other Polar expeditions, and ho goes as far back as the days of Baron tz in 15i)0, and "without referring to the earlier and more uncertain chronicles," ho mentions the Dutch whale fishers. Dr. Scoresby, Karon Wrangcl, (^aptains Penny and Inglefield, and shows how they have all spoken about large open- ings in the ice around the North Pole. lie shows likewise how these have all been found to be " illusory discoveries," and antici- pates tho objection that *' his own may one day pass within the same category " by extolling the far larger scale on which his Open Sea has been observed. Petersen confines his remarks on this bubject to the following : — " T' e Grcenlander, Hans, was sent after them with the dog-slcd?:e in order to continue the jonrney still farther towards the N., and when ho reached their sledge (t. €, a drag-sledge that had been sent out earlier), he and tho steward Morton proceeded onwards. They reached the Sound of which the Esquimaux liad spoken. This Sound was o^xjii ; probably cut up by the strong current tliey had observed there. It was, however, Midsummer, so that the sun had jierliaps aided the current in getting away the ice. After this expedition no other such was attempted " ' It is a known fact that, hero and there under tho coast of North Greenland, places are found which, on account of tho strong ' See vol. i. pp. 280-310. PetcTKen is a man well known to me. He was np- pointed foreman in the trading service ut Upernivik. His communio^itioiiH Ik ar the full impression of truth, and are written in a char and simplo style, without boasting and self-praise, although he has been of great service to tho expeditions that lu! accompanied as interpreter — viz. Penny's uud Kane's. He is now bcrving with Ciipt M'Clintock. « See ' Erindriuger fra Polarlanderne,' [h 12. Y^ jr to Ihcir Ivanl paux rrcnt 1 had no jrth long np- llMur pout [ioilH POUnTPUL DISCOVERIES. 83 current, do not freeze, oven in the severest winter, althouffli the whole waters round them are covered with ice of two to four foot tliick, and Kane liimsolf remarks, that in the most rigorous cohl ho has foTind such stream-holes. As soon as the Spring commences these stream-holes expand themselves, as tho ice in their neighbour- hood is always thinner and sooner thawed, either above, by tho sun, or below, by tho under-current. Now, as Morton's expedition was undertaken at Midsummer, and as ho found such an opening in the ice, not moro than 90 miles from tho place where they, the year before, had been able to navigate the vessel, and as there was an unuh lally strong current running in this opening, which just appeared where the Strait became smaller, nothing is moro probable than that this opening was juwt such a stream-hole, in which opinion I must concur with Petersen, until stronger proofs bo adduced in favour of the hypothesis of an 0[)en Polar Sea kept open by a branch of tho Gulf stream deflected from Nova Zembla to the Pole : a solution of a problem which has occupied Geographers since 1596, if not farther back, &c., &c,' Next, as to what concerns the lands that are said to tjurround this enigmatical Sea with a coast of 90 to 130 miles in extent, which Morton measured almost at a single glance, and which Kane has been able to lay down on his chart, even with an exact coast margin, adorned with celebrated names, and accompanied in tho text with correct statements of the heights of mountains (Mount Parry, &c., &c.), I must express a well-founded doubt of tho correct- ness of all this. Tho ship, as stated, was frozen in on the coast of Greenland, in 78° 37' N. lat., in the beginning of September, 1853. Of tho expe- ditions that wore sent out the same Autumn with Iwats or sledges, one reached, as presumed, 79^ 50' n. lat. along tho same coast. In March, 1854, Dr. Kane sent out a sledge expedition, which was obliged to return without result; the eight travellers who took part in it were in the greatest danger of being frozen to death ; three of them had a foot or toes amputated, and one died a few days after his return. Of the later expeditions, the one under Dr. Hayes was directed towards the opposite, or American coast, which ho traversed to 79° 45' n. lat. under great sufferings from snow- blindness. Tho others kept under the coast of Greenland, and did not get farther than Humboldt glacier, or about 79i° n. lat. ; with tho exception only of the one undertaken by Morton and Hans, ' ike Kane's ' Conhidorations,' vol. i. pp. 301-30S). ;!*. t m ! I ni hi' iM :*k m m 84 HUMBOLDT GLACIER. who, according to their own statement, reached 81" 20' n. lat., from which point they supposed they had seen land as far as 82^^ 30' n. lat. ; these two members of the expedition alone came to the Open water. The breadth of the whole of the northernmost part of Baffin Bay, thus explored, was from 8 to 1 6 geographical miles between the coasts of Greenland and America.' After the first excursions in the vicinity of their winter quarters attention was directly drawn to the great Humboldt glacier, and Kane had an occasion, one clear day in April, to survey it closely ; and then remarks : — " My notes speak simply of the ' Ions ever-shining line of cliff, diminished to a well-ix)inted wed<;e in the persix;ctive ;' and asrain, of ' the face of glisten- ing ice, sweeping in a long curve from the low interior, the facets in front intensely illuminated by the sun.' lint this line of clift' rose f a a solid glassy wall, 300 feet above the water-level, with an unknown, unfathomable depth below it; and its curved face, GO miles in length from Cape A-^assiz to Cape Forbes, vanished into unknown space at not more than a single day's railroad travel from the Pole. The interior with which it communicated, and from which it issued, was an unsurveyed mer de glace, an ice-ocean, to the eye, of boxmdless dimensions. " It was in full sight — the mighty crystal bridge which connects the two continents of America and Greenland. I say continents ; for Greenland, however insulated it may ultimately prove to be, is in mass strictly continental. The least jjossiblc axis, measured from Cape Farewell to the line of this glacier, in the neighbourhood of the SOth i)arallel, gives a length of more than 1200 miles, not materially less than that of Australia from its northern to its southern Cape. , " Imagine, now, the centre of such a continent, occupied through nearly its whole extent by a deep unbroken sea of ice, that gathers perennial increase from the waterparting of vast snow-covered mountains, and all the precipitations of the atmosphere upon its own surface. Imagine this, moving onward like a great glacial river, seeking outlets at every fjord and valley, rolling icy cata- racts into the Atlantic and Greenland seas ; and, having at last reached the northern limit of the land that has borne it up, pouring out a mighty frozen torrent into unknown Arctic space. "It is thus, and only thus, that we must form a just conception of a phenomenon like this great glacier. I had looked in my own mind for such an appearance, should I ever be fortunate enough to reach the northern coast of Greenland. But now that it was before me, I could hardly realize it. " I had recognized, in my quiet library at home, the beautiful analogies which Forbes and Studer have developed between the glacier and the river. But I could not comprehend at first this complete substitution of ice for water. It was slowly that the conviction dawned on me, that I was looking on the counterpart of the great river-system of Arctic Asia and America. Yet, here were no water-feeders from the south. Every particle of moisture ' See vol. i. pp. 225-228. CENTRAL ICK. 85 liiul its origin within the Polar circle, and hswl Ixjon convortod into ico. There were no vast alluvioiiH, no foreat or animal traces lK»rne down by liquid torrents. lloro was a plastic, niovinij, scnu-solid mass, obliterating liCe, swallowing rucks ami i.ilanwn to Cape Farewell. Now, from what source does the author know this, as he only cites a few places, quite in the neighbourhood of his winter harbour, where he has followed the margin of the inland ice, and had never been in the fjords of Greenland, between Upernivik and Cape Farewell ? 1 for my part have employed eight years in ex- amining to what degree the interior was covered with ice, by pur- suing it from fjord to Qord ; and nevertheless I have been obliged to confine myself to conjecture with regard to many extensive tracts that lie between these fjords; and my own explorations in this direction, must, as we shall fee, be supposed to have been unknown to him. In the account of his first voyage,' he says of the Onienak fjord, that he could see into its mouth whilst sailing up the Strait ; that its interior had never yet been explored, and that there was great probability that it passed right through the country to the Atlantic Ocean. But if we admit this central ice-ocean as existing, what does it then signify? that this ice-ocean moves like a great ice-river (from south to north ?), rolling cataracts of ice oiit to both sides in the Atlantic and Greenland seas, until it reaches the northern boundary of the country, and there pours forth a mighty frozen stream, Humboldt glacier, in that unknown Arctic space ? 1 cannot follow the author in liis bold flight over the icy desert of Greenland, and still less can I conceive that he, in all this, only sees a confir- mation of what ho had already earlier foreseen in his own mind, if he " should ever he fortunate enough to reach (lie northern coast of Green- ' ' Griuuell Expedition,' 1854, p. oil. * •'" i i I h ^ ': .1 l|^ 8G GLACIEHS. land" — that which ho presiimos to have discovovcJ on this oxpc- ditiun. The reality is, that wherever one attemptH to proceed up tho fjords of Gr en' and, the interior appears covered with ice ; hut there is no rcais^n whatever to assume that this applies to tho central part of tho country, in which one, on the contrary, just is well may assume that there are high mountain-chains, which pro- trude partly from the ice. A remarkahle movement is found in this ice-mass ; but this is so far from having a kind of main direction after tho central axis of tho land towards tho Humboldt glacier, that this arm of the ico, on the contrary, seems to belong to those that are in a loss degree of motion, whereas the greatest agency takes place around Jakobs-havn ice fjord, Omonak fjord, and others. Farther, this movement can only bo measured by the masses of ico that pass annually out of these fjords, and of which one can only obtain a tolorablo conception by remaining for a long time at tho mouths of the fjords. These ice- Qords point out probably the rivers of the original land, now buried under ice. Whereas no conclusion can bo drawn from the ico itself and tho appearance of its branches that go down to tho sea, for it is almost quite uniform everywhere from Julianehaab to UiMjrnivik. The author, in concluding his remarks, says it was first when ho saw Humboldt glacier that Forbes's and Studer's idea of the like- ness between the glacier and the river began slowly to dawn on him ; but the same species of glacier, which these celebrated natu- ralists have examined on tho Alps and in Norway, is found in many places on outer-Greenland, or what I would call ice-free Greenland. These Kane had seen at Disko, near Upemivik, and other places, before he reached " Humboldt glacier." In order to examine its significance in comparison with the rest of tho branches of inland ice, he must have made observations and calculations of how many icebergs it annually yielded to the sea, as from its appearance he could scarcely form any opinion. By seeing such a branch of in- land ice, on account of the uniform ice-plateau whence it issues, one gets a smaller impression of its similarity with a river than by tieeing tho Alpine glaciers and the glaciers on the outer coast of Greenland, as these just fill up clifts which — to judge from their form — must be beds of watercourses. Those arms of inland ice, which send scarcely any ice into the sea, show, on the contrary, about the same appearance as those that send out annually thousands of millions of cubic feet of ico into the sea, and therefore must bo supposed to be maintained by river territories of many hundred geographical square miles. I now proceed to examine its signification as a sort of connecting CRITICISM OF KANE'S REMARKS. 87 k Is >0 link between Greenland and tho American continent. Dr. Kano says " it was in full sight — the mighty crystal bridge which con- nects tho two continents of America and Greenland ;" and after- wards, in a note, "I have spoken of Humboldt glacier as connecting the two continents of America and Greenland. Tho expression requires explanation," &o. Difficult as it is to understand. Dr. Kane seems to mean that Greenland is separated from, and thereforo half connected with, the Arctic- American Archipelago by a loss broad Sound, beyond Humboldt glacier. Petersen says, that Kane himself would have undertaken an excursion to tho north in the middle of April 1855, but that ho could not get the Esquimaux to accompany him, iis they would only go I jar-hunting around tho ice clitfs near Humboldt glacier, and thus ivane was only absent 24 hours on i;his tour. Kano Buys that as ho could not reach the Open Water, ho sought compen- sation in a closer examination of the great glacier, of which ho now again takes occasion to give a lively description, concluding with tho following allusion to tho previously-mentioned idea of tho con- nection between Greenland and America : — " Thus diversified in its aaixjct, it stretclies to the north till it bounds njwn the new land of Washington, cementing into one the Greenland of the Scandi- navian Vikings and tho America of Columbus." In the earlier sections there is spoken of the extension and movc- mont of the inland ice ; hero is specially mentioned the manner iti which the floating icebergs tear themselves loose from that side which goes out to the sea — tho calvings as they are called in tlio ice-fjords. None of those engaged in tho expedition had had an opportunity to make direct observations in these respects. In order to obtain tho necessary prospect, Kane climbed up "one of the highest icebergs," whilst his fellow-travellers rested themselves. From here ho meant he could see that " The indication of a great propelling agency seemed to be just commencing at the time I was observing it." It appeared to him as if the split-off linos of the fast land ice, which signify the beginning of tho loosening, were evidently about to extend themselves. As the calving, however, did not follow, Kano confines himself to remark respecting it — " Regarded upon a large sctvle, I am satisfied that the iceberg is not disen- gaged by de!)dcle, as I once supiwscd. So far from falling into the sea, broken by its weight from the parent glacier, it rises from the sea." He next adds that "Tlie idea of icebergs being discharged, so universal among systematic M ,!■ " i'll i m m „ ■[■: ill ) f :■ i : I;- 88 MOUTON'S SLEDGE JOUKNEy. writtTs an\y. On account of the importance of the ov( nts that occurred between, I will give Morton's statement, as it will be found in tho i lace cited : — *' After this delay (tlio bcar-himting) wo started in the hoix) of being ablo to reach the cape to the north of us. At tho very lower end of tlie bay tlioro was still a little old fast ice over which we went without followitij^ the curve of the bay up tho fjord, which shortened our distance considerably. Hans becjvmc tired, and I sent him more inland where the travelling was less laborious. As I proceedeil towards the cape ahead of me tho water came again close in-shore. I endeavoured to reach it, but found this extremely difficult, as there were piles of broken rocks rising on tho cliffs in many places to tho height of 100 feet. The cliffs above these were perixjndicular, and nearly 2000 feet high. I climbed over the rubbish, but beyond it tho sea was washing the foot of the cliffs, and, as there were no ledges, it was im{H)ssible for me to advance another foot. I was much disapix)inted, because one hour's travel would have brought me round the cape. The knob to which I climbed was over 500 feet in height, and from it there was not a speck of ice to be seen. As far as I could discern the sea was open, a swell coming in from the north- ward and running crosswise, as if with a small eastern set. The wind was due north — enough of it to make white civikj — and the surf broke in on the rocks below in regular breakers. Tho sky to tho north-west was of dark rain-cloud, the first that I had seen since the brig was frozen up. Ivory gulls were nesting in the rocks above me, and ou.- to sea were mollcmokc and silver-backed gulls. The ducks had not been seen north of tho first island of the channel, but petrel and gulls hung about the waves near the coast." " June 25. — As it was inipossiblc to got round the cape I retraced my steps," &c. &c. 1 1 1 ■ 1 ^ -1 :ll: 02 MOKTON'S FAUTIIMST. Wilh (Inn,. tlM>ox|»lt)mii()n o( tlio o]hmi I'uliir Hon,' ami Mi<< I'iii'IIiohI. IiiiuIn on «iiir ^-U)l)(^ vun oti«l«<(l. Morton i\>)t, liiiiiNrll' (IiNH|i|ioinlril in not hoin^ iililo to oonio piiNl, thiit. torriblo t^ipo, wliitOi liid Imm |)ros|)oct tovvanlH the ouNt. I, for my part, won not diNuppointoil on muling that Ntioli u liiiulnituH) uroNo lu^t'oro liini. I know it tVoni Nui oxporiotu'o, U8 I, during tliroo oonHocnt ivo wintorH, liavo folIowiMl (lu> winding KS ])roinontorios whioh ono uxwhI got past hoforo ono oan rouoli tho right promontory, antl (mui turn ronnd ; thoMo hillw thoso otornal toi)n - that shoot np whon ono asot^nds th«» olilfM, l)ot'oro ono roaohos tho right top, wlionoo ono can havo tho wiwliod- for prt)spoot. I huvo j)aNsod half a day thus oidy to got tho wishod-for gonoral viowovor oni> single fjord-arm, and that ovou soniotimcH in vain. What must it then not ^o, wIumi ono on an uftornoon, and on foot, socks to reach tho unknown end, to nso Kano's own words, of a " whole litth> Oontinont? " Wc will now roturn to Kano's rcprosontation, and, on aeoount of its ooiisidorablo extent, contino ourselves t() impiiro into the most important conulusions, through wliidi ho comes to such great results from the fiiets communicated above. Dr. Kane remarks in several places, that although it blew a strong and nbnost stormy north wind during thoso days when Morton ira- vellod along the open water, there came only some few half-dissolved plows of ice drifting from the north, and at last none at all. This shows, if one will draw any conclusion whatever from it, that the navigable water, a ginnl way from the mouth of the narnnv pass, in whioh the stream was so extremely rapid, had boon covered with ftiU (jotHi icinter ici: For if it were really on the border of tiie open soa ono might ex]>oct to find much loose drift-ico between the margin of the fast ico over which they had driven, and tho ar and press on during a continued north wind. \ sudden beginning ef a perfectly ice-free sea is scarcely to be iuuigiued. * With roferonco to the hititiido of tlic northornnio.xt point readied by Morton, he slates in his Journftl, p. 37S, vol. ii., "'Ve arrivtil at onr eanip wliero we hint left the sltxlgo nt 5 I'.si., Iiiiving boon ultsont iJG iionrs, ihirin!» whioli time wo hud tjiivelloil twenty miU's duo nortti of it. June 2tith. — IJofoio HUntiii;; I took u inoriiiitm iiltitnde of the sun." Tliis obsorvutiou is worliod at pii^o WHS in tho isame volume, where the rosult nppeiirs lis 80" 20' 2" Add 2Ouiiio0 aooordmg to tho above remark .. .. 20 Lsxtituile of the farthest [Hiint reached by Morton SO 40 2 Ion the Irift-ico ]u\. \ to 1)0 Morton, Iwt' liivl wo hull took u in tho OIUIOCTIONS. oa An Imporlivni (u-itorioii wluiiohy t,«i jikI^o if otio linH <»|Min wuliir, IN llio iirtmml mnvll of tlio Hiwx. TliiH in Noori at •liiliatioiiiial), whoii ili(« i from iiio m\h\. roaHt Ih oxpooiod in UioHpriti^. To look aftni* t.lio i(;o itHolf from hillH of Homo hundred foot in hnif^ht iH not <»f iniidh iiH(), for if it ho firHt in Hi^llt it ih alHo vory noar, and in a Hhort tinu) iH on land. Hut in gonoral ono can know itH proximity hy tli() ■ ' e current and its rapidity from the ocean around Spitzbergen to the s.w, along the e. coast of Greenland. The said ten vessels were enclosed in tlie ice in June 1777, in about 76° lat, n., between Spitzbergen and Jan-Mayen island, and were carrieil, constantly enclosed by the ice, in a south-wcHtorly direction, between Iceland and Greenland, very often in Bight of the Greenland coast. liy degrees all the vessels were lost, being crushed by the ice ; the last vessel on the 1 1th of October, in 61° lat. N , in sight of Greenland. Of the crews of these vessels, which consisted of about 450 men, only 116 (whose names I have before me) were so fortunate as to save their lives, and get ashore from the ice in the moutli of October and beginning of November, on the coast around Cape Farewell. By calculating the distance between Cape Farewell and the place where the veesds were enclosed in the ice between Spitzbergen and Jan-Mnyen, it gives a distance of about 1400 nautio miles, and tlie time the ice occupied in drifting from the above-mentioned place to Cape Furewoll being about four months, tiie rapidity of this current has a mean of at least between 11 and 12 nautic miles per 24 hours H ;t1i Mrfi M: ki\ 98 NOTES OP FIRST AND LAST ICE SEEN to these colonies, in order to avoid being beset in the ice, they are obliged to pass a couple of degrees to the southward of Cape Fare- well, as well as, after having crossed the meridian of this cape, generally not to steer much to the northward before reaching long. 50° or 52° w. of Greenwich, and sometimes even more westerly. The amount of westing is dependent on the wind, weather, or ice ; and by proceeding thus an open sea is reached, either quite free from ice or else with it much more diffused than near the coast, where the ships would be liable to be caught in the drifting masses. A similar caution is exercised on the homeward passage from the colonies, the course being in the first place off the land, and then in a more southerly direction in order to reach the open sea free from the dangerous ice. To be enabled to give an idea about the limits of the ice in these regions, I examined a set of logbooks which were kindly given me for perusal from the directors for the "Royal Greenland Com- merce," viz., two logbooks for each of the last five years, which gives two outward and two homeward voyages to the colonies every year, consequently in all twenty voyages, which I found sufficient without extending these researches to too great a length. There are unquestionably great changes in the limits of the ice in different seasons ; but still it is probable that the result of these five years' observations will not be far from the mean. From these logbooks I noted at what latitude the meridian of Cape Farewell had been crossed on the passage to the colonies, and at what place the first ice was seen, and on what latitude the meridian of Cape Farewell was crossed on the homeward passage, and where the last ice was seen. In the ensuing Table these positions are inserted, and, to make the subject still clearer, the places where the first and tha last ice was seen are marked in the subjoined Plan. By examining this Table it will be seen that the meridian of Cape Farewell is crossed on the outward passage in a mean lat. of 57** 46', and on the homeward passage in 58° 2' n., which gives 123 m. and 107 m. s. of Cape Farewell* respectively as the points where the ocean, according to the logbooks, has been quite clear of ice, and where, under ordinary circumstances, a safe passage can be made to avoid the ice, which is usually carried round the coast of Capo Farewell by the current coming from the ocean around Spitzbergen. ' Aocnrdiiig to the obserTations of Gapiain Graah, Cape Farewell is situated in 59° 49' lat. N., and 43" 54' w. of Greenwich. FROM GREENLAND L0GB00K8. 99 ice in Ol n 8 S3 ♦ Ft Ft s; M m CO ^ te Si 1 f ^ 1 s >-> 1 , 9 ^ - n ^ s 00 >0 S 5 m 00 f4 s m Green] 1 I 1- °3 n la !!; CO s s p •aJ 1 « <^ e o s o t in in t* o •b J M lO CO f fH ••I ■w & at o l-l T) o o e f o > U) la CS CO ■O in CO CO IS CO » t. s «j 0) c >-5 a. 1 < «1 t?i ^ O S^ •-5 6 <% — 1 S. 'S 7 5 CO g 1^ Ol o> CO in 00 m a-sl S. O 00 «- 00 r» CO X 00 CO »^ 00 ■a in u> la o in in in m m c» o M 00 N N « o CO f^ 1 "3 1 1 n ,^ 3 r 2x1 s? a •-s ►^ ■-s s '~> •< it- »<» •-s ^. <»»>»> • ^ . a> ■ o o Oi M o o in B — in M ■° s, . M 3 n 1 8 i 60 °5 g s o in I- in 2 -53 • III CO in m >5 - o 1^ Id o s S in in in o in iii; J S^ a> o ** o ^•5 5 n es 1 in !-,»/ CO O to oc eo r- »~ O rH n •2 e> f-H M N d 1 1 •-s 1 B 1-5 >• "3 ■-9 1 < c nil S5 « flP o * O M IB « t* CO r* lO ** r» kO U3 m in in in ».3 in in in j 1 c i 1 c •3 2 1 e Of 1 1 • • • « XI 1 "C 'C u s 3 ^ 2 2 1 s kC •^ ;€ (S s ,-3 r" 1 U) tc tA bO CO s tc to £ ;g £ S £ g s S s g 1 A o p^ M « § 00 1 in 1 s 1 in a. 1 S 1 ^ 1 Ft •-4 »-< ffn :;5:» 112 100 EVIDENCE AS TO ICE-DRIFT. On the voyages from the colonies to Copenhagen the course pur- sued has been somewhat nearer Cape Farewell (16 m.), the cause of which is — 1, that the captains, in coming from Davis Strait, have a better knowledge of the situation of the ice, and its dis- tance from the land, than they can have on going up to Greenland in coming from the Atlantic Ocean, where no ice is to be seen ; and 2, because the home passages are made in a season in which the ice generally is not quite so abundant as in spring, the season for the voyages to the colonies. The subjoined Table shows that the brig Lucinde fell in with ice farthest to the e. (4th October, 1851, in 68° 30' n., and 39° JiO' w. of Greenwich), which gives 79 nautio m. s., and about 1 35 nautic m. e. of Cape Farewell. This ice consisted only of a single isolated floe of very small extent ; and it ip very rare to meet ice in this latitude so far to the eastward.^ On the passage from Julianshaab to this place very little ice had been in sight. On these voyages the first and the last Seen ice generally con- sisted of isolated icebergs or floes, which no doubt formed the very extremity of the ice which was coming from the n.e. around Cape Farewell, and going into Davis Strait. Consequently the great and more accumulated masses of ice carried by the current from the ocean around Spitzbergen (whereby this current is really indi- cated) are between these above-named outer limits and the coast of Greenland. The southerly and south- westerly coasts of Greenland are most exposed to be blocked up with these ice-drifts in spring ; whilst, on the contrary, they are pretty clear of ice from September to January ; but in the end of this month the ice generally begins to come again in great abundance, passing around Cape Farewell. {Captain Crraah, p. 59.) Still further to demonstrate the existence of this ice-drift, I may mention the following extract from the logbook of the schooner Activ, Captain J. Andersen. This vessel belongs to the colony of Julianehaab, and is used as a transport in this district : — 7th of April, 1851, the Activ left Julianshaab, bound to the dif- ferent establishments on the coast between Julianshaab and Cape Farewell. The same day the captain was forced by the ice to take ' On the voyage to Greenland in 1828, Captain Graah fell in with the first ice in 58° 52' lat. N., and 41° 25' w, Greenwicli, which is only 57' s., and about 77 nautic miles to the eastward of Cape Farewell ; and he says, " Since 1817, 1 do not know that the ice has been seeu so for to the eastward of the Gape." — ' Narrative of an Expedition to tiie East Coaet of Greenland, by Gapt. W. A. Graah, Royal Danish Navy,' p. 21, Eng. Transl ler of lice 177 I do EVIDENCE AS TO ICE-DRIFT. 101 refuge in a harbour. Frequent snow-storms and frost. On account of icebergs and great masses of flue-ice enclosing the coast, it was impossible to proceed on the voyage before the 23rd, when the ice was found to be more open; but after a few hours' sailing the ice again obliged the captain to put into a harbour. Closed in by the ice until the 27th. The ice was now open, and the voyage pro- ceeded until the let of May, when the ice compelled him to go into a harbour. In this month violent storms, snow, and frost. From the most elevated points ashore very often no extent of soa visible ; now and then the ice open, but not sufl&ciently bo for proceeding on the voyage. At last, on the 6ih of June, in the morning, the voyage was con- tinued ; but the same evening the ice enclosed the coast, and the schooner was brought into " BliesehuUet," a port in the neighbour- hood of Cape Farewell. The following day the voyage was pursued through the openings between the ice ; and the 18th of June the schooner arrived again at Julianshaab. Whilst the masses of ice, as above mentioned, enclosed the coast between Julianshaab and Cape Farewell, the brig Lucimle crossed the meridian of Cape Farewell on the 26th of April, in lat. 68° 3' N. (101 nautic m. from shore), ?>.nd no ice was seen from the brig before the 2nd of May, in lat. 58° 26' n., and 50° 9' w. of Greenwich. Further, Captain Enudsen, commanding the Neptune bound from Copenhagen to Julianshaab, was obliged on account of falling in with much ice, to put into the harbour of Frederikshaab on the 8th of May, 1852, and was not able to continue hiii voyage to Julianshaab before the middle of June, because a continuous ice- drift (icebergs as well as very extensive fields) was rapidly carried along the coast to the northward. Captain Knudsen mentions, that during the whole time he was closed in at Frederikshaab he did not a single day discover any clear water even from the elevated points ashore, from which he could see about 28 nautic miles seaward. Whilst the Neptune was enclosed by the ice at Frederikshaab the brig Baldur, on the home passage from Greenland to Copen- hagen (see the foregoing Table), crossed the meridian of Cape Farewell the 9th of June in lat. 58° 9' N. (100 m. from shore) in clear water, and no ice in sight. From the above it is evident that the current from the ocean around Spitzbergen, running along the e. coast of Greenland past m 1 » f 6 I'M 102 DIRECTION OF THE EAST GREENLAND CURRENT. Cape Farewell, continues its course along the western coast of Green- land to the N., and transports in this manner the masses of ice from the ocean around Spitzbergen into Davis Strait. If the current existed, which the before-named writers state to run in a direct line from East Greenland to the banks of New- foundland, then the ice would likewise be carried with that current from East Greenland : if it were a submarine current, the deeply- immersed icebergs would be transported by it ; if it were only a surface-current, the immense extent of field-ice would indicate its course,* and vessels would consequently cross these ice-drifts at whatever distance they passed to the southward of Cape Farewell. But this 18 not the case : experience has taught that vessels coming from the eastward, steering their course about 2° (120 nautic m.) to the southward of Cape Farewell, seldom or ever fall in with ice before they have rounded Cape Farewell and got into Davis Strait, which is a certain proof that there does not exist even a branch of the Arctic current which runs directly from East Greenland towards the hanks of Newfoundland. Along the e. coast, and around the southern and south-western coast of Greenland, the district of Julianshaab, there is generally a much greater accumulation of ice ^ than is the case more northerly, on the w. coast, or farther out in Davis Strait, where the ice generally is found more spread, and couoequently it frequently happens that vessels bound to Julianshaab from Copenhagen are obliged first to put into some harbour more to the northward, and wait there until the ice is so much dispersed round the s. coast that they can continue their voyage to Julianshaab. In the warmer season, when the ice and snow melt ashore, the waters from the different fiords or inlets move towards the sea, and drive the ice off the coast in such a manner that there is clear water close in shore, through which vessels may be navigated. However, continuing gales, according to their direction to or from shore, have an influence on the situation of the ice. Another proof that the current from East Greenland does not ' An observation which it is interesting to mention here, and which gives a proof of the very little difference between the temperature of the surface and that at some depth, is mentioned in the Voyage of Captain Graab, p. 21. He says, " The Sth of May, 1828, in lat. 57° 35' n., and 36° 36' w., Gr., tbe temperature of the surface was found 6°-3 (46°-2 Fahr.), and at a depth of 660 feet 5°-5 + R. (44°-5 Fahr.)." This proves that there is no cold submarine current in the place alluded to to the 8.E. of Cape Farewell. A stiU more conclusive experiment is recorded by Sir Edvard Parry in the account of his first voyage, June 13, 1819 : in lat. 57° 51' N., ong. 41° 5', with a very slight southerly current, the surface tempera- ture was 40 J° Fahr. ; and at 235 fathoms 39° a difference of only 1J°.— Ed. » Captain Graah, pp. 10, 12, 22, 57, &c., English translation. 1\ lot DIKECTION OF THE EAST Gil KEN LAND CUKRENT. 103 run in a straight line towards the banks of Newfoundland, \» also derived from the observations of the temperature of the surface made on many voyages to and from Greenland. I have noted the observations of two voyages in the subjoined map ; ' one voyage by Captain Graah to Greenland, in May, 1828 ; and the other by Captain Ilolboll, from Greenland to Copenhagen, in September, 1844. Captain Graah, who during his researches in Greenland, pasised two summers and one winter on its eastern coast, between Capo Farewell and 65^° lat. n., says that he never found the temperature of the sea here higher than 0°'9+R. (34° Fahr.)=' Supposing that the Arctic current from East Greenland pursued its course in a straight line towards the banks of Newfoundland, it would be crossed, on the voyages from Copenhagen to the Danish colonies in Greenland, between 38° and 45° w. Gr., and so high a temperature in the surface of the ocean as irom 4° to 6° K. (41° to 45°*5 Fahr.), as is found on this route and marked in the plan would, according to my opinion, be impossible, only 1° or 2° to the southward of the parallel of Cape Farewell ; as it is a well-known fact that the principal ocean curients maintain their temperatures through very considerable distances of their courses. This comparatively high temperature of the surface of the ocean so near to the limits of that current which carries enormous masses of ice from the ocean near Spitzbergen round Cape Farewell, war- rants my opinion that the waters of the Atlantic Ocean move in a N-westerly or northerly direction, towards the eastern and southern coasts of Greenland,' and that this indraught towards the land is undoubtedly the cause of the ice being so closely pressed on to these parts of the coast as it is so frequently on the s. coast, and almost constantly on the e. coast, rendering the eastern coast entirely inaccessible from seaward.* ' This map is not found in tlie Society's ' Journal.' " Gruah says, " The temperature of the sea was frequently observed during the whole voyage, and was always found between 28° and 34° Fahrenheit. ' Graah says in his Narrative (p. 23, English translation),— "In the mouth of Davis Strait I found the temperature of the surface of the octan from 4° to 8°- 1 E. (41° to 39° Fahr.), though we were in the proximity of the ice. From this I concluded that a current from tlie South predominated htre, because I never before in the vicinity of ice had found the temperature of the water exceeding 1°'8 R. (36° Fahr.), and this conclusion was confirmed wlien, coming to the northward of the ice, I found the temperature of the water 1°1 +R- (5J1°5 Fahr.)" * Besides the evidence afforded by the ice-drifts and the temperature of the water, as cited by the autlior, conclusive proof of a northerly set is found in the driftwood which has been so frequently met with around Cnpe Farewell and off the w. coast of Greenland. A few examples will suffice. A pLmk of mahogany was drifted to Disco, and formed into a table for the Danish governor at Holstein- borg (' Quarterly Review,' No. xxxvi.). Admiral LoweniJru picked up a worm- ^.^ '! i (■■J ■1- .HI 104 COURSE OF THE EAST GREENLAND CURRENT. The logbooks which I have examined afford no positive infor- mation au to the direction and force of (he current under cun- siduration — a circun.'stanoe which must be attributed to the fre- quency of fogs and gales of wind, which prevent correct obisorvatiouu being made.' From the foregoing it seems to me to be demonstrated that the current from the ocean around Spitzbergen, which carries so con- siderable maases of ice, after it has passed along the e. coast of Greenland, turns westward and northward round Cape Farewell, without detaching any branch to the south-westward, directly towards the banks of Newfoundland. This current afterwards runs northward along the 8.w. coast of Greenland until about lat. 64° n., and at times even up to Hol- steinborg, which is in about 67° n. This current undoubtedly afterwards, by turning to the west- ward, unites with the current coming from Baffin and Hudson Bays, runaing to the southward on the western side of Davis Strait along the coast of Labrador, and thus increases that enormous quantity of ice which is brought towards the s. to Newfoundlfid and further down in the Atlantic Ocean, frequently disturbing id endangering the navigation between Europe and Northern Amei .i;a. eaten mahogany log off the s.e. coast of Greenland. These in all probability were transported from the s.av. by the Gulf-stream. Captain Sir Edward Parry, in his Bccoiid voyage, September 24th, 1823, picked up a piece of yellow pine quite sound, in lat. 60'^ 30', long. 61° 30' w ; and on his third voyage seven pieces of driftwood wero found in the vicinity of Cape Farewell. Again, Ciiptain Sir John Ross found much driftwood around Cape Farewell ; and Captain Sir George Back siiw in lat. 50° 50', long. 36° 30', a tree with the roots and bark on. These instances might be multiplied, but their charucter indicated a southern origin. — Ed. > Sir John Ross, in his first voyage, May 23, found the current to run 6 m. per day to the w.n.w. in lat. 57° 2' and long. 43° 21' w. (or about 168 m. e. of Cape Farewell), and n.w. when 140 m. s. by w. of the Cape. Sir Edward Parry, on June 19, 1819, when 130 m. due w. of Cape Farewell, found its direction and velocity to be s. 50° w. 6 m. per diem. — En. ( los ) V. NOTES ON THE STATE OF THE ICE And on the Indications of Open Water, &c., from Behring to Bellot Straits, along the Coasts of Arctic America and Siberia, including the Accounts of Anjou and Wrangell. Introduction. In undertaking that part of the Arctic manual which has heen assigned to me by the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, I feel that I am to a great extent occupying a portion of the Arctic Sea which can be of little importance to the present expedition. Yet there is no doubt that the influence which the Pacific Ocean exercises on the motion of the ice should be considered in the present attomp' to reach the Pole. I have, therefore, first endeavoured to give au account of the different voyugt^s by which the exploration of this area has been carried forward, and then to summarise the resuH. I then purpose to give a short account of the descent of the Mackenzie, the Coppermine, and the Back Rivers, together with the exploration of the coast in boats and birch-bark canoes and the voyages of the Investigator and Enterprise. These, it is to be hoped, will enable the reader to form a correct judgment respect- ing the state and the movement of the ice in the Polar Sea from New Siberia to Bellot Strait. In 1725 the Russian Government dispatched an expedition through Siberia to the sea of Ochotsk, which they occupied two years in reaching. They there built and launched the vessels, which, proceeding to the north, discovered St. Lawrence Island, and eventually reached the latitude of 67° 18' n. How the Com- mander, in attempting during a second expedition to carry his explo- rations over to the American Continent, and how, by persevering to his uttermost, he came by his death, cannot find a place here ; but we who are able to appreciate the difficulties he had to encounter, glory to think that the title of Behring is handed down to posterity by the name so justly given to the sea and the strait which separate the continents of Asia and America. «H ] u ■( I i t ■ill lOU HKlIIUNa STIIAITS. Hogiuning witii a short rt'Hunw of (\»ok'H voyaj^o in thiH vioinity, I thou take lip thu KiiRHiait oxploratioiiH, wliiuli, from thoir into- rostinjj; oliaraoter, boaring as thoy do no »lir«Hi(ly on tho important (pioNtion of tho Polynia or open noa, 1 \uivo found groat dinioulty in i'om[)riHit)g within a small oompasH. 1 thon give a short acuount of tho valuablo and instrnolivo voyago of tho lUimmnn, nndor Oaptain Hoiv'hy. A gtMioral historical aiioonnt of tho oxpoditions in Hoarch of Sir J. Krajddin, by way of Bohring's Strait, follows. Thoso I havo ondo'ivourod to rondor as short as possible, with tho oxcoption of tho part t^^kon by tho thttfi^)riH(', which has boon givon moro at largo, undor tiu> impression that it may bo tho moans of preserving information that might (as has been tho case in other voyages) pass away without a knowledge of tho value that notes daily made have upon future researches. Some observations havo been collected from Mr. Whym])er'M interesting narrative of his adventures in this sea, which 1 havo littlo doubt will prove useful. Some extracts from tho oorrespondonco of the American whalo- tishers have been added, which will elucidate tho change in tho position of tho ice in ditVorent years. In collating tho general information witli which I sum up thic? portion of tho work, 1 havo had recoui'so to ofliinal documents as well as publications by private individuals; but I am especially indebted to two ofticers who havo spent live seasons in this neigh- bourhood. One I regret to say is no more; but tho valuable information collected by Dr. Simpson will leave a regret that he was not spired to carry further tho extent of his ability : tho otlier is i\\ptiiin Hull, at present Aissistant-Hydrographer, wlio, after three summers spent in Bohring Sea in the Herald^ returned with Com- mander Maguire and passed two winters in tho Plover at Point Barrow. 1.— REHRING STRAITS. In the instructions issued by the ixdmiralty to Captain Cook, when proceeding on his third voyage in July, 1770, tho following para- graphs appear ; — " Upon your arrival upon the coast of New Albion, you are to put into the first convenient port to recruit your wood and water arid procure refreshments, and then to proceed north- ward along the coast as far as latitude 65°, or farther, if you are not obstructed by lands or ice When you get that length, you are very carefully to search f. '• and to explore such rivers or oncau wl HKI1UIN(J ST HA ITH— COOK'S VOYA(JK. 107 inlotM iiH may a))|>our to oo of cuiiHidurublu extent, and pointing (uwuhIh IIiuIhoii or liatlin ItayN." " In oi^.io yon Nliall be HutiHfied that there iH no paKsnge llirough lo the above-mentioned bays Hiiffloient lor the pnrpowj of navi<;a- ti\v. Ill wliioli B|>ot hIio ttirivod dm llu> Ullli. 'J'lin ii'o hwUo up Ntinitiontlv h> (hIiuiI. uf Hio nliip ln>infi: nmvod ou \\w IMh, and hIio voiu'hrd \\>u\t Harrow on tlio Mlh ol' Angnni ; I'oinh ITopo on Iho i^ih: hwi, owiitg- lo llio pn»v»lonoo of Nonllicrly windH iind a Hfronj^ worlli. ily «Mm'(>t\(, »lid not anivjnii I'ori (Mnn(> until llm ov(>nin^; of (he LMnI, wlion >vo roniinnnicjilod wilh ilio liaHlrHiuikfi, itnd finind fhiU llio /Vi»»w liiul wulod for Point. Hiirrow Iavo Anyn provioXHly. AHor ii'0(Mvit»jj; Homo KttpplioN, llio hhitvtpriHo loft for Point Hiirrow on (ho «fiorntHu\ of (ho 2!.!nd. On tho 2H(li wo nmdo (ho ion in hit. 7\''-0 f\\u\ \k\u^-. I '»!>'•() w., nnd tvaohod Point llinrow (ho muno Hf(.(>r- noon, and, af(or oonunnnioating wi(h (lio /Vmrr, r^(urnod to IVtrt (Matvnoo on 8op(«Mnl»or Htl\, (ho Vlorrr arriving on (ho folluwiiig d{»\ . lVi(h vosstds h>ft for (ho Hon(h on (ho Kilh. In (ho oonrso of (ho yoivvn lS(?r> and IHdd (^xpcdidons woro o«jni|>p»>d Uv Ainorioa!\N a( 8.U1 l"'ranoisoo wilh (ho viow of laying dowtt a (olograph-oaMo aoross (ho oon(it»M»(M of Ania and Aniorica. Mr. Whytnpor, wlu> aooonipaniod (Ito oxpodiiii n, has ptihUHluMl an intorosting aoooutit of Iuh oxploradoiiB, ftoin whioh a fow cxtracta havo boon mado, »vs thoy boar on (lio ioo niovotnont. In lS(>r> soundings woro takon aoroNs Uolriag Soabo(Avoon tho (vf and «»(»' of ladtndo. whon (ho bo(ton\ waN found to bo vory ovon. with an avorago dop(h of 1'.)^ fadionm. In 18tU> Mr. \\ hyinpor loft IV(ropanlowHlvi on Augtist (Jth, and riNichod Plovor Hay on (ho IKh, whon> 11 nion woro loft to pass tho wintor. l.oavitig Plovor Hay on (ho lioth, Morion Soiind wan rtvu-hod on (ho LMih. 'V\n\ ioo in Norlon Sound forms oarly in Ootobor. but is fro(inontly broken up and oarrio»l (o soa. On C'hristmasovo all tho ioo was blown out of (ho bay. In tho spring tho bay was not eloar of ioo until tho third wook itJ .luno. lio •'>•"> j^txKvcdcvI vv>rland to (ho Kwipak or Yukon liivor, and spont tho wintor at Xnh to (^tho liussian fori, whoro Liout. ilarnard was killed in 1S,M\ Xdato by tho rivoi is 600 milos from its mouth: oppo^ito tho Fort it is li milo wido and oocasionally opens out into lagoons 4 and 5 miles across. Tlu) ico began to move on the river opposite tho fort on April 6th, and on May 19tli was •rushing past at the rate of 6 or t> miios per hour, bringing with it a b-)>iO quantity of drift-wood, and rising It foot above its usual level. On tin. "Gth Mr. N\ hympor left Nulito and, ascending the river OOO miles, reuvbed Fort Yukon on Juno 23rd, which he estimates to he in latitude bO" n. This is tbo Hudson's Bay post to which tho Rat Indians brought a oommimication from Comm'' Magnire, with whom they fell in with near the mouth of the IUVKIl YUKON— WIIAr.INd KfJIKT. 121 (tdlvilln. Tliny alYrrwunlH <'a!noon Itoanl f.lio liJnhrjn-itir '\unt nn nfio WfiH (III ilio poitit. of loaviiin Imr wirifcw «juar(«rN in ('airidnn Iky in lHr»4. 'I'lio lull, vv(i« ('H«al»liHli«Ml ill ilio year IH47. Mr. VVliyinfior Icl'l. tin* lurl, on liin roliirn on .Inly Mm Hf.li : tljo ciiinuif, Hoiri«if.ini<'» oiiriyiiig liiiii loo niil(o roaoliod in f» days from tho lioad of Morion Honn'i hy iravoDing ovorliind. I'iXiraui from a ioltor from (^iipfain Jionfi; to If. M. VViinoy, Efif|,, datod Honolulu, Novi^mbor oMi, |H«)7:-- " VViaiigoil liivnd waHllrHiHoon on iliocvonin^of ilio I4ih of Anj^tiHt, and tlio next day at i».. '10 a.m. tlio Hliiji waw IH niiloH diHtant fr(»in tho woNt fioiui .... wliioli wiiH found t(» bo in lai. 70' 40' and long. 17H ' {{O' 10 'J'lio lower partH of ilio land woro oniiroly froo from Hnow, and hail a gioon appoaranco an if covvr^d with vogo- tation Near tho ooiitro, or about long. IHO', ihoro in a uif»un- titiu which liaH tho apjioaraniio of an oxtinoi volcano : }»y ajiproxi- mato moaHuromoiit I found it to bo 2480 foot high 'Die Bouih-cast capo, which lio named CajM) ilawaii, was found to Ikj in lai. 70" 40' N. and long. 178' T^l' w From Ir)ng. 17.V' to long. 170" K. thoro w(,'ro no indicaiionH of animal lifo in tho wator. It apjioarod almost aH bluo an it; dooH in tho middle of tho I'acifio Ocean, fhougli thoro wiw but from 1/5 to 18 fathomn in any placo within 40 niiloH of Iho land." Captain liong tliinkf- '; propeller might readily have Ht^jamcd up north on tho woHi or v.nnt sido of lliiH land ; and ho believes it U) \to inhabited. According to his track chart ho made Capo North on AugUMt 2nd, sailed along tho Asiatic continent, passing dose to (yupe lakiin on iho 4th, und reached Cape Cholagskoi on the Dth. On the 10th tho furthermost western point was oVjtained in long. 170^ 30' E. and lat. 70 ' 45' N. Captain Kodgors, in 1855, reached tho 72" of latitude in long. 174"^ 40' w., afterwards, returning ^^outherly, ho passed Txitween Wrangell Land and Capo Jakan, having a depth of 25 fathoms water, and reached long. 176'' 40' e. in lat 70' 45' n. Extract of a letter from Captain OayjKjr to Mr. Witney, dated November 1, 1867:— '* On my last cniize I sailed along tho south and east side of 3 f] ,i i: 122 WHALING FLEET. Wrangell Island for a considerable distance three separate times, and once cruized along the entire shore I made the south- west cape to be in n. lat. 76° 20' and b. long. 178° 15', and the south-east cape in lat. 71° 10' and long 176° 40' w The cur- rent runs to the north-west from 1 to 3 knots per hour. In long. 170° 10' w. we always find the ice-barrier from 50 to 80 miles further south than we do between that and Herald Island In such shoal water the currents are changed easily by the wind." Captain Long, in a letter dated January 15th, 1868, thus sum- marises his opinion of the currents in Behring Straits : — " The currents here have been found variable : in the spring and summer the current is always found setting towards the north; in the autumn and winter months, from information derived from natives of the coast and whalers that have wintered in Plover and St. Lawrence Bays, the current is found setting towards the south. The barque Gratitude was wrecked in lat. 82^° n." (? 72^° n.), " long. 168°, about 40 miles from Cape Lisbum, in the early part of July, 1865, Was seen in the month of August near Herald Island, 170 miles in a n.n.w. direction from the position in which she was wrecked. " The Ontaria was wrecked in September, 1866, in lat. 70° 25', and during the following winter was seen by the natives drifting through Behring Strait to the south, and was afterwards seen on shore in lat. 64° 50' n. The following account of the wreck and abandonment of the whaling fleet off Wainwright Inlet, in September 1871, is taken from the ' Hawaiian Gazette : ' " The fleet passed through Behring Straits between the 18th and 30th of June. In July the main body of the ice was found about lat. 69° 10', with a clear strip of water running to the north- ast along the land. In the second week in August most of the ships were north of the Blossom Shoals, and some as far as Wain- wright Inlet. Hero they remained fishing until August 29th, when a south-west wind set the ice inshore very fast, and at length the ships were all jammed close together. On September 7th the barque iJowian was crushed by the ice like an eggshell, in forty-five minutes, and on the 8th the barque Awashonka was crushed. On the 9th the weather was calm, and the water aroun'". the ships froze over. Not having provisions to last over three or four months, a meeting of the Masters was held on the 13th, when it was deter- mined to abandon the ships, which was done at 4 p.m. on the 14th, and reached the barques Arctic, Midas, and Progress, on the 16th ; the distance traversed in the boats being about 70 mik-y. Ic a'J., DR. SIMPSON'S REMARKS. 123 'am- 59th, kngth the iT-five On Ifroze Lhs, a leter- L4th, |6th; thirty-one vessels were either crushed or abandoned, and seven vessels were saved. Dr. Simpson's Bemarks. — " Through the large opening between the American and Asiatic continents, occupied by the Aleutian Islands, there is an almost imperceptible set from the Pacific Ocean north- wards, the waters of which, retaining the impulse given them by the earth's rotation in a lower" latitude, draw towards the American shores, and throw themselves into Norton Bay. They are thence driven with increasing force along the coast of America opposite the island of St. Lawrence, diflfusing themselves to the north of that island to be carried with lessened speed through the Straits of Behring, after receiving in the latter part of their course the fresh- water stream falling through Grantly Harbour into Port Clarence'.* Spreading again over a larger space, they receive a further tribute from Kotzebue Sound, which is very palpable off Port Hope. Again in the latitude of Icy Cape the earth's rotation gives them an easterly set, forming an almost constant current along the north coast of America to Point Barrow, whence it pursues a direction north-east. Throughout all this course the current is subject to retardations, and even surface-drifts in an opposite direction, caused by northerly and north-easterly winds, but it is also accelerated by southerly and south-westerly gales." " In the beginning of the summer the eastern side south of the straits is free from ice, and Norton Bay itself is usually cleared as early as April. After the middle of June not a particle of ice is to be seen between Port Spencer and King's Island; whilst the comparatively still water north of St. Lawrence Island is hampered T'dh large floes until late in July." ' This can be satisfactorily accounted for by the existence of a V i .1 eily cvirrent partly driving and partly throwing the ice down iroiji the American shores. There is scarcely a particle of drift- wc i tr be had on the Asiatic coast from Kamschatka to East Cape, whi.Bt abundance is to be found in Port Clarence and Kotzebue Sound, as well as along the whole American shore from Norton Bay to Port Barrow. " Although it has been found that pine-trees 60 inches in girth grow here on the banks of the American rivers, within the 67th parallel of latitude, yet from the frequently larger size of the trunks and their great abundance, it is evident these northern "f fioraH, including Norton Bay, cannot supply the quantity : and iiore bouthem rivers, whether Asiatic or American, or both, must ' Dr. Simpaou was not aware of tho iinirartanuc of the Rivor Yukon. 124 DR. SIMPSON'S REMARKS. be looked to for the numerous multitude of water-worn stems and roots strewed almost everywhere along the beach. Their southera origin would also seem to be indicated by the presence in many of them of the remains of the Teredo navalis, which could hardly retain life throughout the rigour of eight or nine months' frost every year." It would seem that between St. Lawrence Island and the coast of Asia the current is variable, and seldom entirely free from ice until late in July ; hence the many disasters to whalers in 1.851, and the difficulties the Dcedalus and Enterprise encountered the same season by taking the westward passage, whilst an open boat from the Plover was able, between the 17th of June and the 1st of July, to make the run to Michaelowski in Norton Bay and back without her crew seeing any ice." "The Amphitrite i; 1^" ? was able to reach Port Clarence on the 30th June by the ep. passage without seeing but one floe, which had probably been . ecently released from some of the nooks in Morton Bay : although late in the same month the master of a whaling ship reported that the ice was still fast as low as lat. 68° and 60° between the longitude of Gore's Island and the coast of Kamschatka." " To the northward of Cape Prince of Wales the warm water is always found on the American coast. From frequent observations the temperature of the water near East Cape was found to be 35°, while that near Cape Prince of Wales was 53°. The cold current sets south along the coast of Asia." " From recorded observations it appears that the coast from Icy Cape to Point Barrow is frequently packed with ice in the end of July and the beginning of August. The cause of this seems to be the occasional prevalence of westerly and north-westerly winds, which drive the pack upon the coast, again to be cleared away by the north-east current along shore as soon as these winds have spent their force: and southerly and south-east winds will have the opposite eflTect of driving it in a more northerly direction, and leave the navigation more open than usual. At Icy Cape the current on Captain Beechy's chart is marked running both ways along shore, but not, it is presumed, with the regularity of a regular tidal ebb and flow. During the continuance of an easterly gale from the 29th of July to the 5th of August, and a fresh breeze following for two days at that cape, floating substances were observed to drift slowly to leeward, whilst the waves were short, irregular, and much more broken than usual, to a distance of 12 miles oflF, as if caused by a weather-current, 'i'his may, however, be partly owing to the shoals extending 4 utiles off the land. On DR. SIMPSON'S REMARKS. 125 the 3rd, a whaling vessel stood within 6 miles of the shore, tacked, and stood out rgain, making such progress to windward as a sailing vessel could only do when favoured by a strong weather-current." •' From Icy Cape to the Seahorse Islands, in addition to drift-wood, there is strewed along the beach a quantity of coal, which, though much water-worn, may, in some of the indentations, be collected in sufficient abundance, and bituminous enough to make an excellent fire for cooking. It is of the sort called candle-coal, and some of the pieces are sound enough to be carved by the natives into lip ornaments." " At the Seahorse Islands it is found as fine as small gravel, and, on digging into the beach, is seen to form alternate layers with the sand ; but between Wainwright Inlet and Icy Cape it is gathered in knots of a convenient size for fuel. This may be taken as a farther evidence of the set of the current, as the nearest known point whence the coal is brought is that marked on the chart as Cape Beaufort. The whole extent of the coast from below Icy Cape to Point Barrow is bordered by a beach of gravel, which has likewise a southern origin, and determines the form of the con- tinent, offering as it does an efi'ective barrier to the encroachment of the sea, which would otherwise speedily undermine the earth- cliffs behind. All that can be seen from the seaboard landward is a fiat, alluvial plane, seldom exceeding 20 feet in elevation, and containing numerous pools and lagoons of fresh water, but without a tree or bush to relieve the view." " The tides are hardly appreciable and very irregular at Kotzebue Sound and Port Clarence ; there the sea usually retains a very low level during the prevalence of northerly, north-easterly, and easterly winds, and the highest levels occur with southerly and feouth- westerly gales. During a stay of seven days at Icy Cape, with a prevailing gale at east and e.n.e., the same low-water level obtained as much as 4^ feet below the highest surf-mark, the undeniable effects of westerly and south-westerly winds. With the drifted material left on those marks where the shore has a westerly aspect were several varieties of dead shells, identical in species with those previously dredged from the bottom of the sea in deep water, 26 to 30 fathoms in the straits and north of them." It will be seen by the foregoing abstracts that the navigation of the Arctic Sea between Behring Straits and Point Barrow is com- paratively easy to vessels fitted for ice-navigation. The current of warm water from the Pacific sets continually to the north-east throughout the summer months, and forms a lane between the pack and the land which enabled the BlosBom's barge, ou August 21st, i III ' 126 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 1826, to reach Point Barrow. Mr. Shedden, in a schooner-yacht of 140 tons, rounded the Point on August 4th, 1849. The Investigator, Comm'- McClure, on August 5th, 1850. The Enterprise, Captain CoUinson, on August 20th, 1850. „ „ „ on July 25th, 1851. The Plover, Comm'- Maguire, on August 20th, 1852, and wintered there, being frozen in on September 24th. The Plover left her winter quarters on August 7th, 1853. Eeturned to „ „ on September 7th, 1853. Left again her „ „ on July 19th, 1854. Returning to her „ „ on August 28th, 1854. Enterprise returning from tho eastward, Bounded the Point on August 8th, 1854. And returned from Port Clarence on August 28th, 1854. The season of 1854 was, undoubtedly, the most open, the ice being so far from the Point that the whaling ships were enabled to fish ofif it. The season may be considered to be open from the beginning of July to the middle of September. The pack is usually met with off Icy Cape, and should westerly winds have prevailed and forced the pack into the shore, a vessel will do well to wait until the wind subsides, when the current will be sure to open the lane between the land and the pack. Easterly winds check the current, and, after a continuation of them, there is a set alongshore to the southward. Some natives got adrift in the ice in 1853, and were carried by this set to the southward of Icy Cape, the land being always in sight. In both years the Plover wintered at Point Barrow. The ice round the Point was broken up, and swept to the northward by south-westerly gales. At times no ice could be seen from the mast- head. In 1853 this disruption occurred in December, and caused the water to rise 3;^ feet above the highest spring-tide. The tem- perature at the same time rose to-|-30° F. In January, 1854, the same thing occurred, the thermometer on this occasion rising to -j- 27°. During both winters a water-sky to the north-west was generally observed from the ship, unless after a long continuance of north-westerly Windsor calm weather. There is but little rise and fall of the tide, 0*7 inches being the average. With fine weather or easterly winds they were very regular, but a south-west gale upset them altogether. E^ikimo whale-fishing commenced on May 7th, 1853, the open GENERAL OBSEUVATIONS. 127 water being 4 miles from Point Barrow, extending in an e.n.e. and w.s.w. direction, with a depth of 10 fathoms water. Between the 4th and 7th of July about thirty oomiaks, carrying about 150 people, went to the eastward. The ship swung to her anchor on July 25th, and the ice was in motion in the ofiing on July 30th. An abstract from the Plover's log, which I have to thank StafT- Comm"" Hull for, shows the number of days in each month that open water, as well as a water sky, was seen from that vessel during the two winters spent at Point Barrow. In 1852-53, open water was seen on twenty -seven days between October and April, and in 1853-54 on seven days only, whilst the indication of open water occurred during the same period in 1852-53 on fifty-seven days, and in 1853-54 on sixty-two days. December, January, and February appear to be the months during which the ice is more frequently in motion. It will be, perhaps, advisable here to introduce the tables of monthly temperatures taken from Dr. Simpson's paper. ice mast- aused tem- ,the g to was ice of and ather gale open 1862^3. 1863-64. Month. Max. Min. Mean. Max. Mtn. Mean. • Sept. . +42- H-12- -I-28-9 +41- - 3- +23-0 Oct. . +27- -21- + 8-9 + 14- -22. - 0-8 Nov. . -r25- -37- - 7-8 +22- -26- - 7-4 Dec. . -I-28- -37* - 8-7 + 7- -40- -18-7 Jan. . + 16- -43- -23-8 -f27' -37- -13-7 Feb. . + 3- -36- -17-4 - 3- -45- -27-9 March -h24- -37- -12-7 -I-23- -42- -17-8 April. + 33- -40- + 3'8 -I-26- -17- -1- 1-6 May . -f-44- - 6* + 18-5 +42- - 3- -^20-5 June . +45- -fl7- +32-1 +47- -1-24- -i-32-8 July . + 52- +26- -h3.5-4 +51- -(-28- -t-37-2 August -1-49 • -f-31- +38-7 -I-48- + 29- -F39 1 Means +32-3 -14-2 + 7-2 +28-7 -12-8 + 5-7 It is remarkable th' t, though the winter of 1852-53 was warmer than the ensuing ore, the Plover was detained by the ice in her winter-quarters until August 7th ; whereas in 1854 she made her escape to the southward on July 23rd, and the ice during the summer was so far off the Point, that the whale-ships fished off it. The temperatures observed on board the Enterprise, which vessel wintered in the pack 245 miles to the eastward, in 1853-54, are given for the sake of comparison. tu 128 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. Month. October November December January February March April .. May .. June . . July .. Max. MIn. +24 +20 - 4 +27 - 5 +16 +19 +47 + 46 +53 -20 -33 -51 -49 -51 -47 -26 + 26 +27 TblcknesB Mean. of Ice on the 1st. inchps. + 0-6 0-07 - 9-6 2 02 -260 211 -16-2 4-00 -31-8 5-00 -200 6-00 -00-9 602 + 23-0 7 00J + 32-4 7-02' + 37-5 411 On July 10th the water along the coast was sufficiently open to send the whale-boat to Point Barrow. On the 15th the ice broke up, which was three days earlier than at Point Barrow. The ship left Camden Bay on the 20th, but, owing to obstruction by the ice, did not reach Point Barrow until the afternoon of August 7tb. In comparing the monthly temperatures of Camden Bay and Point Barrow, the increased temperature at the latter place is very perceptible, and is, no doubt, occasioned by the open water. Neither open water nor water-sky was seen from Camden Bay. In the month of April an attempt was made to go north from the Enter- prise with three sleighs; but on the second day the hummocks were found to be impassable. One sleigh utterly broke down, and several accidents from severe falls rendered it necessary to give up the attempt and return to the ship. The snow-drift on these hum- mocks lay in continuous ridges east and west, indicating that no dislocation of the ice had taken place during the winter. The condition of the ice north of the American continent affords a remarkable contrast with that on the Asiatic shore, where year after year open water is found all the way from Kotelnoi Island to North Cape, a distance nearly 1000 miles. Here, instead of a compact pack, which in the neighbourhood of Point Barrow is occasionally moved off the shore and brought back bj' the force of the wind, but which appears to remain perfectly quiescent along the coast to the eastward, the water, for some reason or other, is pre- vented from freezing, and the traveller is continually brought to a stop by the thinness of the ice or open water itself. This water, on refening to Baron Wrangell's and M. Von Anjou's Journals, will be found to be always in motion, and lemarks such as follows On the 15th, 6-3 inches. NATIVE NAMES FOR PLACES. 129 are found in their Jounials : — " Current i a knot in an e.s.e. direc- tion." " Strong current running E.a.E." " Oflf Schalarov Island, current running 1^ knot to the eastward." " Though the wind was westerly the pieces of ice drifted from east to west ; the sledge- drivers were of opinion that this was the ebb tide, the regular six- hourly return of which they had noted." It will be seen on reference to the meteorological register kept on board the Enterprise, where the thickness of the ice was mea- sured on the first of every month, that the thickness increased up to June 1st, the mean temperature of the month of May being -|- 23°. The change in the character of the ice cannot there- fore be ascribed to the temperature of the atmosphere, but will probably be found due to the motion of the water. These Polynias, or open spaces of water, have since been fallen in wHh to the north of Grinnell Land and in the upper portion of Smith Sound, and they were seen by Ijieutenant Payer in the recent voyage of the Tegethoff, as far north as the 82° of latitude. It is to be noted that the open water on the Siberian coast occurs in com- paratively shallow water under 20 fathoms, whereas in the neigh- bourhood of Point Barrow the water deepens with great rapidity. Nativk Names for Some Places bctweejj the Mackenzie River AND Point Hope. The Mackenzie, Village between it and Point Kay, Point Kay, Reef East of Herschel Island, Hcrschel Island, Barter Island, Fishing-station this side, Village visited by us in the autumn. Village about 7 miles s.e. by E. from ) ship, ) Bomanzoff chain of hills, Canning River, Flaxman Island, Between Point Barrow and Flax-1 man Island, / Point Barrow, Beyond Point Barrow, Northern stream between Refugej Inlet and Cape Smyth, / Cape Smyth, Refuge Inlet, Inlet south of it. Cape Lisbum, Imna (f ) Pe-ock-cha. Te-kee-ra. Ke-yuk-ta-zia. Ke-yuk-ta-hue. ^oo-iva-miaou. Ac-hut. Noo-na-ma-luk. Noo-woo-a. Chud-loo-O'Sak. Kook-Doak. Kapa-gill-lok. Che-gea. Noo-icook. Ot-kia-mik-miot. Oo-fe-Ia. Noo-oo. Noo-naboo or Il-lip-$u. Too-na-mut. Te-ga. tl: 180 EXTRACTS FROM ' PLUVEU'S ' LOG. Villogo between Cupe Dyor uiul\ iir„„ „« Cupo liisburn, / Villayo iKdtli of Aaats' Ears, Ka-ma-due. Pciiit Hope, I^vu-nd. Icy Caj)e, Ol-ron-nn. Wuinwriglit Inlit, Kotj-ru-uk. EXTRACTS FROM THE LOG OF H.M.S. Plover, 1852. On passage from Port Clarence to Point fiarrow, encountered tlie ice off Icy Cape, but found no difiQculty in reaching Point Barrow, where we anchored on the 3rd September. Sejdember. 4. A heavy N.W. gale brought in the pack. 9. An easterly wind cleared off the same. 13. Pack returns with a N.W. wind. 15. Pack cleared out by a southerly wind. 20. N.W. winds bring the pack in. 22. Open sea beyond the ground hummocks at 5 miles N.W., trtte, of Point Barrow. 2C. Frozen in. Ocfoler. 21. Open water 5 miles from Point Barrow. 26. 27. Water Sky.— S.W. to N.N.E. 28. November. H Water Sky.— S.W. to N.N.E. 7. Open water within i mile of Point Barrow. 8. Water Sky.— W.S.W. to N.E. 10. Water Sky.— S.W. to N. . 22. 24 27 30. J ■Water Sky to the N.W. Water Sky seen for 9 days in November. December. JH Water Sky.— W.S.W. to E. 13.) ■y -S.W. to N.W. and N. 1 5. [ Water Sky.- 16.) 17. Break up of the ice with a heavy S.W. gale. Thermometer + 30° Fahr. From this date until the 1st of January the sea may be said to have been open for another southerly gale. On the 28th took all the young ice out to sea. 5 days Water Sky, and open water on 16 days in December. EXTRACTS FROM 'PLOyER'S' LOG. 1853. 131 January. 1. A few hummocks in sight. 2. Sea freezing again. 5. Water Sky:--W. to N.E. n.\ 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. ID.y 24. 25. 28. 29. J •WaterSky.— W. toN.E. Water Sky.— S.W. to N.E. Water Sky seen on IG days in January. February, 4. Water Sky.— N.W. to E. g* Wpen water seen from Point Barrow, 9". Water Sky.— W.N.W. to N.N.E. 12. Ice packed heavily on W. side of Point Barrow, piled to the height of 20 feet. ^'"•IWater Sky.— W.S.W. to N.N.E. Open water again seen from Point Barrow, after a strong easterly gale. 17. 19. 20. 21. 23. gg'fWaterSky.— W. toN. 27! I Water. Sky seen on 9 days, and open water on 5 days in February. March. 1. Water Sky.— W. to N. 7. 8. 9. 13. ) Water Sky.— W. to N.E. 14. 25. 26. j Water Sky seen on 8 days in March. April. 3. Water Sky.— W.S.W. to N.E. 7. Water Sky.— N. to N.E. K 2 132 KXTHACTS FKOM 'rLOVKU'S' LOG. April 18. \ 23. 24. 25. 2(5. 27. 28. 29. 30. iVVatorSky.— W. toN.K. Water Sky aeon on 11 days in April. May. H Water Sky.— N.W. to N.E. „'>Opou water seen from I'oint Barrow after strong easterly winds. to > Water Sky continuous. — N.W. to E. 31.J Water Sky seen on 25 days in May. June. 1 ) 2. [Water Sky.— W.N.W. to N.E. 3.1 12.) to [Water Sky.— W. to N.E. 19.) Water Sky seen on 11 days in June. July. 9. Boats left for the open water. 10. Oi^en water seen from ship. 24. Ship free from ice, but pack close in to the Point. 30. The grounded hummocks off Point Barrow moved to the N.E. 31. Open water off Cape Smyth, south of Point Barrow. August. 7. Pack left the land ; Plover left Point Barrow. 8. Beget in Peard Bay ; current running N.E. 9. Cleared the pack off Cape Fmnklin. August. 31. On return to Point Barrow met the pack 15 miles north off Icy Cape ; current setting N.E. EXTUACTS FUOM 'PLOVEU'tJ' LOG. 133 September. to [ Besot oiT Rorugo Inlet. 5.) (). (Jlcared the pack, but again Ixjsot off Point Barrow, and carried to tiic N.K. at tli« ratu of 2 miles an hour. Succeeded in getting alongside of a grounded hummock. 7. Clearnd pack, and anchored in Point Barrow. 1(5. Frozen in. 25. lushoro waters frozen ; but open sea from Point Barrow. October. 4. 6. J- J Water Sky.— W. to N.E. 12. 13. 14.' Water Sky seen on 8 days in October. NovenU)er. 3.) 22. [Water Sky.— N.W. to N.E. 23.) Water Sky seen on 3 days in November. December. 7. Water Sky.— W.N.W. to N.E. 8. Great pressure of ice on outer spit ; ice forced up 22 feet. No api»a- reiit cause. Wind S.W. and calm. 10. 12. 13. 21. 22. 23! 27. j Water Sky.— N.W. to N.E. ■Water Sky.— N.W. to E.N.E. Water Sky seen on 11 days in December. 1854. January. 3. [Water Sky.— N.W. and N. 5.) 12. Heavy S.W. gale taken out the ice from the Point. 13. Open water from ma^t-hcad as far as could be seen. 14. Ditto do. Temperature + 28° Fahr. 15. Sea freezing. * » V J n; I v-i i ''■\ ■( i ^ f ( f ►4 4' r .is % ■ ' wBwH i^m n i 134 EXTRACTS FROM 'PLOVER'S' LOG. Janrmry, 16. Open w.-'ter ofif Point Barrow. Jg'lWater Sky.— N.W. to E. -.'Hce piled to the height of 30 feet on tb'; spits S. of Point Barrow. Water Sky seen on 12 days in January, and open water on 4 days. 19. 20. February. 23.) 24. Water Sky.— N.W. to E. 26.1 26. 27;}Op. lon water seen from the grounded hummocks near Point Barrow. Water Sky seen on 5 days in February. March. ^•iWaterSky.— N. toE. 5!) e.JWaterSky.— W. toB. 12. Captain Maguire walked to the edge of the shore floe, about 10 miles to the N.W. of Point Barrow; found the ice in the open water to be setting slowly to the eastward. 20. \ 21. 23. 25. 26. 27. 28. Water Sky from N. to E. Water Skj seen on 13 days in March. April. 6.>> 0. 10. 12. 13. 14. 15. ' 16. 17. \ 19. 20. 22. 23. 26. 27. 29. SO.; Water Sky seen on 17 days in April. Water Sky was seen all May, Oflicers away with natives whaling. )WaterSky.— N.W. toN.E. MACKENZIE— FRANKLIN. 135 May. 13. Water only 23 miles from Point Bari-ow. Loose ice on that clay moving slowly to the southward. Water Sky seen all the month. June, All June a Water Sky observed. July. 10. Open water at Point Barrow. 15. Ship free from ice. 18. General break up. 23. Plover cleared the pack-ice off Wainwright Inlet. Aufjust, 19. Plover railed from Port Clarence to Point Barrow without being in any way impeded ,iy the ice. 30. Sailed South from Point Barrow. The above notes, which show the prevalence of open water in the vicinity of Point Biirrow, where H.M.S. Plover, Commander Kochfort Maguire, wintered in 1852-3-4, are copied from that vessel's log-book. ith March, 1875. Thomas A. Hull. I ,! T» w\ 2.-A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE EXPLORATION OF THE POLAR SEA Between Point Baruow and the River Mackenzie, including the Voyages of the Investigator and Enterprise to Banks Land. Voyage of Mackenzie to the Polar Sea, 1789. — Sir A; Mackenzio, attended by a German, four Canadians, and three Indians, together with two Canadian and two Indian women, left Fort Chipewyaii on June 3rd, 1789, in four birch-bark canoes. The Slave Lake was reacted on the Cth, where they had to remain six days to enable the ice to g'.ve way. They then entered at the west end of the lake the river which now bears the name of Mackenzie, !i,nd eventually reached the Great Northern Oct. n on the loth of July. Returning by the same route, the party regained Fort Chipowyan on September 12th. Captain FranJcliri'a Second Voyage, 1825-26. — Three boats were built at Woolwich for this expedition, one of which was 26 feet, and the two others 24 feet long, and a small vessel, 9 feet long, 4 feot 4 inches wide, which weighed «jnly 85 lbs., and could bo made up in five or six parcels. These were forwarded to York Factory in 1824. I' 1! i; IW 11 § i i 130 CAP'J'AIN FRANKLIN, 1826— DBASE AND SIMPSON, 1837. The expedition, consisting of Captain Franklin, Lieutenant Back, Dr. KichardNon, Mr. Kendall, and Mr. Drummond, with four marines, left Liverpool in February, 825. Passing through the United States and IJppor Canada, Fort William, on Lake Superior, was reached on May 10th, and the Methye River on June 29th, wheie they joined the boats which hud been forwarded from Hudson Bay, and ariived at Fort Chipewyan on the 15th of July. Leaving it on the 25th, Fort Resolution was reached on the 29th, and the Mackenzie River on the 3rd of August. Quitting Fort Simpson on the 5tb, they arrived at Fort Isorman on the 8th, and Fort Good Hope on the 10th, and the Polar Sea on tlie 16th, and returned to Fort Good Hope on the 23rd; arrived at Great Bear Lake on Sep- tember Ist: the total distance travelled over from New York being 5803 miles. Passing the winter at Fort Franklin, in lat. 65° 12', long. 123° 13', Captain Franklin, accompanied by Lieutenant Back, in the two bciats which weie named the Lion and Bdiance, left the Fort on June 22nd, 182(5, arrived at Fort Norman on the 25th, Fort Good Hope on July 1st. The mouth of the river was reached on the 7ih. The Eskimo were met with, who attempted to pillage the boats. Detained by the ice, being pressed close on the shore, but little progress was made. The rise and fall of the tide was found to be about 2 feet. Point Kay was reached on the 15th, Herschel Idand on the 17th, and Point Demarcation on the 31st. A black whale and several seals were seen, and the ice was driving "'ith great lapidity to the westward. Barter Island Was arrived at on the 4th of August, and here a musket was lef; by accident on the beach ; this uiusket was seen at Point Berens ir. 1 860, by Lieutenant Pullen. On the 6th they got to Flaxman Island ; on the 7th and 8th, at Lion Reef, the tide was found to be regulur, rising 16 inches. After great obstruction. Point Anxiety was passed on the 16th, when further progress to the wost was found to be impracticable this season. Returning to the east, Flaxnu n Island was gained on the same day that Mr. Elson, in the barge of the Blosaom, reached Point Barrow from Behring Straits, August 22ud, being 160 miles distant from Captain Franklin's furthest point. Demarcation Point on the 24th, Herschel Island on the 26th, and Garry Island, at the mouth of the Mackenzie, on the 29th ; and by aid of the tracking-line, Fort Good Hope on September 7th, and Fort Franklin on the 2 Ist. The dibtauceB traversed are as follows ; — DEASE AND SIMPSON, 1837. From Fort Franklin to Point Separation . „ Point Separation to Pillage Point . „ Pillage Point to Return Reef ,. Return Reef to Fort Franklin .. 137 Total Miles. 625 129 374 1020 2048 Boat Voyage of Messrs. Dease and Simpson from the River Mackenzie to Point Barrow in 1837. — Leaving Fort Chipewyan in two clinker- built boats of feet beam and 24 feet keel on June 1st, MessrK. Doase and Simpson were detained prisoners by the ice at Fort Resolution from the 10th to the 2l8t; they passed the Hay Ifiver oil the 23rd, and arrived at Fort Simpson on the 28th, and at Fort Norman at 10 p.m. on July 1st, having travelled 250 miles in 48 hours ; and reached Fort Good Hope on the evening of the 4th. Starting again on the 5th, Eskimo caches virere reached on the 8th, and on the following day the natives themselves were met with, and the Arctic Ocean reached. Detained by a north-west gale at Shingle Point, Point Kay was passed on the afternoon of the 11th. The violence of the wind prevented their moving until the 14th, when the first regular flow and ebb was observed, and taking advantage of the opening in the ice, they passed inside Herschel Island. Some bones of an enormous whale were found here. On the 15th Demarcation Point was reached. The tide, though insigni- iicant, did us good service. Flaxman Island was gained on the morning of the 20th; detained by a gal on the 21st and 22nd, they reached Return Reef on the evening of the 2:i)d. Strong gales delayed them at Point Comfort until the 26th, \\ hen Harrison Bay was crossed. At Cape Simpson the tide rose 10 inches. On August 1st Mr. Simpson started on foot with five men, each carrying from 40 to 50 lbs. After passing Port Tangent 10 miles, thoy obtained an oomiak from the Eskimo, in which they croh.-ed Dease Inlet and got to Point Christie on the 3rd, and gained Point Barrow on the 4th ; thus Conner* ig the discoveries of Beechey wit h those of Franklin, and perfecting the outline of the American con- tinent from the 156th to the 108th meridian. Returning easterly, the boats were reached on the 6th. Mr. Dease had ascertained tlio rise and full of the tide to be 15 inches, and that the flood came from the north-west. Demarcation Point was reached on the Uth, whore an easterly wind detained them until the I6th ; and it was not until the evening of the 17th that Tent Island was reached. The ascent of the Mackenzie was performed almost exclusively by towing, at m '111; :^Vi i ; 138 rULLEN, 1850-51-' INVESTIGATOR,' 1850. the rate of from 30 to 40 miles per da)', and Fv)rt Good Hope arrived at on the 28 1 h. Lieutenant Pullen'a Boat Voyage from Point Barrow to the MacJeenzie Biver. — Lieutenant Fallen left the Plover off Wainwright Inlet on" the 26th of July, 1850 ; and in company with two other boats, and Mr. Sheddon's yacht, the Nancy Dawson, reache'd Point Barrow on August 2nd. Here the escort left them, and the two boats pro- ceeded along the coast. Point Pitt was passed on the 7th. Cape Halkott „ 9th. Point Rereiis „ 11th. Lion Reef on the 14th. Many seals ; rise and fall of the tide 18 inches; current strong to the west; wind fresh, north-east. Flaxman Island on the 16th. Manning Point „ 1 8tli. Humphrey Point „ 20th. Two whales seen. Herschel Island „ 22nd. Yellow water. Entered the Mackenzie River ou the 27th. Tracks of bears, moose, and reindeer frequent. At Fort Macpherson, September 5th. Arrived at Fort Norman, October 6th. The ice in the Mackenzie set fast on November 12th. Snow-birds arrived on the 24th of April, 1851 ; ducks, May 4th, Ice began to break up on May 14th. Left Fort Simpson, July 11th; at Fort Good Hope, 16th; Port Separation on the 20th; and the Arctic Sea on the 22nd; Richard Island, 24th; Cape Dalhousie, August 3rd; and Cape Bathurst, August 10th. Found the ice packed close on the shore ; small whales seen. The boats remained here until the 15th, and on the 30th Captain M'Clure landed here from the Investigator. Garry Island was reached on the 2Gth. Fort Macpherson „ 7th of September. Fort Good Hope „ 17th Fort Simpson „ 5th of October. u Voyage of H.M.S. ' Invtsmjctor ' from Point Barrow to the Bay of Mercy. — The Investigator rounoed Point Barrow at midnight on August 5th. Reached Point Drew on the 8th ; Jones Island on the 1 1 th. Ran on a shoal 8 miles north of Yarborough Inlet on the 14th. On the 15th the ice closed in from the north ; anchored to await some favourable change. The ice eased off on the following morning, and the ship was warped through a lane 160 yards wide. The Pelly Islands were reached on the 21st. The temperature of the ' INVESTIGATOR,' 1851-52. 139 sea on reaching the coloured water of the Mackenzie rose from 28° to 39°. On the 30th reached Cape Bathurst, and communicated with the natives. On September 6th discovered Baring Land. Landed and took possession on the 7 th. On the 11th the ship was beset in lat. 72" ^'2', and long. 117° 3'; but the ice continued in motion until October 8th, and the ship narrowly escaped destruc- tion several times ; on one occasion listing the ship 34°, when they were firmly fixed for the space of nine months in lat. 72° 47' n., and long. 117° 34' w., 4 miles from the Princess Royal Isles. Here three months' provision and a boat were deposited. On the 21st Captain M'Clure started with sleighs, and reached the entrance into Barrow Strait, in lat. 73° 30'. and long. 114° 14' w., and thus established the existence of a north-west passage. On July 14th, 1851, the ice opened without any pressure ; but the ship was so surrounded by it that they were only able to use their sails twice until August 14th, when they attained the furthest northern position in Prince of Wales Strait, viz., lat, 73° 14' n., long. 115° 32' 30" w. Finding the passage into Barrow Strait obstructed by north-east winds setting large masses of ice to the southward, which had drifted the ship 15 miles in that direction during the last 12 hours, bore up and passed to the southward of Baring Island. August 20th, lat. 74° 27' n., long. 122° 32' 15" w. Have had clear water to reach thus far, running within a mile of the coast the whole distance, when progress was impeded by the ice resting upon the shore : secured the ship to a large grounded floe-pieco in 12 fathoms. August 29th, ship in great danger of being crushed or driven ashore by the ice coming in with heavy pressure from the Polar Sea, driving her along within 100 yards of the land for half a mile, heeling her 15°, and raising her bodily 1 foot 8 inches, when we again became stationary and the ice quiet. September 10th. Ice again in motion, and ship driven from the land into the main pack, with a heavy gale from south-west. On the following day they succeeded in getting clear of the pack, and secured the ship to a grounded floe in 74° 29' n., long. 122° 20' w. September 12th. Clear water along shore to the eastward. Worked the ship in that direction, with several obstructions and narrow escapes from the stupendous Polar ice, until the evening of the 23rd, when they ran upon a mudbank, having 6 feet water under the bow and 5 fathoms astern ; hove off without any damage. Finding a well-sheltered spot upon the south side of this shoal, ran in, and anchored in 4 fathoms, in lat. 74° (?', long. 117° 54', on the 24th, and were frozen-in the same evenin;;. m hu i M; i 140 * investigator; 1852-531. On October 4th, Mr. Court was sent to connect the position of the ship with the Point reached by Lieutenant Cresswell in May, which was distant only 18 miles. He reported open water a few miles from the shore. On April 11th, 1852, Sir R, M'Clure proceeded to Melville Island, and reached Winter Harbour on the 28th, and returned to the ship on the 9th of May. On August 10th, lanes of water were observed to seaward, and along the cliflFs of Banks Land there was a clear space of 6 miles in width, extending along them as far as the eye could reach. On the 12th the wind, which had been for some time to the north, veered to the south, which had the effect of separating the sea-ice from that of the bay entireh' across the entrance, but shortly shift- ing to the north, it closed again, and never after moved. On the 20th the temperature fell to 27°, when the entire bay was completely frozen over. During this summer the sun was scarcely seen, and Captain M'Clure states in his Journa,!: "nor do I imagine that the Polar Sea has broken up this season." On the 24th of September, the anniversary of their arrival in Mercy Bay, the thermometer stood at 2°, with no water in sight, whereas they entered the bay with the thermometer at 33°, and not a particle of ice in it. On April 7th, 1853, Lieutenant Pim reached the Investigator from the Beaolute ; Captain M'Clure left that vessel on the same day, and reached the Beaolute on the 19th. Lieutenant Cresswell left the Investigator on April 15th, and reached the Resolute on May 2nd, and the North Star at Beeohey Island on June 2nd. Sir JB. M^Clure's Bemarks. — The currents along the coasts of the Polar Sea appear to be influenced in their direction more or less by the winds, but certainly on the west side of Baring Island there is a permanent set to the eastward, at one time we found it as much as two knots during a perfect calm ; and that the flood-tide sets from the westward we have ascertained beyond a doubt, as the opportunities afforded during our detention along the western shore of this island gave ample proof. The prevailing winds along the American shore and in the ]*rince of Wales Strait we fuund to be north-east, but upon this coast from south-south-west to north-west. A ship stands no chance of getting to the westward by entering the Polar Sea, the wat V alongshore being very narrow and wind contrary, and the pack impenetrable, but through Prince of Wales Strait, KNTERPRISE; 185l. 141 and by keeping along the American coast, I conceive it prac- ticable. Voyage of the ' Enterprise* — After rounding Point Barrow in the pack, the Enterprise got into the land- water on July Slst, 1851, the edge of the pack was found to be in 7^ fathoms of water ; the tem- perature of the sea rose immediately from 32° to 37°, and reached as high as 46° during the day. Working to the eastward between the pack and the shore, which was sometimes as little as 3 and occasionally as much as 8 or 9 miles wide, an the River Colville was approached the colour of the water changed, and the main body of the ico was as far as 10 and 12 miles from the land. After passing the mouth of the Colville the land-water became strewed with large floe-pieces, rendering it difficult to beat to windward, and at length on August 5th we were compelled to make fast to a floe. On reaching Lion Reef drift-wood was seen on the beach in great abundance, the current was here found to nm w. by n. (true) 05 per hour. Barter Island was passed on the 7th. The main body of the ice was found to be pretty close to Point Manning. On August 8th the current ran to the n.n.e. 0-5 per hour; great difficulty was experienced in steering the ship even with the boats ahead. The ice was much farther from the shore, and on the after- noon of the 9th we were in 17 fathoms water, and passed through a stream of drift-wood trending n.S.w. and s.s.e. Tie current at the surface ran e. by s. (true) 0*5, and at 10 fathoms ^. t.e. 0-2 per hour. The temperature of the sea rose to 49°. On the 10th, at a distance of 28 miles from the land, a depth of 28 fathoms was obtained, and the current was found to set w.s.w. 0*7 per hour. On the 13th of August Herschel Island was seen. Standing off shore on the 16th no bottom was obtained with 140 fathoms of line. On the 18th several streams of drift-wood were passed through, and one tree, 68 feet long, picked up. The edge of the ice trended N.N.K. '»ud S.S.W. The current was found as follows : — At 2.30 A.M., E. by n. (true) 1*0 knot per hour. At noon, n. by e. „ 05 „ „ At 5 p.M , s. by w. „ 0*7 „ „ On the 20th the Pelly Isles were seen, and two islands to tne E.N.E., in lat. 69° 37', and long. 1^4° 32', and in lat. 69° 39', and long. 134° 10'. i;; : i J 142 ' ENTERPRISE,' 1851-52. At 6.30 P.M. the current set w. by s. ^ s. O'G knot per hour. At 11.0 P.M. „ „ w. by s. 0*4 „ „ At 2.0 A.M. 21 st „ „ w. by n. 0;3 „ „ On the 24th we stood in towards Cape Brown, getting 5 fathoms water 2 miles from the beach ; on reaching off 34 miles we could trace the pack from e.n e. round by north to s.w. On August 25th* land was seen to the north, and at noon on the 27th, in lat. 71° 27', and long. 120° 3', land was discovered to the eastward. The gulf or strait between the two lands was found to be 25 miles wide, with 90 fathoms in mid-channel. At 2 A.M. on the 29th we came in sight of islands, and on land- ing found a boat and depot of provisions which had been de- posited there the previous year by the Investigator. The strait is here 4 or 5 leagues wide, with a depth of 50 and 60 fathoms in mid- channel. At 2 P.M. ice was seen on either shore of the channel. At mid- night we worked up to the edge of the pack and could see round both points, but further progress was blocked by floes of ice resting on both shores. Our furthest point reached in that direction was lat. 73° 30'^ and long. 114° 35, and to the eastward, 73° 25', and 114° 14'. The ice was found to be streaming in on both sides of the strait. In returning to the southward, the current which had aided us in our progress northerly through the straits at an average of 2 knots per hour, now assisted our return, and is therefore caused by the wind. On September 3rd Nelson Head was reached ; the cliffs here rise verj- abruptly from the sea to the height of 800 feet, being streaked red horizontally, which on landing was found to be occasioned by iron ore. At 2^ miles from the shore a depth of 117 fathoms was found. On the 7th the packed ice extended from n. by w. to w.s.w., and the open water between it and the land so strewed with floes as to render navigation difficult. A caini was erected on an islet in lat. 72° 52', and long. 125° 24', and we retui-ned to the south, searching the coast as we went along for any harbour fit to winter in without success, until we reached the entrance of Prince of Wales Strait, where a secure position was found in Walker's Bay in lat. 71° 35', long. 117° 35', on September 15th. Bay ice made the first week in October, but the ship was not finally frozen-in until the 21st. The ' The Investigator was htre on the 14th. * This position is 57 miles from the furthest western point reached by the Hecla, and is the nearust approach to the accomplishment of the N.w. passage by ships. ' enterprise; 1853-54. 143 Eskimo left us in November and returned on May 25th. In the sledge travelling along the coast of Prince Albert Land drift-wood was fallen in with in small quantities until Peel Point was reached. On this point the ice was piled 30 feet high. The beach, which had hitherto been gravel, now became mud intermixed with sharp fetones, and was upturned by the pressure of the ice. The Resolution sleigh, Lieutenant Parkes, started from the bead of Prince of V/ales Sound on May 7th for Melville Island, and upon the following day got .imong hummocks that lendered travelling with the sleigh very difficult ; on the 9th, not being able to find ct passage for the sleigh, it was left behind in lat, 73° 31'. Melville Island was sighted on May 12th, and they landed under Cape Providence on May 16th. Lieutenant Parkes travelled along the coast towards Cape Hearne, coming across sleigh tracks which we now know to have been those of Captain M'Clure, who passed along here a fortnight previous. On the 17th they left Melville Island, and readied the tent on the 21st. The ship moved in the ice on July 19th, but was not able to leave Winter Cove until August 5th ; and in consequence of the ice resting on both chores we did not lose sight of our winter-quarters until the 30th. After running up to the head of Prince Albert Sound, and proving it to be a gulf and not a strait, on September 12th, the Dolphin and Union Strait was entered on the 17th. On August 29th, 1853, the Enterprise (having left Cambridge Bay on the 9th) arrived at Cape Bathurst.* In passing the entrance of the Mackenzie, a much larger quantity of ice was observed than had been met with in 1851. On the 2nd it was calm, and an easterly set of 1*2 knots per hour was observed. The Pelly Islands were passed on the 3rd, and Herschel Island on the 5th of September. Here we found our progress to the westward barred by a close pack resting on the shore. On the 8th, the wind changing to the north-east, caused the ice to slacken, and when the fog cleared off we found we had been driven back to Point Kay, 40 miles to the eastward, since midnight of the 5th. After blasting a passage through the pack with gunpowder, we succeeded in reach- ing Herschel Island a second time on the evening of the 9th. The ice resting on the shore caused great delay, and we did not pass Flaxman Island until thfe 15th, and made fast to a grounded floe in 7^ fathoms in Camden Bay, lat. 70° 5', long. 144° 50', on the 16th, the easterly wind having packed the ice close on Brownlow ' ' For the voyage of the Enterprise ihiough the Dolphin and Union Strait, see page 153. ! 144 enterprise; 1854. Point. On the 2Gth, young ice began to make, and on the 29th it was 2 inches thick, and, owing to pressure, cracked. On October 3rd, the land-water being completely frozen over, sleighs left the ship, and found abundance of drift-wood on the beach. On May 2l8t, 1854, pools of water began to make on the flow, and on June 19th the (iommunication with the shore was cut oflf, except by boat. On July 1st, a large party of Barter Island Eskimo, forty- one in number, came off in their kayaks, from whom a paper, printed on board the Plover at Point Barrow, was obtained, by which we learnt that the Investigator had not been heard of. The ice being sufficiently open alongshore on the 10th, the whale-boat under the command of Lieutenant Jago was despatched to Point Barrow to communicate with the Plover, and instruct Captain Maguire to obtain supplies sufficient to enable the Enterprise to return to the eastward to look after our consort. The whale-boat was obliged to be launched across the ice frequently, so much so that on her arrival at Point Barrow her garboard streaks were nearly worn through. She arrived at Point Anxiety, July 12th; Point Milne, July 15th; Point Tangent on the 22nd, and at Point Barrow on the 24th. The Plover had left on the 20th. On July 30th, a sail was seen about 5 miles to the south-west, which afterwards pioved to be H.M.S. Rattlesnake. The ice broke up at the ship on July 15th, and enabled her to be moved as far as Point Brownlow, but the ice prevented farther progress, and she was driven back to her winter-quarters on the 18th by a westerly wind. This was, so far, fortunate, as it enabled tlie Barter Island Eskimo to bring the Rat Indians on board, the Chief of whom produced a paper, on which was written as fol- lows : — " Fort Youcon, June 27th, 1854. " The i)rinted slips of paper delivered by the officers of H.M.S. Plover on the 25th of April, 1854, to the Rat Indians were received on the 27th of June, 1H54, at the Hudson Bay Company's establishment. Fort Youcon. The Rat Indians are in the habit of making periodical trading excursions to the Esquimaux along the coast. They are a harmless, inoifensive set of Indians, ever ready and willing to render every assistance they can to the whites. " Wm. Lucas HABnisTY, " Clerk in Charge." The ice prevented the ship making much progress, and it was the 26th before Eetum Reef was reached. At noon, on the 29th, the Point Barrow natives met us. On the 6th, Harrison Bay was reached, and the ship arrived at Point BaiTow on the 8th of August. HEAIINE'S JOURNEY-CAPT. FRANKLIN, 1819-20. 145 Exploration of the Coast between the Mackenzie and the Back Rivers. Journey of Samuel Hearne to the Northern Ocean in 1769-70-71-72. — After two attempts to get to the northward, in the first of which the guides failed him, and in the second ho had the misfortune to break his quadrant and to be plundered by the Indians, Mr. Hearne set out for a third time on December 7th, 1771, with an Indian, named Matonabba, as his guide, and on April 8th arrived at a river, called by the natives Thelewey-aza-yeth. Hero they collected bark and wood for the canoes. On May 3rd they arrived at Clowey Lake, where the canoes were built, and a large number of Indiana joined the party to make war on the Eskimo, which Hearne endeavoured to dissuade them from. On July 14th, 1771, the Coppermine River was reached. On the 17th the Eskimo were fallen in with, and being surprised at night, were put to death unmercifully, notwithstanding all Mr. liearne's endeavour to check the carnage. On the 18th the mouth of the river was reached. After leaving the Coppermine River, a route further to the west was taken in order to obtain provisions. On September 3rd they arrived at Point Lake, where they camped in the neighbourhood of Scrubby Wood. Continuing their course to the south-west by slow marches, Athapusco Lake was reached on December 24tli. After expending some days in hunting beaver and deer, the lake was crossed on January 9th, 1772, and Lake Clowey, where the canoes were built, on the 15th of February; and upon June 30th they returned to Prince of Wales Fort, having been absent 18 months and 23 days on this last expedition. Captain Franklin'a First Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in 1819-20-21-22. — Captain Franklin, accompanied by Dr. Richardson, Mr. George Back, and Mr. Robert Hood, embarked on board Hudson Bay ship Prince of Wales, vn May 23rd, 1819, and arrived at York Factory on August 30th. Taking their departure on September 9th, Norway Point was reached on ^October 6th, and Cumberland House on the 23rd, where they passed the winter. On January 19, 1820, Captain Franklin and Mr. Back proceeded to the northward on two oarioles and two sledges, drawn by doge, and arrived at Fort Carlton on February 1st. Leaving on the 8th, on the 16th they reached Fort MacFarlane, which they left again on the 20th, and got to Hudson Bay House on the 23rd. Starting again on March 5th, N. W. Company's Hoiise was visited on the 9th, and L ll! I'lfl ' • f'-t' : ■ 1- ■h !'^ 146 CAPTAIN FRANKLIN, 1821. Piorro au Calumet on tho 19th, and Fort Chipowyan on the 27th ; having accompli8hod the following distanoes in miles : — Cumberland House to Carlton House .. 263 Carlton House to Isle k la Crosse .. .. 230 Isle k la Crosse to Methye Portage .. .. 124 Methye Portage to Fort Chipewyan .. .. 240 Total 867 Hero a canoe was built for tho expedition — length, 32 feet 6 inches ; extreme breadth, 4 feet 10 inches ; depth, 1 foot 11 inches ; 73 hoops of thin cedar, and will carry about 3300 lbs. weight. Tho weight of the canoe is about 300 lbs. On July 13, Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood arrived. Leaving Port Chipewyan in three canoes, containing five oflScers, one seaman, eighteen Canadians, and three interpreters, on July 18, 1820, after several portages. Moose Deer I&land was reached on the 24th, and Fort Providence on tho 28th. Leaving it on the 2nd, they arrived at their winter-quarters. Fort Enterprise, in lat. 64° 28', long. 113° 6', on August 19th. The length of the portages traversed was 21J miles, and the total length of the voyage from Chipewyan 553 miles. On September 9th, Sir John, accompanied by Dr. Richardson, set out on a pedestrian journey to the Coppermine River, which was reached on the 12th, the distance travelled to and fro being 110 miles. Mr. Back, in the meantime, went to Fort Chipewyan, and returned, perfoimiug the journey (upwards of 1000 miles) on foot. On June 14th, 1821, the expedition left Fort Enterprise, and reached the head waters of the Coppermine on the 28th. Pursuing their journey, partly on the water and partly on the ice, they em- barked, finally, on the 2nd of July, and met the Eskimo on the 15tl), and encamped at the Bloody Falls on the 17th. Here Mr. Wentzel left them ; and tho remainder of the party, consisting of twenty persons, proceeded to sea. The distance hitherto travelled over was 334 miles, of which the canoes and baggage were dragged over snow and ice for 117 miles. The Coppermine River brings down no drift-wood. Eerens Isle was reached on the 2l8t, where small drift-wood was found. 24th. " During the last two days the water rose and fell about 9 inches ; the tides, however, were very irregular, and we could not determine the direction of the ebb or flood. A current set to the eastward, 2 miles per hour, during our stay." Point Barrow was rounded on the 26th. Arriving at Back River, •shoals of capelin were seen, and small pieces of willow, which DIl. RICHAUDSON, 1826. 147 onablod thorn to mako a firo. At Bathurat Inlet, on August 3 and 4, a fall of more than 2 foot water during the night was observed. Melville Sound was discovered on the 12th. Hero the canoes wore found to be much damaged by the heavy seas they had been exposed to. Point Turnagain was reached on the 2l8t, having traced 5o5 miles of coast-line since leaving the Coppermine. Sotting out on their return on the 22nd, Hood Kiver was gained on the 25th ; and hero it was determined to abandon the canoos and cross the Barren Grounds. Obtaining a door now and then, but feeding chiefly on tripe de roche, after undergoing great privation, tlie Coppermine River was reached on the 26th, and Mr. Btick sent forward, who returned to them on October Ist ; reporting barren country on this side, it was determined to mako an effort to cross tho river, which was done with great difficulty on the 4th in a coraclo made by Mr. Back out of an old painted cover and willows, when Mr. Back was directed to go to Fort Enterprise. On the 6th, Mr. Hood being very weak. Dr. Richardson, with Hepburn, pro- posed to remain by him, while Sir John and the remainder of tho party were to endeavour to reach Fort Enterprise ; but on reaching it it was found to be perfectly desolate. A note from Mr. Back stated he had gone in search of succour. Feeding on deerskins, old bones, and tripe de roche, they passed a terrible existence, and were joined by Dr. Richardson and Hepburn on the 29th. Dr. Richardson then acquainted Sir John with the fate of poor Hood, and tho necessity he was under of putting Michel to death. At length, on November 7th, relief, dispatched by Mr. Back, reached the party The Fort was left on the 12th, and Fort Providence reached on December 11th, and Moose Deer Island on the 17th. Dr. Bichardaon and Mr. Kendall in the two Boats, ' Dolphin ' and ^ Union,^ from the Mackenzie to the Coppermine Bivera. — The instruc- tions received were to trace the coast between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine Rivers, and to return from the latter overland to Great Boar Lake. Leaving Fort Franklin on the 4th of July, 1826, Richards Island was reached on the 7th, Refuge Cove on the 8th, Cape Dalhousie on tho 15th, Cape Bathurst on the 18th ; a strong flood- tide setting to the westward ; several whales seen. Franklin Bay was crossed on the 22nd, Cape Lyon on the 25th, when they were detained two days by a gale of wind. The tides were found to be regular, and the rise and fall 20 inches. Point De Witt Clinton was reached on tho 29th, where they were stopped by the closeness of the ice. On August 4th land was discovered to the north, to which the name o' WoUaston was given ; and to tho straits the L 2 i' m 1 1 11 i Vif ' i in 1^ i t Ti n .1 ■'■ ■ji w^ 148 Sill GEORGE BACK, 1833. name of the two boats, Dolphin and Union. Near Munners Sutton Island tho tide indicated a strongei* current of both flood and ebb than wo had hitherto seen ; sometimes it attained a velocity of 3 knots per hour. Capo Krusentorn was reached on the 7lh, and the moutlx of the Coppermine Kiver on tho 9th. The boats were abandoned at tho Bloody Falls. Tho loads amounted to 72 lbs. per man, and the pace averaged 2 miles per hour. On the 13th the banks of the river wore left, and a direct course made for tho Great Bear Lake, which was reached on tho 17th. Indians were met with on tho 15th. On the 24th Beulim arrived in a boat and several canots from Fort Franklin, which they reached on September Ist. Tahle of lluiii Wateu reduced to full and clianso, compiled by Likut. Kendall, R.N,, on llio 13t)Ar VoYAdE between the Mackenzie and the Coi'itumine Riveus in 182G. i! Date. Name of Place. tude. I.iitiKl- tuUe. 1825. Au?. 16 1826. July 9 ., 10 .. 13 ., 13 ,. 1* ,, 18 .. 19 ,. 20 » I * • .. ai .. " ., 30 1 3 4 6 G Aug. Garry Island Point Toker Atkinson iRlanJ Ikiswell Cove . . . . Point Sir P. Maltland Near Cape Bathurst. . Point Fotton . . . . \V. Horton Uiver . . Cape Lyoii V 3 iniies from Buclian ) > River f I'ointWtse Stapylton Bay . . . . ( Between Caj)e Hojk' J 1 and Cape Bexley . . 5 Chantry iHland.. , . ( Sfven niik'8 from Cape ) I Krusenstcrn . . . ) 69-29 r.9-38 09-13 ©955 70-00 70-08 70-33 7011 69-60 69-46 69-24 69-03 68-52 68-67 68-46 68-32 o 135-41 132-18 131-58 130-43 130-20 127-45 127-21 126-14 125 65 122-51 120-03 119-00 116-03 115'4S 114-23 11S-&3 Time of High Water reduced to lull and cliange. 10-19 1-45 0T)6 1-48 0-32 1-12 3-47 1-28 3-liJ 3-16 3-49 6-33 8-20 7-04 8-22 8-25 7-22 7 13 Wind, Direc- tion, and Force. Remarks. N.K. 6. N.K. by E. 6. K. H. E. 5. S.K. 1. W. 6. Calm. E.S.K 6. N.W. 6. W.N.W. 9. W.N.W. 7. E.N.E. 8. N.N.W. 8. W.4. E. 2. E.S.E. 4, W.S.W. 3. Variable. No ice in sight. nine 20 inches. Heavy ice. Little ice. ItiBe 18 inches. 1 Very little rise and \ fall. in Harrowby Bay. Flood from eastward. Klse 18 inches. Flood from eastward. I Rise and fall 9 inches. • Compact ice. I Uay filled with ice. ! (Flood from &E. : I Velocity 3 miles. Distances travelled by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Kendall. MILKS. From Fort Franklin to Point Separation 525 „ Point Separation to Point Encounter 159 „ Point Encounter to Coppermine River .. .. 863 „ Coppermine River to Fort Franklin 433 Sir G. Back'f Voyage -down the Great Fish Biver. — In the year 1832 grave apprehensions arose for the fate of Sir J. Boss and his companions, who had left England in 1829. Sir George Back, than whom no person was better qualified, undertook to command an expedition down the Great River Thlew-ee-chow-dezeth. This SIR GEOKGE BACK, 1833. 149 river, hitherto un visited by any European, Sir George had be- come in some measure acquainted with by the accounts of the Indians; and from their report it exceeded the Coppermine both in extent and volume. As it was known Sir John Ko«s had determined to eifect the North-West Passage by Prince Kegent Inlet, the Thlew-ee-chow-dezeth (which has now received appro- priately the name of Back) was thought to be the best route for aifording assistance to tho missing expetiition. Accompanied by Dr. King and three men. Sir G. Back left England on February 7, 1833, and passing through tlie United States and Canada, they reached Fort William, on Lake Superior, on May 20th, and left Norway House on Juno 2Bth, and arrived at Fort Kesolution on the Great Slave Lake on August 8th. Passing through Artillery, Clinton Colden, and Aylmer Lakes by a short portages, the river which was to conduct them to the Arctic Ocean was gained ; but the season was too far advanced to admit of their reaching the Polar Sea this season ; the farthest point reached was found to be in lat. 64° 41', long. 108° 8', and they returned to Fort Keliunce on September 7 th. ^'i |!|' Second Voyage. — Leaving Fort Reliance on the 7th of June, 1833, they reached the boats, which had been built on Artillery Lake, on the 10th, Lake Aylmer on the 24th, and the portage on tho 28th; and at 1 p.m. on the same day tho boat was launched on the Back River, which was still encumbered with ice. On tho 4th of July Mr, McLeod, who had hitherto accompanied them with a hunting parly, left ; and on July 8th, the ice having broken up, tho boat was launched on the river. Lake Beechey was reached on the loth, Lake Garry on the 21st, Lake Franklin on the 28th, at the northern end of which they met the Eskimo. On the following day the mouth of the river was reached. Arriving at Montreal Island on August 2nd, a rise and fall of tide was found amounting to 12 inches, high-water being at 11.40 a.m. Parties were dispatched in all directions to see if there was any possibility of creeping alongshore among the grounded pieces of ice, but without success. On the 5th the ice moved ott' a little, and enabled them to launch the boat; Point Duncan was reached on the (ith,by watching their opportunity; Point Ogle on the 1 0th; here a log of wood, feet long and 9 inches diameter, was found, which was considered un- doubted proof of the sea being open to the westward, and that the main line of the land had been reached, in fact, Point Turnagain, which had been reached by Franklin on August 21st, was only 4 miles north of this position. Setting out on their return un I- 1' \-'. I ^ 150 DBASE AND SIMPSON, 1838. ^ u the 16th, ascending the long and dangerous line of rapids, Lake Garry was reached on August 31st. Traces of Eskimo were found as high as Baillies River. On September 17th Mr. McLeod was met with near Icy River, crossing tho portage to Lake Aylmer ; the boat was navigated through Clinton Golden and Artillery Lakes as far as Anderson's Fall, where it was left on the 25th ; and crossing over the mountains, Fort Reliance was reached on September 27th. I Voyage of Messrs. Dease and Simpson from the Coppermine to the Great Fish Biver in 1838. — Leaving Fort Confidence at the north-east, end of the Great Bear Lake on June 7th, the ascent of the Dease River was began. On reaching its summit tho boats were placed on stout iron-shod sledges, and by dint of sailing and dragging they were propelled across the Dismal Lakes on the ice, and worci launched on the Kendall River on the 19th. Waiting the dis- ruption of the ice, the Coppermine River was gained on the 22nd, the floods rendering the navigation very hazardous, and they were arrested about a mile above the Bloody Fall on the 26th by the ice. After a halt of five days, the Fall was descended on July 1st, the portage occupying six or seven hours ; the boats had to bo carried half a mile. On Ju ly 2nd they met the Eskimo. Detained by the close condition of the ice until the 1 7th, they obtained by their nets 140 fish. Leaving the mouth of the Coppermine on that day, they had great difficulty in forcing their way through the ice, and did not roach Point Barrow until the 29th, and oven then new ice of considerable thickness formed during the night. The tides and currents are very irregular, depending on the wind and ice, but on no occasion was a change of more than 1 foot in the level noticed. Cape Flinders was reached on August 9th; here they were detained ten days by violent gales from the north and west, in lat. 68° 16', long. 109° 21', Mr. Simpson proceeding to the oast- ward on foot with five of the company's servants and two Indians, each man carrying half a cwt. Reaching Cape Alexander on the 23rd, he found an open sea to the east, and discovered land to tho north, to which he gave tho name of Victoria. Returning westerly, Boathaven was reached on tho 29th. A furious gale from tho west detained them until the 3l8t; but they were enabled to regain the Coppermine River on September 3rd. The bo^-ts were passed up the Bloody Falls on tho 5th with some damage. Nothing but the skill and dexterity of the guides long practised like ours in all the intricacies of riv >r navigation could have overcome so many obstacles. The boats we ,0 deposited 6 miles below the junction of DEASE AND SIMPSON, 1839. 151 the Kendall with the Coppermine on the 10th. Striking straight out for the Kendall River they came upon it half a league below thfc. • Spring Provision Station. On the 12th the Hare Indians were met with, and on the 14th Fort Confidence was reached. Second Journey. — Leaving Fort Confidence on Juno 15th, 1839, the Kendall River was reached on the 19th, and they learnt that the ice had cleared out of the Coppermine River ten days earlier than last year. On the 22nd the Bloody Fall was run in eleven hours ; but the sea-ice was still solid. Leaving the mouth of the Coppermine on July 3rd, they did not reach Cape Barrow until the 18th ; and to their great delight found Coronation Gulf open, and reached Boat- haven on the 20th, and Cape Alexander on the 26th, where a rapid tideway was experienced. It was high-water at noon. Full moon, the flood came from the westward, and did not exceed 2 feet. The temperature of the water 4 feet below the surface was 35°, and the air 56°. By attending to the tide Trap Cape was rounded ; and on the last day in July a river was discovered, which was named the Ellice, and which is much larger than the Coppermine, and hero no drift-wood comes down. Detained by the ice until the 5th of August, Point Seaforth was gained on the 11th, and upon the 13th they reached Sir George Back's Point, Sir C. Ogle thus connecting the Coppermine with Back River. On the 16th Montreal Island was visited. Having thus completed their instructions, these enter- prising men, taking advantage of the open season, crossed over to the land seen to the eastward, and reached their farthest point in this direction on the 19th, in lat. 68° 28', and long. 94° 14'. Cross- ing over on the 24th to what they conjectured to be part of Boothia, but which now proves to bo King William Island the coast was traced for nearly 60 miles, until it turned up north, in lat. 68° 41', long. 93° 22', only 57 miles from Sir James Ross's Pillar. This cape was named Herschel ; and as the remains of one of the crow of either the Erehvs or Terror was found by Sir L. McClintock to the southward and eastward of this cape, the first discovery of the North-West Passage, that is to say, a continuous sea from the Atlantic to the Pacific, rests with Messrs. Dease and Simpson, and with the expedition under Sir John Franklin. Keeping to the northward, they crossed the Victoria Straits and reached Capo Colborne on the 6th, and coasting along the shore, discovered two bays, to which the names of Cambridge and Welling- ton were given : thoy crossed over to the southern shore on the 10th, and reached Wentzel River, where drift-wood was found, and on the 16th of September reached the entrarioe of the Coppermine, : m If lii h^ : 1'! I > i • 152 SIR J. RICHAllDSON, 1848— DR. RAE, 18.11, after the longest voyage ever performed in boats on the Polar Sea, viz., 1408 geographical miles. The boats were left at the Bloody Falls, and the land journey to the Great Bear Lake commenced. On the 24th the Dease River was reached, where they found a boat awaiting them, and Fort Confidence was reached the same afternoon. Sir John Bichardson and Dr. Itae^s Voyage down the Mackenzie and along the Coast to the Coppermine River in 1848. — Leaving Liverpool on March 25th, they reached New York in a fortnight, and proceeded to Montreal ; and from thence to the Sault St. Marie, whore they were detained some days, awaiting the breaking up of the ice on Lake Superior. Cumberland House was reached on June 15th, and the Mackenzie on the 15th of July. The sea was reached on the 4th of August. On the 22nd they were detained by the ice at Point Cockbum ; and it was only at the end of the month that they reached a bay between Capes Hearne and Kendall, where the boats were abandoned. Setting out on foot on September 3rd, and upon the 13th day reached Fort Confidence. Dr. Baes Journey to the Coast in 1851. — Leaving Fort Confidence on April 25th, with two men, on May Ist he reached the Polar Sea, near the mouth of the Coppermine. On the 4th they gained Port Lockyer, where they found some wood for cooking. On the 9th tkey reached lat. 68^ 38', and long. 110° 2'. Returning io the west, Douglas Island was gained on the 15th, and drift-wood found. Crossing over to Wollaston Land on the 16th, Eskimo were fallen in with near Cupe Hamilton ; they had abundance of seals' flesh. On the 22ud, lat. 70° 0' and long. 117° 17' was gained, and called Cape Baring. Returning to the eastward on the 24th, on the 30th the Dolphin and Union Strait was crossed to Cape Krusentern in as direct a line as the rough ice would admit. On June 4th Richard- son Bay was reached. The consumption of food in 33 days was 54 lbs. of flour, 128 lbs. of pemmican, 1^ lb. of tea, 2 lbs. of chocolate, and 10 lbs. of sugar : no tent was carried. Leaving the coast on the 5th, the Kendall was reached on the lOth. The total distance travelled over from Fort Confidence is 942 miles.* Second Journey. — On June 13th, three days after his arrival, the boats joined him at the Kendall River from Fort Confidence, having occupied G^ days in the voyage. On the 15th the Coppermine was reached ; but the ice did not clear away until the 28th, and the sea " On recomputing tlio distance, I make it 1100 miloe, or about 25 miles per day, including three days' detention. — J, R. DR. RAE, 1851— ' ENTERPRISE,' 1852. 153 was reached on Jtily 5th. Point Barro.v was rounded on July 16th, and Cape Alexander on the 24th. The ice breaking up on the 27th, the strait was crossed to the Finlayson Islands on the 27th, and Cape Colborne reached on August Ist. At Parker Bay the flood tide came from the eastward. Eeaching the south end of Taylor Island, they found very heavy, closely- packed ice; but the ebb tide being in their favour, they made way, but with considerable risk. On the 6th Cape Princess Eoyal was discovered, and some drift- wood (poplar) was seen. In lat. 69° 56', long. 102° 31', a piece of pino, 18 feet long by 10 inches diameter, was found. On the 9th of August the ice was found close in to the shore. After waiting until the 12th without the ice opening, Dr. Rae rtturiod on a foot journey, and eventually reached lat. 70° 3', long. 101° 25'. Eetuming, the boats were reached in 8^ hours. The dis- tance of the boat from the position of the Erebus and Terror^ where they were abandoned on April 12th, 1848, is only 50 miles, being tl^e nearest approach to the accomplishment of the North- West Passage by sea.^ After attempting to cross over to King William Land, he set out on his return on the 16th. Parker Bay was reached on the 20th, and Eskimo met with ; here a piece of pine-wood, 5 feet 9 inches long, and round, resem- bling the butt end of a small flagstaff, was found ; a bit of white line was nailed on to it with two copper tacks ; both line and tacks had the Government mark. On the 22nd Point Back was gained, and on the 28th the Bloodj'- Falls were reached, not having seen a bit of ice since leaving Point Back : 21 deer had been shot on the coast. Leaving one boat behind, the rapids wore passed with great difficulty, and the Kendall River reached on the 5th day, and Fort Confidence was reached in the boat on September 10th.* Voyage of the ' Enterprise ' from Winter Gove, through the Dolphin and Union Strait, to Cambridge Bay. — The thickness of the ice in our winter-quarters, in lat. 71° 36' and long. 117° 40', attained its maximum, 5 feet 7^ inches, on April Ist, 1852. On May 1st it was o feet 3 inches; on Juno 1st, 5 feet 1 inch; on May 1st, 4 feet 10 inches. The ship forged ahead in her icy cradle on July 16th, tho thickness of the ice then being 3 feet 4^ inches, and on the 19th ' Two of Dr. Rae's men reached 70" 13', and saw coast 7° further. * The nearest approach of two ships is the Hecla and Enterprine, .57 miles. ' On tho coast of Victoria Land the tlood-tido cornea from the coast to long. 104° or 105°, where it is met witli the flood coming from n.e. down the Victoria Ciiaauel.— J. R. I!;S 154 ♦enterprise; 1852. :1 L 11 I she swung to the wind ; on the 28th the temperature of sea at surface was 34*5°, but it was not until August oth the ship was able to proceed to sea. The ice resting on the shore on either side, detained her within sight of Winter Harbour until the 8th of September, during which time whales were seen and seals were numerous. Entering Prince Albert Sound, it was on the 13th found to be a gulf and not a strait. Having now discovered that Wollaston, Victoria, and Prince Albert Land are all one, it was determined to enter the Dolphin and Union Strait, which was done on September 17th. Sutton and Listen Islands were reached on the 20th with very little obstruction from the ice, and on the following day Cape Krusentem was passed. On the 22nd, by a slant of wind, 72 miles were made ; and when the ship was anchoied the current was found to set to the eastward, at one time as much as 1 knot per hour. On the 23rd Cape Franklin was seen ; and in the evening we unfortunately got aground in Byron Bay. On the following morning, on opening Wellington Bay, the wind freshened ; and in- creasing to a gale, we ran back to the westward, where there v/as more room, and underwent an equinoctial gale under close-reefed topsails, with the thermometer at 11°. The sea froze as it lodged ; and it was late in the forenoon of the next day before the ice iJiat had made on board the ship during the night was cleared away. Passing through the Finlayson group on the 26th, Cambridge Bay was gained on the 27th; but the water shoaling suddenly, we struck the ground, and remained fast until the ice set sufficiently firm to allow of our removing everything out of the ship to the shore; and the tides taking off, it was not until October 15th that we got the ship afloat. On crossing over to the Continent with a sleigh, in October, the ice was found so rotten in the neighbourhood of Cape Trap that we could not land. The mean temperature of the quarter ending December 1852 was found to be 5° lower than that experienced last year, though we were 2^° further south. The sleighs left the ship on the 12th of April, and crossing over the Colborne Peninsula came upon the sea-ice near Rae Inlet the following day. On the 23rd, in lat. 69° 10', long. 121° 20', came upon the junction of the old and the new ice ; the former being so hummocky as to be im- practicable for sleighs. After exploring to the north, north-east, and north-west, and finding nothing but a confuseii jumble of angular pieces, some of which were upwards of 20 feet high, and between which the snow was so loose that you frequently sunk up to your middle, it was determined to strike in for the Victoria shore. By unlading the sleighs, and carrying half-loads, Drift-wood Point (so ' ENTERPKISE,' 1853. 155 called from a small piece of much decayed wood being found on it) was reached. This point is 30 miles from Cape Crozier on King William Land, near which Sir L. M'Clintock found the boat. So had we gone up the eastern instead of the western side of the strait we should have discovered the relics. On the 8th of May a cairn was reached, in which was contained a notice from Dr. Rae, dated August 13th, 1851. Thus we learnt that our field of search had been previously examined. On the 10th an island was reached from which no land was visible, except in the direction we had come from, and the ajipearance of the pack forbid all hope of penetration even with a light load. During this portion of the journey sludge ice and sometimes pools of water were found in the neighbourhood of large hummocks, which at first I thought might be caused by the increased weight of drifted snow causing the hummock to break through the ice, but now I am of opinion that it is occasioned by the set of the tide round these hummocks, which are aground ; the furthest point attained being in lat. 70° 35', long. 101°. In returning to the ship several cracks in the ice were seen, which were not there when we passed up. The ship was reached on May 21st, after an absence of forty-nine days, and the accomplishment of 753 miles, which does not include the previous journeys laying out the depots. In July the ice along the shore began to melt, and large quantities of salmon were caught by the seine. The result of our observations on the tides is as follows. It is high-water on F. and C. days at 11.30, and the rise and fall varied from 2 feet 4 inches to 7 inches. The set of the tide was so irregular, and so dependent on the wind, that I cannot say whether the flood comes from the east or the west. On the 25 th the ice began to move, but did not open suificiently to allow the ship to leave the bay until the 10th August; the wind being light, we were driven by the current to the eastward, and sighted Cape Culborne ' the next day. Cape Alexander was doubled at 1 a.m. on the 13th. At Douglas Island the ice was found closely packed. On the 20th the ship was carried away in the pack to the eastward at the rate of 1 mile per hour. Cape Krusentern was passed on the 23rd. In the afternoon of the 27th, the wind drew round to the south- west, and we made all sail out of the straits, but, the weather being thick, ran close past Clerks Island without seeing it. The wind drawing to the west, we were compelled to stand over to Baring Land, and the next morning found ourselves oflf Damley ' The easternmost position reached was in long. 105°, making G3 J° of longitude sailed over after entering the Arctic circle. •< 'iSl m : ;i TIT h 156 DR. RAK, 1853-54— ANDERSON, 1855. iii Bay. Gape Parry was passed at midnight, and we came across some heavy ice, being the first met with since leaving the straits. On the 30th it was so close as to compel us to haul in shore, affording a great contrast with the state of the ice at the same period two years ago, when the pack was 30 miles from the land. Cape Bathurst was passed on September 1st. On the 2nd, the temperature of the sea rose to 36^^, and several whales were seen. The current was found to set to the eastward, at the rate of 1'2 miles per hour, which so delayed our progress that Herschel Island was not passed until the 4th. Dr. Iiae'8 Journey from Bepuhe Bay across Bae Isthmus and Simpson Peninsula to the West Coast of Boothia Felix. — Passing the winter of 1853-54 on the head of Bepulse Bay, where he maintained himself almost entirely by his own resources, on March 31st, he set off, accompanied by four men. Pelly Bay was reached on April 16 th, and the Eskimo met with on the 20th, and on the 29th the mouth of the Murchison Eiver : continuing his course along the shore of Boothia Felix, Cape Porter (so named by Sir John Ross) was reached on May 6th. After obtaining numerous articles from the Eskimo belonging to the Erebus and Terror, and receiving from them an account of the crews having perished by starvation, Dr. Rae re- turned to Eepulse Bay, which was reached on May 26th. Leaving Eepulse Bay on August 6th in the boats (the summer being ex- tremely cold and backward), Churchill River was reached on August 28th, and York Factory on the 31st. Voyage of Mr. J. Anderson down Back Biver. — Leaving Fort Reso- lution in three bark-csnoes on June 22nd, 1855, on the 28th the ice was fallen in with at the Tal-thal-leh Lake ; and it was not until July 2nd that the mountain was reached. Carrying every- thing across the portages, Lake Aylmer was gained on the 8th, and Sand Hill Bay on the 11th. Availing himself now of the in- formation supplied by Sir G. Back, the river was descended, and notwithstanding the exquisite skill of our Iroquois bowmen, the canoes were repeatedly broken and much strained. On the 20th the Eskimo were met with below the Mackinlay River. On Lake Garry the ice still delayed their progress. On arriving at the rapids below Lake Franklin several articles belonging to the missing expedition w»*re found among the Eskimo. On August Ist, Montreal Island was reached with considerable difficulty, and the remains of a boat and other things belonging to the ships were found. Crossing over to Elliot Bay on the 5th, the inlet was full of ice, and they could only proceed along shore at high-water. FRANKLIN, 1846-47— M'CLINTOCK, I808. 157 The canoes were so leaky, that Mr. Anderson determined upon setting out on foot, and reached Maconochie Island on the 8th. " It was impossible to cross over to Point Richardson as I wished, the ice driving through the strait between it and Maconochie Island at a fearful rate." " No party could winter on this coast. In the first place, there is not enough fuel, and secondly, no deer pass." Eeturning up the river, Lake Aylmer was reached on the 31st, and Old Fort Eeliance on September 11th. I ]m.< Victoria Strait and Franklin Channel. — The record brought back by Sir Leopold M'Clintock informs us that II.M. ships Erebua and Terror wintered in the ice in lat. 70° 5' N., and long. 98° 23' w., and that the vessels reached this position in one season from Beechey Island: whether by Franklin or M'Clintock Channel is not known, but most probably by the former. The ships, it appears, were beset on September 12th, 1846, and during the following eighteen months were drifted only 12 miles to the south-west, when they were finally abandoned on April 12th, 1848. The following are a few extracts respecting the state of the ice in Franklin and Victoria Channel, from Sir Leopold M'Clintock's interesting journal. On August 21st, 1858, the Fox reached a position half-through Bellot Strait, which is scarcely one mile wide at its narrowest part. At the turn of the tide the vessel was carried back to the eastward at the rate of 6 miles per hour. •' The tide runs through to the west from two hours before high-water to four hours after it : that is to say, the tide comes from the west, as is the case in Fury and Hecla Strait : the rise and fall is less on the west side than upon the east. On September 29th, the view from Cape Bird is thus described : — " There is now much water in the offing, only separated from us by the belt of islet-girt ice scarcely 4 miles in width." " The water runs parallel to the coast, and is 4 or 5 miles broad." On the 28th, the Fox was compelled, by the freezing of the ice, to take up her winter-quarters in Port Kennedy. Lieu- tenant Hobson, who had left the ship with sleighs on the 25th instant, returned to the ship on October 6th, having been stopped by the sea washing against the cliffs, in lat. 71^°. On the 19th, Lieutenant Hobson started again, and returned on November 6th. On the 25th, they camped on the ice; a north-east gale sprang up, and, detaching the ice, blew them off shore, and they were not able to regain the land for two days. The following records are made of the state of the ice in Bellot Strait during the winter: — October 7th. — "The weather is mild; Bellot Strait is almost covered with ice, which drifts freely with I I- ■ IfiB M'CMNTOCK, lHo8-r)9. i!ll ovory tido." Novombor Int. — "Whonovor wo havo a calm nighi wo can hoar tho cnwhiiig Hountl of tlio diift-ico in Dollot Strait., which coutinncH to open within .'"►OO yardn of tho Fox iHhinilH, and eniitH dark chilling chjuds of lia, tho Klodgo-partios Hlartud to carry out tho dopots. Advancing to tho Houthward, tho condition of tho ico iH thuH dencribod : — " Thronghowt tho whole diHtanco we found a mixture of heavy old ice and light ic(( of lant autumn, in many places Hiiueezed up into tho pack ; but as wo advanced southward aged iloes wore Ions frocpicntly seen." On March Ist tho neigh- bourhood of tho Magnetic I'olo was reached, and tho Eskimo Hoen. The ship was reached on March I4tli, having travelled 420 miles in Sr) days. Mr. Young and his party returned on board on JMarch 3rd, having placed thoir depot on tho shore of l*rinco of Wales Land, about 70 miles south-west of tho ship, tho shore of which was found to be " fringed for a distance of 1 miles to sojiward with an ancient land-floo." Tho remaining width of tho strait was about 15 miles, and this space was composed of ico formed since September last. This was tho water wo looked at so anxiously last autumn from Capo liird and IV'mmican Kock. On April 2nd Sir Leopold and Liout. Ilobson started : tho load for each man to drag was 200 lbs., and for each dog 100. On April 20th, in lat. 70i° N., tho Eskimo wore met with. They had been as far north as lat. 71 i° hunting seals. Crossing a wide bay upon level ice, indicating much open water here late last autumn, the neighbour- hood of the Magnetic Pole was reached on the 24th, and a detention of three days on account of a heavy north-oast gale was incurred. At Capo Victoria, Lieut. Ilobson parted company, going direct to Capo Felix. Sir Leopold struck across this strait for Port Parry ; finding a rough pack it took him throe days to traverse the strait. Matty Island was reached on the 4th of May, and Point Booth on May 10th, whore a number of articles from the missing ships were found. Crossing over to Point Ogle on May 12th, and Montreal Island on tho 15th. " Since our first landing on King William Land we have not met with any heavy ice; all along its eastern and southern shore, together with the estuary of this great river, is one vast, xmbroken sheet, formed in the early part of last winter where n© ico previously existed." Crossing over to the mainland, near Point Duncan, on the 18th of May, they followed the coast as far as Barrow Inlet, from whence they returned to King William Land. On May 25th, a short distance to the east of Cape llerschel, a skeleton was discovered, which, from the documents hhSh sill I.KOI'OM) M'CMNTOCK'B UKMAIIKH. i:)U atid tho (ilothinR found on it, proved that ono of the crow of tho Krchm and Terror Imd cortiiinly pasHod Capo ITorHchol, whioli had hoon provioUHly roacliod from tho wcntward by IhjaHo and Hiinjwon. Advancing ah)ng tho wtiMt to tho north, hninniockn of nnuMially hoavy Ico wore mot with. On tho coaHt from Toint Victory north- ward tho Hoa is not ho KliaUow, and tho ico comoH fdo.so in ; to Hoa- ward all was hoavy, oloso [)aclc, conHiHting of all dosciripfioTiH of ico, hut for th(^ nioHt i)a t old and hoavy. (.VoHHJnf; over land to Tort Parry, Sir . lopold rt^iiclxid liiH depot thoro on Juno 4th, and (Japo Victoria, o.l Boothia Folix, on tho Htli, and roachijd tho Fax on .luiio litth. With roHpect to a navigable North- WoHt Tasnaf^o, and to tho pnd)ability of our having boon ahlo last Hoanon to mako any conHidorablo advance to tho Houthward, had tho bm rior of ioo acroHs tho woHtorn outlet of Hellot Strait permitted uh to reach the op(!n water beyond, Sir i eopold thuH cxprcHNeH himself: — " I think, judging from what 1 hive since Hcen of tho icro in Franklin SMiiit, that tho ehancos wore greatly in favour of our reaching Capo Ilersohel on tho south side of King William Land, by passing, as I intended to do, eastward of that island. From IJellot Strait to Ca[)e Victoria we found a mixture of old and new ico, showing the exact proportion uf pacjk and of clear water at the setting in of winter. Onco to tho southward of tho 'J'asraania Group, I think our chief difficulty would have been overcome, and south of Capo Victoria 1 doubt whether any further obstruction w iild have been oxi)orieneed, as but little, if any ico remained. Tho natives toM us tho ico went away and left a clear sea every year." '• No ctno who sees that portion of Victoria Strait which lies between King William Land and Victoria Land as wo saw it, could doubt of there being but ono way of getting a ship through it, that way being the extremely hazardous ono of drifting through in tho pack, Tho wide channel " (M'Clintock Channel) " between Princo of Wales and Victoria admits a vast and continuous stream of very heavy ocean-formed ice from tho north-west, which presses upon the western face of King William Island, and chokes up Victoria Strait in the manner I have just described. 1 do not think tho North- VVcst Passage could over be sailed through by passing westward, that is, to windward of King William Island." " Had Sir John Franklin known that a channel existed eastward of King William Land (so named by Sir John Koss), I do not think he would have risked the besetment of his ships in such very heavy ice to the west- ward of it; but had ho attempted tho North- NVest Passage by the eastern route, he would probably have carried his ships safely through to Behring Straits." " Perhaps some future voyager, prutit- If i\< liir -. i - ! , I < . Ml ml 160 GKNERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE ICE. ing by the experience so fearfully and fatally acquired by the Franklin Expedition, and the observations of Rae, Collinson, and myself, may succeed in carrying his ship through from sea to sea." " In the meantime to Franklin must be assigned the earliest dis- covery of the North-West Passage, though not the actual accom- plishment of it in his ships." " The extent of coast-lino explored by Captain Young (on Prince of Wales Land) amounts to 380 miles, whilst that discovered by Hobson and myself amounts to nearly 420 miles, making a total of 800 geographical miles of new coast-line, which we have laid down." Lieut. Hobson, after parting with Sir Leopold at Cape Victoria, thus describes the condition of the ice between Boothia Felix and King William Island : — " No difficulty was experienced in crossinfi; James Koss Strait. The ice appeared to be of but one j'ear's growth, and although it was in many places much crushed up, we easily found smooth leads through the line of hummocks. Many very heavy masses of ice, evidently of foreign formation, have been here arrested in their drift ; so large are they that, in the gloomy weather we experienced, they were often taken for islands." At Cape Felix he observes : — " The pressure of the ice is severe, but the ice itself is not remarkably heavy in character ; the shoalness of the coast keeps the line of pressure at a considerable distance from the beach : to the northward of the island the ice, as far as I could see, was very rough, and crushed up into large masses." Having laid before you extracts from the journals of the different expeditions which have reached the Arctic Sea from the Pacifio Ocean, the rivers of America, and that portion of Asia which is in the immediate neighbourhood of Behring Straits, we are now in a condition to comprehend fully the eflfect which the currents of the Pacific have upon the motion of the ice to the north of Behring Straits. The first, and a very important point it is, which presents itself is the contrast between the configuration of the two continents after the narrow shallow strait has been passed which separates them. On the western side the trend of the coast is gradual, afibrding immediate access for the current to or from the strait along the shore of the north face of the Asiatic continent. On the opposite side of the strait the turn of the shore is abrupt and rectangular. On the Asiatic side we have in lisputable records of open water continuously met with during the period of lowest temperature for a distance of upwards of 1000 miles. On the opposite shore the ice is driven frequently during the winter by the force of the wind from the ^ GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE ICE. 161 coast at Point Barrow, but along the American continent to the eastward the ice, as far as we are capable of judging from one winter's experience, it remains quiet and immovable. Hence comes the question. Does the eflfoct of the Pacific current h)8e itself in the expanse of the Polar Sea, or does it take an easterly trend ? So far as experience guides us, the positions reached by the Enterprise in 1850 prove the existence of a loose pack 100 miles to the north- east of Point Barrow ; beyond this, until we come to the records given by Sir R. M'Clure, nothing is known, but we have undoubted testimony that the pressure on the north face of Banks Land comes from the westward : and here in this strait, between Melville Island and Banks Land, occurs one of those dead locks in the motion of the ice that are remarkably instructive. We find the Hecla prevented going to the westward along Melville Island by the pressure of the ice on the land from the westward ; and on the opposite shore it became necessary to leave the Investigator to her fate in Mercy Bay from the same cause. Though mention is made in the first autumn of her incarceration oi open water having been seen along the coast to the eastward, yet in all the transits across the straits on the ice in 1851, 1852, and 1853, we have no record of any ice movement ; whereas directly the channel east of Melville Island is opened, the Iteaolute experiences an easterly drift. I forbear to trespass upon the ground so ably and so laboiiously explored by the eastern expeditions, knowing that from some of the officers engaged in the exploration from that side a much fuller and more comprehensive account of the movement of the ice north of the Parry Islands, and through Barrow Strait and Lancaster Sound into Baffin Bay, can be given than it if possible for me to do; but so far as can be gathered from the accounts given, it may, I think, be assumed that the pack is looser, and open spaces of water are more frequent to the north than they are to the south of the Parry Group; and the effect of this current from the Northern Sea, after checking the easterly set through M'Clure Strait, assisted the passage of the Erebus and Terror from Barrow Strait to King William Land. Though the Pacific current is in a great measure turned aside from the face of the American con- tinent by the abrupt change in the direction of the coast at Point Barrow, the testimony of all navigators is conclusive that it is felt, and that an easterly set pervades to a greater extent than a westerly one, and that this set is more noticeable to the east of the Mackenzie. The latter river, the Coppermine, the Ellice, and the Back, no doubt contribute to the arrest of the pack in Victoria \\i m] UMMi. ■fr (i 162 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE ICE. Strait, and ihtis prevented the escape of the Erebus and Terror ; but it is more than probable that the detention of those two vessels in a position which differed only 12 miles in 18 months was mainly owing to the meeting of the currents which originally had but one origin, and that the Pacific. I>' ' il i ETHNOLOGY. I. PAPERS ON THE GREENLAND ESKIMOS. BY CLEMENTS R. MARK 1 1 AM. 1. On the Origin and Miorations of thk Greenland Eskimos. An expedition to the region round the North Pole will advance every branch of science, and will enrich tlie store of human knowledge geneially. Its geographical discoveries will only be one out of the many valuable results that will be derived from it ; but, as geographers, we may well look forwaid with deep interest to the rich harvest that will be reaped by our science, and take a prelimi- nary survey of the additional knowledge that may bo in store for us. It should be remembered that, though only one-half of the Arctic regions has been explored, yet that thioughout its most desert wastes there are found abn:.dant traces of ft)rmer inhabitants where now all is a silent solitude. Those cheerless wilds have not been inha- bited for ce?aturies, yet they are covered with traces of the wanderers or sojourners of a by-gone age ; and the unexplored region far to the north, even up to the very I'ulo itself, may not improbably be at this moment supporting a suiall and scattered population. The wanderings of these mysterious people, the scanty notices of tluii- origin and migrations that are scattered through history, and the requirements of their existence, are all so many clues which, when carefully gathered together, will assuredly tend to throw sonie light on a most interohting subject. The migrations of man within the Arctic /one give rise to questions which are closely connected with the geography of the undiscovered portions of the Arctic regions — questions which can only be solved by a ."scientific Arctic ex- pedition. The origin and history of the Eskimo of (Jreenl.ind, and K I i:i Pi hi HiJ 1(1-1 Tin: NoiiMANs fN (;i!!;kni.ani>. (•spc(«ia11v of lliomi inffii'st ill}:; {u'liplf oii llii» iiDitlicrn nIioioh ;iv, who weio muiicd by Siitloliii K'oss the " Arctic, lli!j;li- latidcis." UU1 l(>])icN M>rvin}.'; to illnsli'iilo one of the lumicnniH points v\hich will cn<;iij;"c tlic attention cf the Arctic l'!x|ic(litiun, iind, at. the same tini«» they may throw .soitie ])iiH.sin<^ li;iht on (luchtion.s in Arctic piivsical p'l'o-rapliy which ,^(ill remain unsolved. liKii within tho last nine centiuicH I ho ^leat continent of Green land was, so far as onv l extenn fi;roves waved, in a milder elimate. over UaiiUs island and Midvillo Island, and when corals ;ind sponges lloiuished in the now iVo/.en watex's ol' I'arrow's f^trait. Of this period wi> know nothing; ; but it is at Icnist ceilairi that when !''rik the ii'ed jdanted his little coh'uy of luirdy IS'orse- men at llit^ mouth (d" one of the (iK^onland fiords, in tb(^ end of llie tenth century, he ajiparently found tho land tar more habitable than it is to-day. Tor three ciMiturioR and a half the Xormaii eohmicR of (lireonland continued to llourish ; upwards of 'MO small farms and villages were built along the shores of tho tiords fioni the island of Disco to Capo Farewell ' (for the persevering ])anisli explorer (iraah has truly conjectured and Mr. Major has clearly proved that the* East and West iJygds were lioth on the west coast)," ai;d (jireenland became the see of a r>ishoj). The ancient Icelandic iuid Danish accounts of these trnnsactii>ns are corroborated by t he interesting remains wliiidi may bo seen in the Scandinavian muHcnin at Copen- hagen. During the whole of this period no indigenous race was seen u\ that land, and no one appeared to dispute tho possession of (iFcenland with the "Norman colony.'' A curious account of a voyage is extant, during whic}^ tJiu Normans reached a latitude north of Cape York ; yet there is no mention of any signs of a strange race. Tho Normans continued to be the sole tenants of Greenland, at least until the middle of tho fourteenth century. But Thorwald, tho boastful Viking, who sailed away west from Greenland and discovered America,^ did meet with a strange race on tho shores of V inland and Markland, which probably con espond with modern Labrador. Here he found men of shoit stature, whom he contemptuously called Sknellings (chi[)s or parings), and some of whom he wantonly killed. Here, then, is the first mention ol Fgnlc. * (Amah's ' Giniilanil,' [iilnnl. aiiil j), 1(;3. '' Cniiitz, i. |). 207. * Ibid. Ill Al'PKAHANCK OF TFIK SKI!(ELT,IN(;S. 105 tlio EskiiiK). At this porind (tbo olovoiitli oirtury) ihiy had pro- bably spread tbcmsfdvos IVoiu Nnrthirii ^>'.horin, aoroNH IJfliriiii^ Strait, aloiifjj tbo wliolo count of Arctic America, until tbey were stopped by tbc waves of tbo Allaiitic. 'J'bo lio.stility of tbo lo-d Indians was an cn'rc^tiial bin i icr totlicir scfskinj^ a nioi(3 genial Imnio to tli»( sontli. 'I'bcy were not likely to wuiubw' towaids tin: barren ;ind inbos])ilablo nortb any more than their doscoMdw)t.s (bj Iti-day ; and th<\y bad no inducement to tiust themselves in tlnMr frail luiiinh's, or nminks, on tlio waves of tbo Atlantic. They assuredly never crossed over to Greenland by navinatinjr l)avis Strait or {'allin's l»ay. This, as 1 b'olieve, is the southern belt of Kskimo inif!;ration ; but it is with tin-- (Jrecidand llskimo that w<- have now to do, wlio had bad no communication witli their sotith- in bihows th(!m living!; in two districts, in villa}:;es along the shore,'<, with small herds of cattlo linding pasturage round their houses, with uutljing colonies (m the opposite shoxs of America, and occasional vessels trading with Icidand and Norway ; but no grain would ripen in their ii(dds. They seem to have been a wild turbulent race of hardy pirates, and their history, short as it is, is filled with accounts of bloody feuds. All at once, in the middle of the four- toonth ccntnrv, a horde of Skradlings, resembling tlie small men of Vinland and I\birkland, apjteared on the extreme northern frontier of the Norman seltlemonts of Greenhuid, at a phice ealled Kindel- fjord., Eighteen Norsemen were killed in an encounter with them ; the news of the invasion travelled south to the East Bygd ; <'iie Ivar Bardsen came to the rcstMie in 134'J, and ho fountl that all the Norsemen of the West I\vgd had disappeared, and that the iSkrocllings were in possession. Jbirci the record abruptly ceases, and wo hear nothing more «)f (Jreenland until the tinui of the Eliza- bethan navigators, and nothing authentic of either Norsemen or Skradlings until the mission of Hans Egede, in the middle of the last century. When the curtain rises again all traces of the Norsemen havo disappeared save a few Kuuic inscriptions, extending as far north ' Craiitz, i. p. 2r»8, quntinff from Lii Peyroro, wlio repeats from Wormins. At'ti.T a ciircfiil consiilorBtion of tlu; evidence, Mr. llajfir lins ponfimlcil that Kindf'ifjord is the inlet where the present Duni.sh settlenieut of Oaienak is sitimtite American coast, as has already been seen. It is clear that they cannot have come from the eastward, over the ocean which intervenes between Lapland and Greenland, for no E>fty ice on one side and the cliffs on the other. The pack drew 40 or 50 feet of water ; it rose in rolling hills upon the surface, some of whicli were lOii feet high from base to summit, and when it was forced against the clitls it rose at, once to a level with the Investiyator'ti fore yard- arm.^ McClintock al.^o mentions the very heavy polar ice which is pressed up on the north-western shore of Prince Patrick Island.'' Such awful ice as this was never seen before in the Arctic regions. The I'uly way of accounting for its formation, which must have ' Wrnngell. p. 326. » Ibid., p. 342. 3 Osborn's ' North- West I'assape," p. A',). * Ibid., p. 70. * Ibid,, p. 20J. « ' Bhu> Ho; tlio wlinlu loiigth of the rarrv ^ijroup, from T'atiks Tsland to BiifTm'H l>ay. Tliis rof^iou does not aHbiil the neeest^aiy con- ditions for a permanent abode of human beings. Constant open water dnrinj^ the winter, — at all events in pools and lanes, — appears to bo an absolute essential for tlio continued existence of man in any part of the Arctic Regions, when without bows and arrows, or other means of cat(;hing largo game on land. This essential is not to be found in the frozen sea, whose icy waves are piled Tip in mighty heaps on the shores of the I'arry Islands. Keindeer, musk oxen, and hares are in abundance on INlelville and Banks Inlands through- out the winter, but the emigiants, whose course wo are endeavouring to trace, were no more able to catch them than are the modern " Arctic Highlanders." There animal food, too, without blubber of seal or walrus for fuel with which to melt water for drinking pur- poses, would be insufficient to maintain human life in the Arctic zone. As they advanced farther east they would como to the barren limestone shores of Bathurst and Cornwallis Islands, where the club moss ceases to grow, where all vegetation is still more scarce, and where animal life is not so abundant. A. few years of desperate struggling for existence must have shown them that their journey half round the world was not yet ended. Again they had to wander in search of some less inhospitable shore, leaving behind them the ruined huts and fox-traps which have marked their route, and helped to identify them with the fugitives who left their youris at the mouths of the Indigirka and the Ivolyma. We have every reason to believe that no Eskimos have since visited the Parry Islands. The emigrants probably kept marching steadily to the eastward along and north of Barrow Straits. They doubtless arrived in small parties throughout the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. They seem to have been without canoes, but to have been provided with dogs and sledges, and on reaching the mouth of Lancaster Sound they appear to have kept along the shore, leaving traces in the shape of ruined huts at the entrance of Jones Sound, and finally to have arrived in Greenland, on some part of the eactern shore of Smith Sound, not improbably at the " wind-loved " point of Anoritok. Thence, as new relays of emigrants arrived, they may be supposed to have separated in parties to the north and south, the former wandering whither we know not, the latter crossing Melville Bay, appearing suddenly among the Norman settlements, and even- tually peopling the isles and fiords of South Greenland. Some of the wanderers remained at the "wind-loved" point, established their hunting-grounds between the Humboldt and Melville Bay TK1BI<: AT TIIK IIKAO OF BAl'FIN'S HAV. 17;{ glaciers, and bee.'imo tlic ancostorH of that very curiuiis luul in- tori'stiii!^ race of men, the "Arctic. Iliglilanders." Unlike tlie Parry Ihlands, tlio coast of Greenland was found to bo suited for the home of the hardy Asiatic wanderers, iind lu'ro at lengtli they found a rest ing place. Its granite cliffs are nxtro covered with vegetation than are the bare limestone lidges to the westward. The currents and drifting bergs keep pools and lanes of water open throughout the winter, to which walrus, seals, and bears resort. Without bows and ai'rovvs, without canoes, and without wood, the "Arctic Highlanders" could still secure abundance of food witli their bone spears and darts. For generations tliey have been con>- pletely isolated by the Humboldt glacier to the north, and the glacier near Cape Melville to the south. Thus their range extends along GOO miles of coast-line, while inland they are hemmed in by the Sernik-soaJe, or great ice-wall. Dr. Kane tells us that they number about l40 souls,' powerfid, well-built fellows, thick-set, wnd muscu- lar, with round chubby faces,* and the true warm hearts of genuine hunters ; ready to close with a bear twice their size, and to enter into a conflict with a fierce walrus of four hours' duration on weak ice. Their iglu, or winter habitation, is a circular stone hut, about 8 feet long by 7 broad, and is identical in all respects with the ruins which we found on the shores of the Parry Islands, it should be observed also that on comparing the vocabulary of the langunge of the Greenland Eskimo with that of the Tuski of Northern Siberia, it will be seen that both are dialects of the same mother- tongue. The discoveries of geologists have recently brought to light the existence of a race of people who lived soon after the remote glacial epoch of Europe, and who were unacquainted with the use of metals. Their history is that of the earliest family of man of which we yet have any trace ; while here, in the far north, there are tribes still living under exactly similar conditions, in a glacial country, and in a stone age. A close and careful study of this race, therefore, and mure especially of any part of it which may be discovered in hitherto unexplored regions, assumes great importance, and becomes a subject of universal interest. I ventured to hint that, after the arrival of the Asiatic emigrants at the " wind-loved " point, while some went south, and, driving out the Norsemen, peopled Greenland ; and while others remained be- tween the forks of the great glacier, a third line may have been taken far to the north, towards the Pole itself. I believe this to be ' Kauc, ii. p. 108. - Ibid., p. 250. i .%.^'fe. ^ \^ ^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 1.25 |jo ■^™ W^Kt ^ 1^ 12.2 2.0 us i U 11.6 6" ^ >^ / J ">jV'-'>*' ^^ s o 7 Photographic Sciences Corporalion 33 WIST MAtN STRUT WnSTIR.N.Y. \^\'M (716) 172-4303 s^ \ ^. iV <^s o o^ ■4^ A > 174 INHABITANTS IN THE FAll NORTH. i ! far from improbable. It is true that the ** Arctic Highlanders" I old Dr. Kane that they knew of no inhabitant beyond the Humboldt glacier, and this is the farthest point which was indicated by Kalli- hirua — Erasmus York (the native lad who was on board the Assistance ^or more tlian a year), on his wonderfully accurate chart. In like manner the Eskimo of Upernivik knew nothing of natives north of Melville Bay until the first voyage of Sir John Boss. Yet we know that there either are or have been inhabitants north of Humboldt glacier, for Morton (Dr. Kane's steward) found the runner of a sledge, made of bone, lying on the beach on the northern side of it.' There is a tradition, too, among the '* Arctic Highlanders," that there are herds of musk oxen far to the north on an island in an iceless sea.* In 1871, during the voyage of the Polaris, Dr. Bessels saw traces of Eskimos as far noith as 82°, in which parallel he picked up, lying on the beach, a couple of ribs of the walrus whicli had been used as sledge-ninners, and a small piece of wood that had formed part of the back of a sledge. An old bono knife-handle was also found, and circles of stones showing the positions of three tents of a summer encampment. Assuredly the greater abundance of game far up Smith Sound, as described by Dr. Bessels, shows that the Eskimos who wandered towards the Pole would have no inducement to go south again. Open water means to them life. It means bears, seals, walrus, ducks, and rotches. It means health, comforl, and abundance. In the belief of some geographers there is a great Polynia, or basin of open water round the Pole.' Wrangell says that open water is met with north of New Siberia and Kotelnoi, and thenco to the same distance off the coast between Cape Chelagtikoi and Cape North.* If this be the case the Omoki and Onkilon, who fled before Tartar or Russian invasion, had no reason to regret their change of residence. A land washed by the waves of a Polar Sea would be a good exchange for the dreary tundra of Arctic Siberia, where the earth is frozen for 70 feet below the surface. Wherever a Polynia, be it large or small, really exists, there men who sustain life by hunting seals and walrus may be expected to be found upon its shores. We may reasonably conclude then, if the region between Hall's farthest and the Pole bears any resemblance to the coast of Greenland, if there is a continent or a chain of islands with patches of open water near the shores, caused by ocean cur- rents, that tribes will be found resembling the " Arctic High- • Kane, i. p. 309. ' Hayes, p. 85. ' Petormann's 'Search for Franklin.' * Wrangell, p. 504. THE ARCTIC HIGHLANDERS. 175 landers," who extend their wanderings to the very Polo itself. Such a people will he completely isolated, they will be living entirely on their own resonrces — far more so even than the "Arctic High- landers," since the North Water has been for the last forty years visited by whalers and explorers : and a full account of the habits, the mode of life, and the language of so isolated a people will be to many of us among the most valuable results of the contemplated Arctic Expedition. I have thus endeavoured to point out the routes which were probably taken by the ancestors of the Greenlanders, and of the supposed denizens of the Pole, in their long march from the Siberian coast. O.v THE Arctic Highlanders. The country of the Arctic Tlighlandors, the most northern known people in the world, is that strip of land on the eastern side of Piaffin's Bay and Smith Sound, which is bounded on the south by the Melville and on the north by the great Humboldt glacier ; and in describing a strange and very interesting tribe, it will be well, in the first place, to enumerate the voyages which have brought this region to our knowledge, and to examine what manner of country it is which supplies a home for this outlying piquet of humanity. On the 1st of July, 1G16, Baffin steered the little Dhcovery, of fifty-five tons, into the open water at the head of Baffin's Bay, which " anew revived the hope of a passage." The old navigator refrained from scattering the names of all the great men of his day and of all his friends and acquaintances round the head of the bay. He only gave names to nine of the most prominent features — namely. Cape Dudley Digges, Wolstenholme Sotmd and Island, Whale Sound, Halduyt Lsland, the Carey Islands, and Smith, Jones, and Lancaster Sounds, He anchored in Wolstenholme and Whaie Sounds ; but it is not stated that he landed, and as the weather was bad, he probably did not, but he communicated with the in- habitants. No doubt, too, they were watching him with extreme astonishment, from behind rocks, as is their wont, and the ap- pearance of this strange apparition in those silent seas may have been the subject of a tradition in the tribfi. Baffin, then, was the first navigator who forced his way through the ice-barrier drifting south, and entered the " North Water ;" but it was left to Sir John Koss to discover the existence of inhabitants on .*■ I I 176 INTERCOURSE WITH ARCTIC HIGHLANDERS. its ehorps. His account of tlieni, though coutainiiig several errors, is given in perfect good faith, and duo allowance must of course be made for mistakes of interpretation. After an interval of just two centuries, C.iptain John Boss fol- lowed Baffin into the " Korth Water," and was the first European who had intercourse with the inhabitants of its shores — whom he called " Arctic Highlanders." They came off to his ships over the ice, in small parties, between the 9th and IGth of August, 1818, and ho took much pains to obtain all possible information from them, through his Eskimo interpreter, John Sackheuse ; but he did not land to examine their huts. Sackheuse evidently understood their dialect very imperfectly, and he told Ross strange stories about a mountain of iron, a king called Tulooicah, who lived in a largo stone house, and other marvels. But all that Sir John saw with his own eyes, respecting the dress and appear- ance of his visitors, their sledges and implements, he describes with truth and accuracy. Sir John Koss led the way into the *' North Water," and ho was followed during many years by a fleet of whalers who, doubt- less, occasionally communicated with the " Arctic Highlanders ; " but we have no record of these visits, if any such took place. In 1849-50 the North Star (stoie-ship) wintered in Wolstenholme Sound, and her crew had most friendly relations with the natives throughout the period of their stay; and in August, 1850, H.M.S. Assistance (Captain Ommanney), with her tender, the Intrepid, communicated with the natives at Cape York. The Intrepid also went into Wolstenholme Sound ; and we took on board a young Arctic Highlander, of whom I shall have more to say presently, as he atl'orded an excellent opportunity of forming a judgment of the characteristics of this interesting people. The other discoveiy ships of 1650-51 (Lady FranMin and Sophia, under Captain Penny ; Prince Albert, under Captain Forsyth ; and Felix, com- manded by Sir John Ross) also had intercourse with the natives at Cape York. In August, 1852, H.M.S. Besolute ((^aptain Kellett) touched at Cape York; and in the same year Captain IngleBeld, in the Isabella, visited the natives of the Petowak glacier, and at a settlement about twenty miles from Cape Parry, Dr. Kane did not see ihem until his schooner was frozen in for the winter on the eastern shore of Smith Sound, bnt he afterwards formed most intimate relations with them during 1853-54-55. One of his officers. Dr. Hayes, was living amongst them for seveial months, and they saved the lives of Kane and his whole crew. Sir Leopold McClintock, in the Fox, communicated with eight natives off Cape 'I * COUNTllY OF THE ARCTIC HIGHLANDERS. 177 York, on June 27th, 1858. The}' usked after Dr. Kane, and immedi- ately recognised the Danish interpreter, Petersen, who served both in the expeditions of Kane and McC'lintock. At Godhavn Sir Leopold received a request from the Koyal Danish Greenland Company, through the Inspector of Morth Greenland, to convey the tribe of "Arctic Highlanders " to the Danish settlements in Greenland ; and, he says, "had the objects and circumstances of my voyage permitted me to turn aside for this purpose, it would have aflforded me very sincere satisfaction to carry out so humane a project." ' Dr. Hayes saw much of them again during his voyage in 1860, as did Dr. Bossels and the crew of the Polaris, when they wintered oflF Etah in 1872-73. It is from the accounts of writers a id other observers who have served in these dift'erent voyages, and more particularly from the works of Dr. Kane and Dr. Hayes, that our knowledge of the " Arctic Highlanders" is derived.* The home of these people of the far north is between latitudes 70^ and 79°, just on the verge of the unknown Polar Region. It is a deeply indented coast-line of granitic clififs, broken by bays and sounds, with numerous rock sand islands, and glaciers stream- ing down the ravines into the sea. To the south it is bounded by the glaciers of Melville Bay, which now bar all progress in that direction, insoi.:'ich that when John Sackheuse told Captain Ross's visitors that ho came from the south, they replied — " that cannot be, there is nothing but ice there." ^ To the northward, in like manner, a glacier bounds their hunting-ground ; while in- land the mighty Sernik-aoah, or great glacier of the interior, con- fines them to the sea-coast, and to the shores of fiords and islands. The vast interior glacier sends down numerous branches to the sea, the ends of which break of and form a great annual harvest of icebergs. The rocky coast, between these streams of ice, is for the most part of granite formation, and in many places is richly • Fivtn of Franklin, p. i:!8. - 1. Sir John Koss's First Voyage, 1818 ; 2. Parker Snow's Arctii- Voyage. 1851; 3. Osbnrn's Stray Leaves, 1852; 4. M;irkham'd Franklin's Footsteps, 1853; 5. Suthcrliind's Journal, etc.. 1S52; 6. Inglefiuld's Summer Search, 1853; 7. Arctic Miscellanies, 1853 ; 8. McDoujjfaira Voyaj^e of the Resolute, 1855 ; 9. Kane's Arctic Explorations, 185(j; 10. Haye.i' liont Voyage, 1857; 11. 'Rev. J. B. Murray's Account of Erasmus York ; 12. McClintock's Fate of Franklin, 18f)0; 13. Hayes' Narrative of a Voyage towards the North Poll- in the schooner United States, 1867. Vocabularies— I. linlbi, Atlas Ethiiographique ; 2. Wash- ington, Eskimo Vocabularies ; 3. Fabricius, Greenland Dictionary ; 4. Ross's Second Voyage ; 5. Parry's Seccmd Voyage ; B. Crantz's Greenland ; 7. Fgide's Greenland and Janssen's Vocabularies. Szter/a— Strahleuburg ; Wrangell ; Hi loner's Tents of the Tuski ; Dr. Simpson's Ri'port. ^ the dist.ince from Cape York to Upornivik, the r.oarest inhabited land to the south, iz about two hundred and fifty miles. Hi 1 H I l^'i i » ■' p 111 II 178 FLOUA AND FAUNA OF NORTH CREE.N'I.AND. covered with soff moss, and nmnerons wild flowers, besides dwarf willow. The flora of this land consists of forty-four genera and seventy -six species as yet discovered, among which there are four kinds of ranunculus, fourteen crucifers, including three kinds of scurvy grass, several pretty little stellarias, potentillas, and saxi- frages, seven of the heath tribe, a dwarf willow, a fern (Gysto- pteria), and numerous mosses and grasses. Dr. Donne t speaks of the fertile valleys of Wolstenholmo Sound, covered with moss, over which, as he walked, he felt as if Persia had sent her softest material to give comfort to the "Arctic Highlander." It is fair to add that he wrote this sentence when frozen in off the more barren shores of Griffith Island. But it is on the condition of the sea, much more than of the land, that the suitability of a region for human habitation depends within the Arctic Zone ; and although Greenland is infinitely richer in vegetation, and abounds more in animal life, than the dreary archipelago to the westward, yet without open water in the winter it would be uninhabitable. The ice drifting south in the spring leaves a large extent of navigable sea at the head of Baf- fin's Bay during the summer — known as the " North Water " ; while the currents and the innumerable icebergs, always in mo- tion and ploughing up the floes, keep up open pools and lanes of water throughout the winter. Such is the country which supports a multitude of living creatures, in a temperature where the mean of the warmest month is -\- 38, and of the coldest — 38, in a climate where there are furious gales of wind, where the year is divided into one long day and one long night, but where, in the glorious summer, in the calm and silent sunny nights, may be seen some of the most lovely scenery on this earth. No rich woodland tints, little diversity of colouring ; all its beauty dependent upon ice and water, and beetling crags, and strange atmospheric effects, but still most beautiful. The land between the shore and the glacier is the abode of reindeer, bears, foxes, and hares ; of ravens, falcons, owls, ptarmigan, willow-grouse, snow-bunting, dotterels, and phalaropes ; while the aquatic birds come in tens of thousands to breed on the crags and islands — king ducks, eider ducks, long- tailed ducks, and brent geese ; looms, dovekeys, and rotches in millions; skuas, ivory and silver gulls; burgomasters, mullemukkes, kittiwakes, and Arctic terns. Above all, so far as man's existence is concerned, the open pools and lanes of water are crowded with seals (hispid and bearded), walrus, white whales, and narwhals, and these again betoken the existence of fish, molluscs, and minute marine creatures in myriads. SKTTLKMKNTS— APPEARANCE OF THE MEN. 1711 Here, then, is a region wlioro man too might find subsistence, and here accordingly we meet with a hardy tribe of men, num- bering, according to Dr. Kane's calculation, about 140 souls, reduced, according to Hayes, to 100 in 1860. They are separated in eight or more eottlements, scattered along the coast from the Humboldt to the Melville glacier. The names of the settlements, according to York, who marked all their positions on his chart, are Anoritok, in Smith Sound ; Etah, near Capo Alexander ; PiJcterlu, Ehaluh, Pitorak, Natsilik, in ^Vhale Sound ; Umenak, where the North Star wintered ; Aldpa and Imnatjen, at Cape York. These are the permanent winter settlements, but in summer they pitch their tents wherever they are likely to find the best hunting-ground. This remarkable tribe is decidedly of Asiatic affinities so far as the outer man is concerned. The men wo saw at Cape York averaged about five feet iive inches in height ; but Dr. Kane de- scribes the first native he met with as a head taller than himself, and extremely powerful and well built. They are generally cor- pulent and fleshy, and so heavy that it is difficult to lift a full- grown man. The forehead is narrow and low ; nose very small ; cheeks full and chubby ; mouth large, lips thick ; eyes small, black and very bright ; beard scanty, and hair black and coarse. The hands and feet are small and thick. They are possessed of great strength, endurance, and activity ; and are on the whole in- telligent. This descrij^i o. isfc of which I have copied from my journal, would answer as well 'ne of the northern tribes of Siberia as for the Arctic Highlanders; and I ma}' add that when poor York went to the Great Exhibition, everybody thought he was a Chinese.* Their winter habitations mark them as a peculiar people, in some respects distinct from the Eskimo of America ; for while the latter live in snow huts, the Arctic Highlanders build structures of stone. These stone ifjlus, though quite unlike the winter homes of the American lOskimo, are precisely the same as the ruined yourta on the northern shores of Siberia, and as the niins found in all parts of the Parry Islands. They thus furnish one of several clues which point to Siberia as the original home of these people. The iglu of the Arctic Highlander is built of large stones, carefully and artistically arranged in an elliptical form. The sides gradually approach each other, and the roof is covered over I il T 4 ' it ■;-J ti ifi ' The descriptions givt n by Dr. Simpson of the tribes in Kotzebue Sound, and by Lieut. Hooper of the Tuski on the Asiatio coast, show that these people closely rebemble the Arctic Highlanders in outward appearance. 180 IIARITATIONS-DRESS. I with long slabs, at a height of about five foet eight inches from the ground, the outside being lined with sods. The entrance is by a tunnel about ten foet long, with barely room enough for a man to crawl through — called tosaut ; and just above there is a small window wii i Tried seals' entrails stretched over it. The dimen- sions of the interior are about twelve feet by ten, and half of it is taken up by a raised platform which is covered with dried moss and bear-skins, and serves as a bed for the whole family. On the walls hang skins, fowl-nets, whips, and harpoon-lines ; and the furniture consists of shallow cups of seal-skin, the soap-stone lamp (Jcotluli) with its supply of oil and moss-wicks, and racky of rib-bones lashed together crosswise, on which the clothes are dried. The cups are for receiving the water as it melts from a lump of snow, and flows down the shoulder-blade of a walrus, placed on stones. This is their sole cooking operation; for the boiling of soup made of blood, oil, and intestines is only done as an occasional delicacy ; and as a rule they devour their food raw, be it flesh, blubber, or intestines, and in enormous quantities. Kane calculates one man's consumption at eight or ten pounds of flesh and blubber, and half a gallon of water and soup. This diet is no doubt wholesome and natural, and, so long as it can be had in sufficient quantity, it preserves the Arctic Highlander in the fine plump condition which characterises him. The heat of the iglu is intense when the ordinary number of a dozen inmates i.s collected, and it is the usual habit to adopt a complete dress of nature as the indoor attire. It is not, therefore, until the Arctic Highlanders come forth for the chase that they may be seen in a dress suited to the outer climate. Next the skin they wear a shirt of bird-skins neatly sewn together, with the soft down in- wards ; over which comes the l-apetah, a loose jumper of fox- skin, whit^h is, however, tight round the neck, where the nessak or hood is attached to it. The neasah is lined with bird-skins and trimmed mth fox-fur. The breeches, called nannuJc, of bear- skin come down to the knees, and up so as just to be in contact with the Jcapetah when the wearer is standing upright. If ho stoops the whole of his person between the nannuk and kapetah is exposed. On the feet bird-skin socks are worn with a padding of grass, over which come bear-skin boots. By means of their sledges drawn by dogs they can move swiftlj'- to the best hunting-grounds, which are of course well known, and secure the mighty game, the huge walrus and formidable bears, which are their necessaries of life. No hunters in the world display more indomitable courage and presence of mind, nor more skill and judgment in the exerci.»e IMPI.EMKNTS OF THE CHASK— ABSENCE OF CANOES. 181 of thoi'r craft. Their weapons are a lanco of narwhal ivory, or somotimos of two bear thigh-bones lashed together, tipped with steel since their intercourse with whalers, and a harpoon. They also have a knife made from some old drifted cask hoop, wliioh they conceal in the boot. The lance is used in their gallant en- counters with bears, and in securing a walrus or seal on the ice, when its retreat has been cut oflF; the harpoon for the far more dangerous battles with the walrus in his own element. They have bird-nets, with which they catch the little auks and guil- lemots that breed in myriads on the perpendicular crags; and this employment is also attended with great risk. In the year we visited Cape York, a native told us that several men had lost their lives in netti ig guillemots on the steep cliflfs of Akpa Island. York also told us that his people occasionally, but very rarely, succeeded ia killing a reindeer ; and Petersen says that the twenty decayed skulls, without lower jaws, that were found in the north- ward of 70° N., had been killed by native hunters.^ They have no canoes, either kayak or umiak, and are thus con- fined to the land and ice; and they probably first obtained the word umiak for a ship, from John Sackheuse when he pointed to the Alexander and Isabella. This ignorance of an appliance which is known to nearly all the Eskimo tribes is remarkable. The Arctic Highlanders certainly do not show themselves to be less intelligent than other Eskimo tribes in contrivances for pro- curing food and providing for their comfort. I am inclined, there- fore, to account for their want of kayaks from the circumstances of their position. In the south, from the absence of ice during a groat part of the year, the Greenlander is obliged to seek his food on the sea ; while in the north there is a land-floe throughout the year, and the Arctic Highlander can harpoon the walrus, narwhal, and white whale from the ice. The necessity which led to the invention of a haynk in the one case, does not exist, in so urgent a form, in the other. Hans, the Holsteinborg Eskimo, who was left behind by Dr. Kane (having fallen in love with a fair daughter of the far north), had a kayak with him ; but in tho winter of 1857-58, being pressed by famine, he and his family wore obliged to eat it. It is more remarkable that the Arctic Highlanders have no bows and arrows, and this is one of the circimistances which con- clusively prove that they are not the same people as the Eskimo of Boothia and Pond's Bay. The great superiority of the sledges le exercit-e McClintock, p. 76. 2 II I i| 182 UCCU I'ATK )NS— LAXCJUAfi !•:. 1 :! I; of the Arctic Ilighlanders, compared with those of the Boothia people/ must wci • '^E 111 m 184 SKILL AS TOPOGUAl'IIKllS— CHAllACTEK. Thoso angekoks are not hereditary office-bearers ; but, for the mrst l)art, they are the cloverest and laziest fellows in the community. They have a few proverbs and figurative sayings, they perform incantations over the sick, prescribe the nature and amount of mourning for the dead (who are buried under heaps ot stones, or sometimes an vjlu is abandoned and closed up as a tomb), and exorcise that general influence which they obtain from their own cunning, and from the traditional respect in which their profession is hold. This angekok superstition is exactly the same as the Shamanism of the Siberian tribes, as described by Wrangell. There is very little crime amongst these good-natured savages, though the punishments they inflicted on criminals were formerly severe. But, in 1858, the people at Cape York told McClintook that they had abolished their ancient custom of punishing theft capitally, because their best hunters were often the greatest thieves. ( )ne of the most striking points in the intellectual development of all the Eskimo tribes is their woudciful talent for topography. Tho cases of the woman of IglooJik who drew a map for Parry, and of tho Boothians who did tho same for Koss, and the interest- ing account of the old lady who *' conned " the Fox up Pond's Inlet as if she had been a ceitified pilot from the Trinity House, are familiar to the readers of Arctic voyages. The same talent was displayed by our shipmate, Erasmus York, on board the Assist- ance. ^Vhen asked by Captain Ommanney to sketch the coast, he took up a pencil, a thing he had never seen before, and deli- neated the coast-line from Pikierlu to Capo York, with astonish- ing accuracy, making marks to indicate all the islands, remarkable clifl's, glaciers, and hills, and giving all their native names. " Every rock," says Dr. Kane, " has its name, every hill its significance." The visitor who first sees a party of Arctic Highlanders will be at once struck by their merry, good-natured countenances, their noisy fun, and boisterous laughter. They have a true love of inde- pendence and liberty, and their mode of life has bred in them great powers of endurance, cool presence of mind, and indomitable courage. Their ingenuity and skill are by no means contemptible, and their intellectual capacity, though inferior to that of many other savage people, is not altogether despicable. They do not hesitate to steal from the stranger, for whom they cannot be expected to have any fellow-feeling ; but when confidence is once established, they have proved themselves to be good men and true ; they undoubtedly saved the crew of the Advance from death, which was staring them in the face ; and Dr. Kane gives his testimony that the mrst nmunity. perform mount of jtones, or □ab), and ;heir own profession ae as tho 11. There 38, though , foiraeily ^Ict'lintook punishing he greatest B. 1^1 i 'f 11 i ir |fl| ', \'^ ■ III' ' i' W 1 ;i ERASMUS YORK— INDICATIONS OF ORIGIN. 185 " whon troubles came upon him and his people, never have friends been more true than these Arctic Highlanders." We, of the old Assistance, can bear vvHiiess with regard to one of the members of this northern race, who, by his constant cheerful- ness and good humour, and his readiness to make himself useful, became a great favourite on board. Through the kindness of Admiral Ommanney he received an education in England, and went afterwards to Newfoundland, where he died in 1856. A lady, who wrote to announce his death, thus speaks of poor Erasmus York (Kallihirua) : " During his illness he was as patient and gentle as ever, and thankful for all that was done to relieve him. We all loved him for his true-heartedness, obedience, and kind- ness of disposition ; and I trust that we may not forget the example he gave us of forgiveness and forbearance under injury." The Arctic Highlanders are savnges, but they are ingenious and intelli- gent — courageous as hunters, true and loyal to friends in distress, and capable, after instruction, of the highest virtues of civilised men. In conclusion, I will sum up tlie points which, after an examin- ation of the ethnology of the Arctic Highlanders, tend to corro- borate my theory of their origin and migrations. First, then, there is the evidence that they are not branches of any Eskimo tribe of America or its islands. The American Eskimos never gu from their own hunting range for any distance to the inhospitable north. Except in the case of the Pond's Bay natives, who followed up the whalers for a specific reason in modern times, there is no instance of their having gone north ; and it is unreasonable to suppose that they would do so. The American Eskimos live in snow huts, the Arctic Highlanders in iglus built of stone ; the former have Icayahs and bows and arrows, the latter have none; the Boothians use sledges of rolled-up seal- skin ; the Arctic Highlanders have t* ledges of bone. We have proofs, also, that the ancient wanderers who left traces along the Parry Islands, were the same tribe as the Arctic Highlanders, and distinct from the American Eskimos. The ruins on the shores of the Pany Islands are identical with the stone iglus of the Arctic Highlanders, and unlike the habitations of the American Eskimos. The pieces of bone sledge-runners that were found among these ruins, are the same as those used by the former tribe, while the Boothians (the nearest American Eskimos) use seal-skin runners. The bone which had been cut to form a duct for conducting melted snow into a cup, found by myself on Griffith Island, and the lamp picked up by Osborn on Cape Lady Franklin, are precisely similar articles to those now "sud by the Arctic Highlanders. V ii i irl ' lii ' ' ; itl ;K m h5' n 1 n 186 SIBliUIAX ORIGIN OF THE GREENLAND ESKIMO. We now come to the points of resemblance between the Arctic Highlanders and some Siberian tribes. In physiognomy and general appearance the Eskimos are unlike any other American people. The Eskimo language in vocabulary and grammatical construction is but a dialect of the language spoken by the Tuski, the people in the Gulf of Anadyr in Siberia. The angekok super- stition of the Eskimo resembles, even in minute particulars, the Sliamanism of Siberia. These points apply to the whole Eskimo race ; and, in proving that the Arctic Highlanders are dit>tinct from the American Eskimo, I do not mean that they are not all the same race, speaking dialects of the same language, but that they have had no comnmnication since their ancestors left Siberia, and, crossing the meridian of Behring Straits, wandered to the north- ward and eastward. The American Eskimo migrated at some very remote period, from Siberia by way of Behring Strait ; and the Yiking 'J'horwald found them on the coast of Labrador in the tenth century. The migrations from the northern coast of Siberia were later, a^vd were caused by Central Asiatic encrtjachments from the eleventh io the fourteenth centuries. This exodus took a distinct and more northern route, along tho coast of the Parry Islands, to Greenland. Such are the proofs that have convinced me that the cradle of the Eskimo race is to be found on the frozen tundra of Sibeiia. Only a small remnant of these ancient wanderers is represented by the Arctic Highlanders ; and, as I have already suggested, many parties as they arrived, continued their journey to the south, where thej' peopled Greenland. Others probably took a more northern course. As to tho Greenland population, the historical testimony of the Norsemen, and the universal tradition of the Greenlanders themselves, unite in affirming that the first Skroellings came from the north.* This is not the place for critically discussing the value of ancient Icelandic records, which have been most ably edited by learned Danes. From them we learn that the Norsemen were the first inhabitants of Greenland, and that the present population first appeared, coming from the north, in the fourteenth centur}'. How it was that the diminutive, though muscular and courageous, Skroellings overcame and annihilated their gigantic Scandinavian foes, must for ever remain a mystery. It may be that the Normans were first thinned down by disease, and greatly reduced in num- bers. One thing is certain: the Normans disappeared, leaving ' .Tohn Snokheuse. when he first saw the Arctic Highlanclers, immediately mentioned the universal tradition of liis people that they originally came from the north. NATIVES ON THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. 187 many ruins and runic inscriptions behind them, and the Skrcellinga have taken their place. The modern Danish Eskimos have detailed traditions of the wars between their ancestors and the Kubliina, which are represented in the curious woodcuts brought home by Sir Leopold McClintock, and have since been published by Dr. Kink, who, 1 understand, is of opinion that these Eskimo traditions are founded on historical facts. But it is the northern, and not the southern, migration of the Arctic Highlanders that now demands our attentive consideration. We here approach the very confines of the great unknown polar region, and we can discover indications of the existence of a polar population up to the very threshold of the Terra Incognita. Petersen tells us that he saw ruins of stone iglua to the northward of lati- tude 79^ N., which were evidently upwards of two centuries old ; and the runner of a sledge was picked up beyond the Humboldt Glacier. Dr. Bcssels found Eskimo remains still further north. Here, then, are the traces of wanderers coming south from the Polar region. Clavering, in 1823, met with two families in the most northern part of East Greenland, who must have come from the north, and have wandered completely round the still unknown northern shores of the great glacier-bearing continent of Greenland.' These people had wandered away, or died out, when the Ger- man r.rpedition visited the same part of the coast in 1869-70, but i.merous remains of their sojourn were found, consisting of grave, and iglus or huts.^ Much farther south, on the east coast of Greenland, Captain Graah, in 1829, found several places in- habited ; and he gives a very interesting account ^ of these I'^ast- landers, as he called them, who in 1830 numbered not more than 480 souls, in twelve dilierent localities along the coast, from the Danebiog Islands to Cape Farewell. The Eastlanders also came from the north, and not from the west side round Cape Farewell. There is s sufficient proof that people have reached the east coast of Greenland from the north, and, consequently, that they have wandered for manj' hundreds of miles over the unknown area. It is certain that their remains will be found, and if there are polynias of open water, as at the north end of Baffin Bay, it is pro- bable that there are still inhabitants at the Xurth Pole or near it. ' We miiy infer that tliey did not come from the south, for the same reason that tlic American Eskimo have never gone nortli to the Parry Islands. The East Greenland coast, from the Danebrog Islaiidsto Hudson s " Hohl with Hope," is so blocked up with eternal ice that no human being could exist there, certainly none would wander there, from tho more genial south. ^ See ' German Arctic Expedition ' of 1869-70, chapter xiv. ' See 'Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coaat of Greenland,' by Capt. W. A. Graah (Murray, 1837), pp. 114-124. ! X 11 ' i1 I 1! 188 POSSIBLE EXISTENCE OF A TRIBE IN THE FAR NORTH. Thoy will have taken a route from Siberia to the north of the Parry Islands ; while another division of the wanderers passed along the southern shores, to the region between the Melville and Humboldt glaciers. But man is not the only animal that has journeyed round the northern side of Greenland. The musk-ox is not known in the inhabited parts of that region. It is a peculiarly American form. Yet the crew of the Polaris found it up Smith Sound, and the Germans met with it on the east coast. The little Mii8 Hudaonicua is also American, and unknown in West Greenland, and it also was found by Dr. Bessels. These are direct and posi- tive proofs of migrations along the northern face of Greenland from the American side, and of an inhabitable region, capable of sup- porting very large ruminants, within the unknown area. The problems thus indicated are among the most interesting that will occupy the attention of the Arctic Expedition. In the possible, if not probable, event of a new people being discovered, a list of words in ordinary use among their distant kindred in West Green- land will be needed for comparison. A sketch of the grammar from Crantz and Janssen, and some vocabularies, have therefore been prepared. The vocabularies have been collected from Admiral Washington's little book,* with additions from Ciantz, Kane, Janssen," and Kleinschmidt.' Names of Arctic ITighlandkrs. {From Kane, Hayes, and JJemeh.) Ahomodah (K.), a fat boy in 1854, son of Metek, Alatah (H.). Amalatolc (K.), half-brother of Metek. Anak (K.), wife of Nessak. Amjeit (H.), "the catcher." Son of Kahlunet. Brother of Mrs. llt'is. Aninguak (K.), wife of Mursumah. Arko (H.), " spear thrower." A boy of 12 in 1860. Aunianelik (K.), wife of Tellerk. Awahtok (K.). Cheichenguak (H.). Irki{K.). Itukichii (B.), a good hunter. Ivullii (B.), wife of Itftkichii. * Admiral Washington's vocabulary of Greenland Eskimo was drawn up for him by Mr. Nosted, a Danish Missionary, in 1852 ; and every word was gone over and revised by Erasmus York (Kalli-hirua), under the supt .-vision of the Rev. Henry Bailey, Warden of St. Augustine's College at Canterbury, and of Dr. Rest, then Professor of Sanscrit at tliat college. * ' Elementarbog i Eskimoernes Sprog til brug for Europffierne ved Colonierne i Gronland, bed,' E. C. Janssen. (Kjobenhavn, 18G2.) * ' Gramniatik der Gronlandischen Sprache mit theilweisem Einschluss dcs Labradordialects/ Ton S. Kleinschmidt. (Berlin, 1851.) NAMKS OF ARCTIC IIIGHLANDEHS. 181» Kahlunet (H.), " white skin." Wifo of Tcheitcheinjuak. Died in 18G0. Motlicr of Mrd. Hans. Kalutnh (K.). KalU-hirua, or " Erasmus York." Came on board II.M.S. Assistance, ISiiO, at Capo York. At St. Augustine's, Canterbury. Died at St. John's, New- foundland, in 185(5. Kalutunah (K. and H.), the Augekok, and, in 1860, Nalegak of the tribe. The best hunter. Kartdk (H.), a girl engaged to Arho in 18G0. Kesarsoak (H.), " white hairs." The oldest liuntcr in the tribe in 1860. Kresut (K. ', " driftwood." A blind old man. Marsumah (K.). Merkut (K.), wife of Hans. Daughter of Shang-hu. Mctek ( K.), " cider duck." Chief of Etah in 18r)4. Mi/uk (K. and H.), son of Mtttk. A loafer. One of Satan's light infantry. Messak (K.), "jumper hood." Nualik, ne Eguok (K.), wife of Mdek. Vaulik (K.), ntphLW of Mdek. Vhujasuk ( Ji.), " the pretty one." Child of Hans. Shiing-hu (K.). Sip-xu (K. and H.), " the handsome boy," murdered by Kalutunah. Tdttimt (Iv. and H.), " Kittiwako." Always out at elbows. A loafer, TtlUrk (K.), " riglit arm." I'luniah (K. and U.) Note on the Orthography. A is to bo sounded as in father when long, as the u in bwt when short. E as in there, i as in ravtne, o as in more, u as in fl»te, ai as i in time, au as ("■' in how, oie as oak. Ch as in c/uirch, g as in yet, kh as ch in \ocli. The word Esquimaux is a term of the Dos-rib Indians, meaning " flesh eaters," and was first j^iven to the luuuit by the French (^auatlians, whence the strange orthography. Tlie simpler and proper form, adopted by tlie Danes and by Admiral Washington, is Eskimo. a LANGUAGE OF THE ESKIMO OF GEEENLANl). Sketch of the Grammar. The first Eskimo grammar was by Hans Egedo, published ii) 1760. The second, writton by Konigseor, in 1780, is still in manuscript. That of Fabricius, who long rosidod in Greenland as a missionary, appeared in 1791. Kleinschmidt published his Eskimo grammar at Berlin, in 1850; and the vocabularies of Janssen appeared at Copenhagen in 1862. The Eskimo language belongs to the American group ; the nouns are declined by the addition of terminations to the roots, and the adjective follows the substantive. There is a great abundance of modes of expression e'^ected by processes of agglutination, the particles conveying various meanings, and modifications of meanings. '■I I . . : 190 PREPOSITIONS— PARTICLES, There is no article, and the dual and plural nouns are formed by the addition of particles ; thus : — Siiujnlar. Dual. riural. NuntJ. Nuiieik Nunoit, land. Uyarnk Uyaikak Uvarket, stone iKlu I-luk Iglut, house. Inuuk lunuk Innuit, man. Collective nouns have only the plural, and end in " it," as Iglu- perhsuit, a collection of houses. The genitive is formed by the addition of 6, or of «i if a vowel follows. The other cases are formed by adding the following par- ticles, acting as prepositions : — Mile, with, at, througli. Kingo, further end Mil, from. Ake, opposite. Mut, to. Iluk, inner. Mi, in, on. Silaf, outer. Kut, through, over. Avut, farthest. Aqut, round. Kit, seaside. At, uuderneath. Kange, landside. Kut, above. Kujat, south side. ISuh; beyond. Avanguek, north side. Tuna , behind. (Where?) Nuiiama, on land. (Wiience?) Nunamit, from land. (Whence ?) Nundkut, over land. (Where?) Nunamut, to land. (How ?j I^unamik, witli land. (Time) TJTiiume, in winter. .1 (Time) Unuliut, in evening. (Mode) Okautsimik, with words. Particles. The meanings of nouns are also varied in numerous ways by the addition of particles. Of these the most common are the augmenta- tives and diminutives. Suak or suit means great ; as Nuna, land ; NunarsuaJc, great land. Kingmeh, a dog ; Kingmersuah, a great dog. Nguak, is small ; as, KingminguaJc, a small dog. Gasak denotes what belongs to or is part of anything ; as, Umiak, a boat ; Uuiiagasak, what belongs to a boat. Inak and tuak are only, as Iglu, a house ; Igluinak, one house only. Ernek, a son ; Ernituak, an only son. Siat denotes ordinary size, neither large nor small ; as, Kakak- aiat, a middle-sized hill. Liak is a particle which denotes that the thing indicated by the noun to which it is attached was made by its owner as Iglerfik, a box ; Igerfiliak, his box made by him- self. Siak implies that the thing was bought as Savik, a knife ; Saviksiak, a purchased knife, Kaaik, piluk, and rujuk, are adjectival particles, denoting respectively, folly, meanness, and depreciation, as Innuk, a man ; Innukaaik, a foolish man ; Innukfiluk, a mean man ; PRONOUNS. 191 and Innurujiih, a contemptible man. Pait is a particle of multitude, as Ujarak, a stone ; Ujararpait, many stones ; and Ujararpagsidt, a great many stones. NgajaJe is a particle denoting mixture, as Kahlunak, a Dane ; Kahlunaiigajah, a half-caste. Tdk and Tokdk are respectively old and new, as Anorah, clothes; Anorartale, now clothes; Anorartolcak, old clothes. Mio moans an inhabitant, as Narsak, a valley ; Narsarmio, a dweller in the valley. Minek is a piece of anything, as Kissuh, wood ; Kissuminek, a piece of wood. Nek is a participle termination, as Sinigpok, a sleeper; Sinignek, sleeping; while Fik forms a noun, as Igsiavhok, a sitter; Igsiav- fik, a stool. Usek has a similar office, as Okarpok, a speaker ; Okar- tisek, a word. The personal pronouns are : — Vanga, I. Vaqut, we. Illit, thou. IlUpsi, ye. Oma, he. Okhoa, they. The possessive pronouns are formed by the addition of particles to the root, as : — Nuna, land. Nunaga, my land. Nunarput, our land. Nunat, thy land. Ifjhiga, my house. Iglut, tliy house. Iglu, house. Ktmarse, your land. Nund Nunanga, his land. Nunartik, their land. Tglua, his house. Iglutit, thy house. When the signification is transitive, passing from one to another, the pronoun is declined differently, the endings being ama, my ; auit, thy. As Nalegak, a chief; Nalegama, my chief; Nalegauit, thy chief does so and so to me, you, or him. The interrogatives are as follows : — What, 8una. When, kakugo. Where, sumd. The relative pronouns are :- Those, Ivko. Which, 8ut. Who, kind. Whose, kid. That, ivna. The Verb. The verbs have been divided into five conjugations, according to their terminations : — ermikpok, he washes himself. matarpoh, he undresses. egipok, Iko casts away. pyok, he gets. irsigau, he beholds. 1. Kpok as 2. Upok j> 3. Pok » 4. Ok )) 5. Au >) m : : !' ! -(I - V : ■f !« i. Ui '1 192 THE VEim. The negative goes through every mood and tense of every verb. It is expressed by ngilak, as ermingildk, he does not wash himself. The third person singular indicative is the root from whence all the other persons a reformed, by affixing the pronoun, as Ermik- pok, he washes ; ErmiJcpoiit, you wash. There are throe tenses, present, preterite, and future. The pre- sent is indicated hy &p; the perfect by a / or « ; and the future, in two forms, sav and goma ; as — Emu'lpok, he wnshoH. Ennihxnh; he has wnshcd. ErviiMVok, he will wash. Ermi(jomarpol{, ho will wash sometime hence. The moods are six in number. The indicative in kpoh; the interrogative in Jtjja ; the imperative in two forms, one persuasive in na, the other more imperative in git ; the permissive also in two forms, one exacting, the other requesting, in gle and naunga; the causal in Icame ; the conditional in hune ; and the infinitive in three forms. As : — Imlicativo. Ermilpoh, he washes. Interrogntive. Ennikpa, does ho wash ? Imperative. 1. Ermina, please to wash. 2. Erwiijit, wash. Permissive. 1. Ermiijle, let me wash. 2. Erminamuja, '' '' Causal. Erviilcnmc, because lie has washed. Conditional. Ermiliune, if he washes. Infinitive. Enniklune, to wash. Taltuva, he sees or saw liim. Tali uvauk, did lie see him? Taliuliulc, may he see him ? Tah umjiimgo, hocunse he saw him. Tah >OP'"Jo, wlien ho saw him. Tali HvdliKjo, seeing. Tah U(j(i, that lie saw liim. The verb, j)7/o/r, to do or get, is used in many cases in conjunc- tion with the infinitive of other verbs. 'J'he present indicative of the active verb is thus conjugated : — Ho travels, autdlariwk. He knows, illpok. You tmvtl, uufdlarjmfit. You know, iliputit. I travel, autdlarptinga. I know. ilipnnga. They truvel, auidlarput. They know, input. Ye travel, antdlarpme. Ye know. Uipme. We travel, mddlarpugnt. We know, ilipugut. He loves, asavok. He sleeps, ftiningjmk. You love, asavulit. You sleep, dningputit. I love, asavunga. I sleep. siningpunga They love, asamt. They suffer, mikekaut. Ye love, asavusi'. Ye suffer. mikekam^. We love, asavugut. We suffer, mikekaugut. very verb, himself, vhenco all Ermik- aB The pre- future, in Ipok; the persuasive also in two munga; the ive in throe THE VKRR. lo:5 He comos, nfjfferpoh. You coiiii', uijijiijintit. I come, uijijirpuiKja, Tlioycoinc, arigrrpul. Yo conio, (ujiji rjiuHt'. Wo come, uijijerfjitijut. The conjugations, through all moods and tenses, are eftbcted by the use of the personal pronouns ; and there are transitions, when the action passes from one person to another, as in several American as — languages Ho waslies himself, ermiltpok. You wa.sli yourself, ermilqtnfU. I wasli mysolf, ermikpntuja. They wash thcnisplves, ermihimt, Tliey two wnsli thcmaelvcs, I'rmlhpnlt. Yo wasli yourselvi'H, ermihfnise. Wo wat^h ourselves, ermikpi«inf. Wu two wash ouraelvea, crmihpnijuU. Every mood and tense is thus inflected with the suPixes of the persons, ringing the changes in each transition ; as, ho washes himself, he washes you, he washes me, he washes them, ho washes us ; and so with all the other persons. For example, to conjugate through all the persons washing a third person wo have — ; I -'S' 1 il \0(1. Ho washes him, ennikpn. You wash him, ermihpet. I wash him, ermUqmra. They wash him, ermihpat. Yo wasli him, crmikjiarse. We wash him, ermihparpnt. Ho sees it, tahivir. Ho sees mo, taknvuwja You see it, tahumt. You see her, takuvatU. I sec it, iakuvara. in conjunc- lugated |»7. wiga. be. liut. ^pdk. nputit- ^punya. m%d. taufliitt. Tlie fox sees it, terianiah taltuvd. The fox saw him, terianiap tnkuvd. The participle, which supplies the place of an adjective, is the same as the preterite, Ermiksok, washed. The future is Ermissirsok, he will wash. The principal auxiliary verb is jvjok ; with which, or with various particles, an infinity of words are formed into one, the last, nnly being conjugated. Crantz gives an instance of this, where a single word expresses what in English requires seventeen : — " lie says that you also will go away quickly in like manner and buy a pretty knife." In Eskimo this is — Savigiksiniariartokamaromary- otittogog — composed as follows : — Savig, Jk, Sini, Ariartok, Asuar, a knife. Eretty. uy. go away, hasten. Omar, wilt. Y, in like manner. Otit, thou. Tog, also. Oy, he says. ,; i -■' 1' '■}f iM I 'III 194 NEGATIVE AND AKFIHMA'H VE. The Rskimo liinguago iH peculiar in tho usi' of tlie affirmfitivo and negative conjunctions, ap and nagrja. To tho quontion, Ploma- iKjilatU, "Wilt thou not have this?" if tho qucHtioned person will have it, ho munt answer, nagga, " No." If ho will not have it, he must say, ap, " Yes," — piomangilanga, " I will not have it." VOCABULARIES. Mammals. (\:t.aciaus. Male, antjut. Femiile, arnat. Wlmlc, mngfnqdlit, arwck. Sperm wlmle, knijutilil:. Bottle-uoso, kijwrhah, nisarriak, nun mule. White whale, Idlahnh. Nurwhiil, tuijalik, keniertok. Walrus aurek, aruek. Bearded seal, ugmk, umik. Hooded seal, kakurtak, natgiersuak. Fin fisli, iunulik. Little flnner tikariutlik. Porpoise, piglatok. Grampus, ardlnik. „ ardluanuk. Seals. Harp seal, atak, atarsuak, atarneit- suak. Hispid seal, natspk, nutsidlak. I'arts of Whahs ami Seals, (fr. Whale bone, sorkak. Bluhber, ossuk. Walrus tusk, to(j(tk. Seal's fore-tlipper, ieUerok tallik. Seal's hind-flipper, okpotik. Ivory, munek. Seal hole, atluk {a(jlo9) (Jarnivora. Bear, Wolf, Fox, nanuk, amaruk. teriaidak. Tiumh Reindeer, tuktu. Great reindeer, ungisok, panguek, nugntugak. Doe, kulavah. Hod Hare, Kat, ukalek, tulukat. kiteiik. Blue fox, ferianiak kcmetok. White fox, terianiuk kukortak. Dug, kingmek. Young deer, Fawn, Musk ox, noraitsok. norkak. uming-mak. Mouse, teriak. Antler, nakmh, ariiak. Fur, mituk, ill'ujHikof. Tail, pamiok. VOCABULARIES. Parts of Jteindeer. Venison, nekk4. Liver, tinguk. 196 P Biros. liirds of Prey. Bird, lingmiak. Cinorooua eagle, mujUmtUk. (iyr falcon, k\nijt>miinriuky kigavik. Great snowy owl, ngpik or opik, opikmak. Raven, tuluvak. Divers and Quillemota. Great auk, isarukitsok. Cormorant, okaitmk. Great northern diver, tugdlik. Red-throated diver, kartak. Loom, Dovekey, Little auk. agpa. serfak. agpaliarsuk. Giilh. Glaucous gull, nayak. Kittiwake, taterak. Fu 1 mar petrel , kakugdl ik. Ivory gull, najuarssuk. Skua, ieargak. Tern, imerkutailak. Swan, Tirent goose, King duck, Ducks and Geese. kugsuk. nerdlek. kingalik. Eider duck, metek. Long-tailed duck, agdlek. Harlequin duck, tornaviasuk. Ptarmigrin, Snipe, rfrc. Ptarmigan, akigsek. Plover, kajordlak. Snipe, taluifak. Phalarope, enr/orsuk. Sandpiper, kayungoak. tugagvorjok. naliimagortok. Fivchet,. |i<>liii, fhiir. SluuU. Ilulliluit. I'.Mvli. rrhnluif. (ii/i/iKtiAxtiA'. itiiliniujik. I hi llurkniHih. hillllliUjIih. Shriiuii, hi». ukurijiiik. l.ons«>, komnh. Worm. Ai •(;/(( iiHd A'. Iliill IuikI, |{VN(,('r, Siiir IIhI), ik.'j/ihkmW. Hininiiifil. (»(/fiA'. I>ulti>n>liil(, niittfiiik, Hlllljuli. ktl\Mii(tumili\ iikniHjitirHtn't. iNSKtTH. i< 1 Kly. Mo8(}uiti), niviuijnh. tjifXIh lli. «'i;iVfiiiA'. KI(>ii. MiittoHly, liiillriliih. hiiliti-liiiltiiiak. (iHH/VA'. I'I,.\N'I'S, \V(Hh1, AiAvt/A' (Arcdti/ of Kai\i>). i'rco, tir/u'A'. Husli, ititorhoh. Pvvarf willow, (»fl•.•^li^ uiiiininjiail, l)\vi>rt' l>i;vli, (ini/dA'isjiii/. i>owh(tkhi>iiiit. HuxilVup;!', kdkiltinnkitt, • ( 'lt>SH, /l•,|>A•(^^ (^lllil l»()M<, «>«M<«7, ISIlWH, innniii'k, tiinjaiisrt. LiolitMi, koii yHlil, ti-niuyitf, o-hi yiit. Uoot, iii>iillk. " Ho thnt is nlwTC," pirktuyina (Kj;oilo). Gooil spirit, Uail . Nopliow, l''iitli«r, ntatiik. Frixiid, Moliior, anwmitk. (Join innion, (iliii< 0, KiiUinr or iiiollior in-lnw, Hikkif. IIiihImiiuI, ni'ia, uin{fit. ' (!MHtoni, Wifo, nnklia, nulU- HoiiK, ii>i\fit. 1 >unro, Hon, rrniii^d, KniiHt, DiiiiKlitcr, tMiniiik. ItirUi, IJiollu'r, I'ro^nunt, Hist'T, kaUauynl-ar- l.il'o, luik. iittiaii, Uiiolc, ukkrk, inifink. (j'orpM), Aunt, iij/dk, (titmk. (, kiilah. Bruiist, tornamvik. Lungs, 088, imuapok. Heart, BoBom, Milk, Arm (right). ka-uk, hrnak. nut»ak. nmik, iraarHlil. I, iHt'.. hvuiiriak. kohlU. hiiKjnk, kanck. knjiUit, okak. itkilka. tinnirnck. kartlo, ulluiik. taplo. m'u!.. kongemk. kintjak, torlluk. ttuf. katdgok. kemarluk. Himnarak. sekkiok. puak, uinat. ivittngek. imiik. tellerk. above the olbow, akeaut. „ below the olbow, akaarkok. Elbow, ikueik. WrlHt, pavnik. Hand, nkiMiit. l,M hand, Htirrmik. Uight hand. iilhrpik. Knnrkht, kangmak. Hhlc. Forcdngor, Middio linger, kihrtik. Littio finger. irkflkok. 'J'hilUlb, kuhlo. Nail, kukkik. Liver, tinguk. WaiHt, limvif,. Bolly, vnk, wlwk. Htoniach, aki/orok. Nav(!l, kalLiHck. JIowoIh, inwlMut. linttocks, nullok. Kidrioy, larUt, Thigh, ukpfit, koklnrak. Hip, nviirk. luioo. tiinkok, M'.rkok. t't^K, kanmih 'Hans Kgedf;). "»"'• Ankle, najqmHortak, kanginak. Foot, iniket. Stop, altUrrnek. Foot print, tumme. Heel, kimik. Toe, puttogok. Blood, auk. Vein, tarkak. Bone, saunek. Wound iktf. Bruise ajuak. p 2 M III hi 198 VOCABULARIES. House and Furniturr. House, iglu. Lamp, kolluk, kollek Winter entrance. tossut. Water-kid, imertaut. Door, matto. Cooking-pot, kolupmt. Window, igalak. Caldron, utak (Kane). Seat, igaiavik. Cup, imertarfik. Bed, ainik-vik, sinik- Jar, kongmuctak. tarpik. Ladle, alluUauat. Blanket, kepiksoak. Food, verriaeksak. Stove, kisnarsuat. Soup, kayok. Smoke, puyok, iaeriek. Broom, senniut. Tent. Tent, Hoop for tent. tupek. tupekarfiksak. Tent pole, kannak. Clothes. Clothes, auorak, auorakaet. Boot, kamik. Dressed leather. ameraoak. Stocking, allerae (Crantz). Fox-skin jumper. kapetah. Gaiter, suiget. Under jacket, attigek. Band for a wo- kticndik. Hooav. >kav. VOCABULARIES. Adverbs of Place. 201 Here, ma. Tliere, ' tas. North or right \ (looking seaward), / South or left i i (looking seaward), J Where, sume. Whence, mmit. East, pav. West, aom. Above (landwards), pik. Seawards or west, ka-n. South, where the sun goes, kig. Within, kam. mi Verbs (alphabetical). He is able, pikkorik-pok, ainna- He counts. kiasipok. wok. He is courageous ), erksing-ilak. He accepts. tiguwok. He covers. talitaerpok. He accompanies. aijpara-ok. He is cowardly. iktorpok. He is alive, inguwok, umasok. He creeps. paung-orpok. He alters. adlangortipok. He crosses over, ikarpok. He is angry, ningekpok. He is cruel. anniar-titaiok, erkei- Ho answers. akkiniarpok. nartok. He approaches. kannining-orpok. He cries. kiyavok. He is arrived, tikipok. Ho cuts, kippiluk. He asks, aperaok, apersorpok. It is damp. kauaerpok. He is awake. iterpok, erkomawok. He daiicoa. ketinguek. He is away, tamak, aularpok. He dares. iktungilak. He is bad, ajorpok. It is dangerous, jnauvienarpok. He is bald. niyakang-Uak. It is dark, tarpok. She is bashful. kangusak-pok, teasit- He is dead. tokovok. siok. It is deep. ithcok. He beats, unatarpok. He defends, aernigauk. He begs. kenmcok, tuksiapok. He denies, miaaiarpok. He beholds, irsigau. He destroys, aaserorpok. I 1" He believes. operpok, isamawok. He dies, tokovok. 1" He bellows. miagorpok. It is difficult, ayornarpok. It bends. perikpok. He is dirty. ippertok. It blazes, ikuellapok. It is distant. ung-eaikpok. i - i- i It bleeds, aunarpok. He disputes. akaortriok. ■J:'! It. blocks up. illmook. He dives. akarpok. He blows. eupporpok. He dives as a seal , pullavok. He blows (as a auneraarpok. Ho divides. avipok. i m^ whale), He doctors, nakkureak. It boils, kallapok. He does. piyok, ilUorpok. '- r ? He is bom, innu-aimawok. He drags. uniarpok. He bows, aikkipok. He dreams, ainektorpok. He brings. apok. He dresses. nimerpok. . iiPi: It is broken, nappiwok. He drinks. imerpok. ' It bums, ikumawok. He drives. kemukaerpok. He buys. piainiarpok. It diops. kuaaerpok. He carries. nangmakpok. He drowns. epivok. He casts away. egipok. He is drunk, puttorkavok. He cheats, mitekpok. It is dry. paunerpok. • S' He is cheerful. nuennarpok. tamorpok. He eats. nerriok. He chews. It is empty, imakang-ilak. He chooses, kennerpok. He embarks, ikiwok. ; 4: He chops. aerkomipok. Ho exchanges. tauaerpok. He climbs, kakkiieok. He faints. ivsang-uwok. He comes, aggerpok. It falls, nakkartok. He commands, pekovok. Ho is far oft". ung-eaikpok. He cooks, igsewok. He makes fast. auleyeng-eraakpok. pueUaivok, kuiniwok. M. He coughs, koeraorpok. He is fat, 202 He ia fatigued, Ho is feeble, He feeds, He feels, He fetches, They are few. Ho finds, It is. finished, Ho fishes, He flies, It floats, He follows, He forbids, He forgives. It freezes, He gets. Give me, Ho is glad. He gnaws, He goes, Go down ! Coin! Go out ! He is goue, I am good, He is great. It gruzes (deer), He is greedy, He groans. It grows, He hungs. It is hard. He made haste. Ho hears. He is healthy. It is heavy. He is tall. It is high. Hold fast, He is honest, He hopes, How do you do ? He is hungry, He is idle. He jumps, He kicks. He kills. He is kind. He kisses. He kneels. He ties a knot, He unties a knot, He knows, He laughs. He leads. He learns, He lends, He licks, He lies down. VOCABULARIES. Vebbs — cont inued. kassuwok, nungawok, nukingiarpok, nerrisipok. serptikpok. niokpok. ikitput. nemiiuk. enerpok. aulmirpok. kemavok. puktavok. mallikpa. innert-itpok. salmdupok. kericuk. pyok. tunning-a. tipgi-sukpok. viikaraigauk. piKugpok. atterpok. iserpok. annipok. aularpok. ayuiig-ilaiiga. augisok. vi'ktorpok. nerkersok. auner-sa um iwok. nauvok. niving-arpok. arktornarpok. pivesuarpok. tussarpok. ke avok, atsuilivok. okemeipuk, arktoruer- pok. angisoak. portuvok. tiguk. petkoser-auitpok. nerrikupok. kannong-illettit i pertlillerpok innalyn-ivya. pissikpok. tungmarpok. tokopok. innukn-aTHerpok. kunnikpok. siskomiartok. kelersorpok. kelerusaerpok. ilipok. iglarpok. tesnorpok. ilitpok. attartorpok. alluktorpuk, nellersok. He lifts. He is living, He looks. He loosens, He loves. She loves him. Married, He meets him, Ho is merry, It melts. He mourns, He murders. He is naked, He nods, He obeys. Ho is old. It oversets, He paddles. He pants. He plucks off. He plugs up. He pours. He pricks. kivikpok. umavok. tekovok. porpok, pellukpok. asuvok. amavd, nullialik, napipok. ktmavok, aupnk. alliyi-sukpok. innuvrpok. maltang-asuk. angerpok nulekpok. utokacok. kinguvok. pautakpok. unneraertarpok. uuniokpok. simiksok, koisiok. kapicok. oniarpok. Ho pulls, He pulls one's hiiir, nutsukpuk He punishes, pitlarpok. He purchases, He pushes. pmniarpok. ayekpok. It is jjutrid, tipitovok. He is quiet, allianarpok. It rains, sial-lukpok. He raises, koblarpuk. Ho receives ! piok, iiguvok. Remember ! erkai-niarit. He returns, utertok. That is right, illuarpok. It rises (as the ullUaar-torpok. tide). He is a rogue, tigliktok. It rolls, aksakartok. It is rough, manning-itaok. It is round, angmalortok. He rubs, aggiarpok. He runs, arkpatok. He is sad, alleyen-orpok. He saves, aulantpa. He says, okarpok. He scratches, ketaukpok, kumiplok. He screams, tortloipok, nippanotit. He is gone seal- auguni-arpok, arkii- ing, iaok. He sees him, takuvd. He sells it, piaainiutiga. He sends, nekaiupa. She sews, vieraortok. It shines, keblerpok. He bhovels, nivagpok. He shouts, tortlu-Iortok. He is sick, napparpok. He sighs, auneraartopok. VOCABULARIES. 203 Verbs — cont in ued. ok. ifc. k. 'c, pdlukpok. k. i. Mk. ok. vok. ■ k. [-sukpok. jrpok. imj-asuk. •pok ■pok. uok. wok. akpok. .raertarpok. iokpok. ksok. ok. Icok. rpok. ukpok. irpok. niarpok. kpok. tovok. tnarpok. ukpok. arpok. iiguvok. ■niarit. tok. irpok. mr-torpok, ktok. kartok. ning-itaok. nalortok. arpok. utok. cn-orpok. vipa. •pok. kpok, kumiptok. oipok, nippanotit. ni-arpok, arko- /«. Ivd. \niutiga. iupa. lortok. \rpok. gpok. i-lortok. harpok. trsartopok. He sings, It sinks, Sit down, He slaps. He sleeps, It slides down. He is slow. He is small. He smells, He smiles. It smokes, It is smooth, He sneezes, He snores, It snows, It is soft, It is sore. He speaks, He spits, He splits it. He squeezes. He stabs. He steals, Stop! Ha stretches. He strikes him. He is strong. She suckles, He suffers. He is surprised, illerkorsorpok, imner- tok. kiwisok. ingilit. unatarpok. ainingpok.* sissuBok. ingarleng-itmk. rnikisung-uwok. namavok. kongiularpok, pu-yortok. manigpok. tagioktok. sinikpallukpok. kannerpok, niptarpok. ketuktok, annernartok. okalluktok. kesersok. koppisok. erkiterpok. kappisok. tiglikpok. unikpit, teasd ! imilukpok. unartarpa, tigluksak- pa. nekoarpok. miluk-tiUiok. mikekaok. tettamiok, tupigomk- pok. He swallows. He sweats. It swells, He swims, Take away ! Take care 1 Take it I He talks. He t(!aches. He tears, I am thirsty. It thaws, Hethrowsaspear, He tickles. He ties, I am tired. Ho travels. He trembles. He twists. He undresses. He vomits, He walks. He washes, He watches, He is well, Well done I He went, It is wet. He whips. He whistles, He is young. iwok. ailarpok, potoiwok. nelluktok. pi-uk ! mian^rtorpit. tigiik. okalluktok. ayorker-sakpa. allikiorpok. imemktunga, killaler- pok. aunatok (Kane). naulikpok. koinekpok. kerlerpok. kassuwonga. ingerlesok-autdlarpok . sayukpok. kaipsiok. matarpok. meriarpok. pissuktok. ermikpok. pigorpok. somangilak. ayung-ilak. peartorpok. kausersok. ipperartorpd. uingiartok. innuo-suktok. m Washington h:i8 sinniktok. iM OQ O o 204 LIST OP NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. I 1 I all 11 I o I to a S a O (N » o y. fc' S.l«' iCCCD t2irtO o ooo oo ;o o^ ST. o IM CO d 03 Q O I .« o o h (S His . boo] WO a T3 03 kW< ' 5 •c ! o- < 03 JL a H ■ 03 9} »^ 5?M ";;.8 9-. S^ >- 3 r- - 1 NLAND. LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN QIIEENLAND. 20r> i A t3 3 8 > fi o 2i525 .125 '/i / ^S '"a 5J % ^S "S S ^ • • * d . -^,2 •.rd P^ • u g-^l^ pq m tS >'■- 3S*fe,sa «SSii _g S X CO i 1 i-< PH i-< a a a •^N 5 43 -3 1 1 « • .a ja .A •Sen « es OS 1 1 .£3 .3 o g »o 1^ (M l^ .S«* &?;!?i &5» ^k S5^J?;525 5?; ^5^ .s^ ooo wS o N 7J Vi o I^^IJ^ fH eciiN =^^ .-H lO ■»*< »*< ^ eo o o So ^«- )MM& COCO :§, OO <;0 «;> ;s a < <9 OS 0) I O H tn S .£3 OS'S .5s ^ ^ a * 605 ,4 •s a S^ I 03 P4 ^^ : flrU :rs §8 3 1^ o3 ^ « 5 OQ-S P^ OS I s c 03 C3 a a al ■^ GQ 9 a. 2 03 OD « 8 OS 1 03 9 S S S ^T). o be -I J". 09 .4 "3 S S .a I a S5 5i5 5^>^ ;zi .i^^^^^, izi^zjJ^i j; "71 k « C5 lO rr> ?! HH c: a w M ins ~ hi CM •IH CS :5 V >-i boo d 3 MCI. g "o OS bOfl 13 to P.2 ri^ ft I <» & s (S i-^ ■s 3 .2 .a on rv, O a a •^•§2' P 208 LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. I ^ to c -a S a s 03 s to h cS Bma Td'tf^WoUrr, hUhcRMd iicn Squa-v 11 erf 3C' 60^ ^^iih R.TJ.M East Bygd , o _ Npju:o7-laJ ik- A «« {-' LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. 209 3 <<-l 8 O B .a (1) a. *no t^l^ Cd diJ « fli 2 y-^ e d^-c c5 s«, " -At — \ 'AunkJ i-m Biargafjor ing to Eg Solvadal. Melrakkai 210 LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. S ! o o CO O 1 «<1 to q S H a .2 OQ I o .2 4 1) ^ .s i - s^ o s -a U4 H o o o 1^ OS'S o g bog a £ Is. « « < OS oj "• 1 S5 .s 03 O e s n § ND. LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. 211 n « P P4 ^6 o >,-a Xl s^ . Ti ■« s S^ ^ s &M>i ^ g-Wfe s CO "-» >ti) Sua 1 a T3 fa's S O ■^ 'O 00 -a 5S5 ^ S5 !2; :^i2; H 1^ s s Bl TJ eS (D M . ■ • > O N M : : Tj * flj i; bo ^ .2 W a 6 1 1 5 % CO o o eo o O 3»s ;zi iz; (N CO o o CO o o CO o o CO *Q0CO 1 s a .$ EH O S "a ,aj oj »H>. . oj "3 ■I o o c s "5) QQ I 1 OQ S 2 bOoS.S-^ o S - >< ^ 3 s I |a a. 9 . 8 > S 00 fl '^ ilja-l J ^ C3 ■e-^ : I a 00- s. ^3 3 i bC .a > ® O 9 >> ^- ~ ^ <» a d "u fe o . .a 03 05 4) s ^ ^.a 03 05 4) a 03 Q i| •3 •3 Si no £ Pi -t 212 LIST OP NAMES iW PLACES IN GREENLAND. ! i H Oh Ei) •53 2.3 I 5 1 = £ =S =* ™ r-. •f rj CD CL o -J a o «.■" 8> w a ^ 9 3 2 83 o c n r; r 08 ^Iz oi w. LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. 213 /-^ c Oi . .M U OiO ^^ &»= V W.5 C u •ss O-C s^*^ OW < V a> O) fllr. o > o ;^ a as o T) , a • m m M « S 0) SP C fl 0) S3 i: g i) ■ — > ^ ^ "1 o .- i 00 .2.3 § a ■•3 ■ -M a CO ^ 4.1 T"2 ''! 214 LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. 00 03 O Eh GQ en a I s 1 o 1) P M ^ 03 M M -3 a S c 2 0) Is !o I- 00 «j d 2.9 ^ ■<5 Ha OQ -S -2 6D 51 ill 3 ofi^na ^ I ig-i -ill's -2 -3 a |°ol 3 g .o i 'S'2'2 ^ §-2 Mi-t 3 O Pm W M I o I CO 53-^ A. 'H.a '% s, « fl ^ 'a. « a-^ § a*W)-s * 2*2 5 2 S CO S .2 2 ^ c a a ® 8:3 . ^ in d p o .2 « . O 00 p c g oJ 3.2 -a a . o c g§a hi tc a to ■i i- ■■J ! 11 !l 210 LIST OV NAMES OF PLACES IN GUEENLAND. s s H b9 o en O H 00 s I o 'Jl It .3 a s o o © o S?5 CO ^ S •2 x; «= O OS M I (£ o to a ^ J+3 1^ P a h3<« .d 5P b. 08 ' a •§ "^ fe* § -ts r: 3 » OJ w ^8 «j » S on O'O &( 03 S e g ^ • - h3 rj^ 05 -I? a a 60 ft : a g . 'pg p ft bo ID • - jj •^ OQ •I o a u 03 O O H '3 3 9 o 03 g^ §« «'« s .g 1^1 I- bl ft <3P M kid .►"■*= ?< •♦; 141-^ all c^ ND. LIST 01'' NAMHS OF IM-ACKS IN GliEKNLAND. 217 D tt. aO tST)^ tC' 02 S w.„- m 33 13 to ,2 :3g -3 P. c ■'c "P- H ^3 ^ -72 -s-y -3 >J* '•"in *T* 'ii 9 S5 1-^ -^^^ 2.a ►^ s 0] « tfi •C'M 5 ca CO 'O J^ 3^ ^.§ ■S* 8, II s ;3 •c , (M 5^J e^ ^. S -M 'i^ 0-2-S ' W bO w !J i? o airs « = 0:2 g >.o 5 g el (^ .-^ -< I 5 -" — «»-' g H £ 03 jN C3 .1 ^ 'a iff la'' tfj 2 3 218 LIST OP NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. V i m CO h O o H OD 1 1 a s3 1> I) J) ■n a ►>ao m V (3 v^ O J g CO aj as-/ ® a II 5« "SI § bo . w ^ 3 -•«2 ^ S 3.2 111 «e'3 Em T3 o « Qcc << j»o O 3 I I I P-I I "a o ?5 ■s a a j4» oj a r^ I 8 eS 60 '2-a g .g S »K 08 ^2 g a 9 I OQ Q (U 4J f. ^ I ID 60 .a -S a i B •I. 60 .'O eS N s ^ < i^i ^ ND. LIS'^ NAMKS OF TLACEa IN GUKKNLAND. 210 4 S3 . O g s t3 H ^ 2 i» >H 2 ^iA ^ a ;i4 ■p" i. as ,1. I a cS ? •3 B't^ cS I ■s ^ 2 13 13 a > O) 3 «« 3 o «5 00 M *? a pft l(.^ *^ ^ tt> lO 00 OQ 1 «(f ..si J^ g .2 s T3 ^t§ I • II -g 111 •a • i i 9 S 08 bpsbboB to a c P^oq g a fl IMoOesoSeSaoS m 220 MST (»K NAMKS OK I'hAOKS IN UUKKNI-ANI). 'tjj H O g S o V, ''A M 3' is il\ «■' » ^ ''i a % til c»i .a a a ■ Js >i to •- •> ;S - s a .— . J; «c -s Bl) '2'.' t^. p -J ^ -S ft "5 a ti Nl>. I.IHT OK NAMKS OK |'I,A(!K,M IN (illKKNhAN'D. 221 i^3 "^ ^^ 5 .S ./ ;^ a'' . a. .0 .i .-: '^,. I*, ^T« P v.- ■, ', 611, ri -^ a -J -i ■: M^Vr w ^ tr c ^-^ .s • "3 13 1 ? <*l —• '' o3 '^ c a . T, 1- 3 t w W '.i: rs OJ ■ to & £.2 i ^5 ft A-l ^ J^ ►:3 §rf S .1? f/i i ^^ TJ'^ ^ !•;.« rW M *M r; '/} •a s ;^' :0; o ;8 p; ci;e UiM Oh -s .s .s_ 3 f^i * .P-t; i^ ">• j; -<* E >0 'r. -f< - ^•5*2'?^ ■JJ c ^=:s:^ fco ■-- 00 S 3 -^ -$'«■ CS s ?H a P <^ (3 k «' 03 5 ^r^-- Jd c .s u J»S rtO •s is a s « S -« to o fc; S S 2 S ?? 1 Ph i-i /i 12 w4ij ), -w.S, '"" Ji ils. ■3 a '3 I l|l| 111 II' . o 4<) d a V a o p. ii •s I o is 05 O ^-zj as -«!§ O > :z; 01 M g os .2 cS I—* g ^ i: 224 LIST OF NAMES OF I'LACKS IN GREENLAND. 1 00 o »t o as 05 a a •a .a o o o O 03 a a o s s •4) p a aa .a a C3 Q S 525 .50 >o -1 on >r, a a r^ M ■* 1— 1 fi o 1^ .2 "3 >^ - ':3 . -_. O Jfl 'i' " i-t ir -3 Cu-<" 55 1- a I' 'c o * >H lU CO a ^ M bo S *3 -2 '-' ^< I III a OS J -^-^ ^ !p H "^ ^ -w- "« 12 ^ o I— ( l> 13 I— I CO (4 O l> K-M 1 "i .a .a d C3 O 'A a o a o d I -2 o : S3 I ^ o 73 s "to e g CO . (0 &1 I (^ 60 a ■73 i^'.a td •S g 8 iS b iJ 5^ Ph OQ ij] p^ (£< E-t t 2 ■ TJ S-n n M f^ • « 1— ( 1—1 r«' ii ^ a -3 a % 4) w r- r^i I-:!! u fl K>< '■' '■< I to ^« -^4 c3 ■ 3 £ i ID. . n3 "t 3 C -rv S-.O S ^ ►^ LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN OUEENLANIX 225 (1 £. m "S w _ C3 "3 S3 g 2 g i CO Q •1 17 o o 2 2 £ 2 .2 o « *2 c3 t1 « n-t , & s c3 o .a^ QQ •? ^ Oj CO coo is s o a Q ,11 60 a : . so '.9 m . - 3 ^ X I ■• - 2 .2 tn o I" Old 3 p 3 o 'M 03 '^ -^ « 03 M ^. '^ t^.o ,<5 8 ■-^^ a § 3 ® tn ~ 1^ t- a a c ^ 1 1) "^ > S » fi 2 .=3 60 . CI •"•'d g &i § '^^•~ beg c ? .S !• o-^ OClS^ e 1 ••sj I'.i" ^^ n B O EH-^ 4<},2 oj en . «M o- Tha gtok uak Jrf*'S3 2 «3 5-2 &'ji ■s M -as as CD hH 'i' a SI CO " l-H )^ I? H ^ 1 be g ;« 2 o U 9 If, en a c3 _o J n fl p o P3 o 2 >..6p Fl o .d ■♦a c* 00 1 a S-1 01 _fl 1 226 LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. A ^ iSi IB 1^ I a % 6 I i -ii ^1 fl2§ -ffel |;g| 6^1 'loS s'S'l res o 1> i 44 * I — • 5 ^o ' . > ^ >H tj a - I fD. LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. 227 pr g> m « 03 Cm o >> -♦■J a a _o C C c3 W "^ l-H Ccm nh « g a o a « = S o c « p a ~ >2 IS c a ^ a O -^ e3 TT tog • i •*;! ■n a o OS g a CD -*^ CO Ph o a . ^ -. >• ? .ft ^ o tn .a ^ B bO I § :.^ . o. • hfl OS a |j 1 3 a .2 ^"^"^ -H ;; s -r a *- 'J ;<;Wcc taS Hi'i^H •-; E-i W ^ 1-4 f— ( tea a o o .c 3 d O a !3 •3 OS o o I o IHll ii .!■ 228 LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. 9 03 -3 a I ■s.g m a> 3 c: 01 o « 5 cs-s a « u I 1"^ flOO o . O OQ 8 ■ 1 I >< pq ED - .w S ^-S E, OS 60 S •♦» S oS 66 3 M °B *^ *3'rt 60 PhPui .2 60 3 44 4) pi ). LIST OF NAMES OF PLACES IN GREENLAND. 229 s 01 o c ' \o V I 4j a • ► •'O 13 a o a I ¥ « S5 - o ID ". • «J c S OJ ^-^H^ ? S a decidedly )f the Arctic the question further inves- ino- adjacent .^o appear to [ce, which has [Uowing pi-in- ^ielding to the have peopled and land, as It to produce a Ipeople, while ■l. The water- lio down to the [g the country ])asca). ^ohable means kvelopment of ained amongst Antiquaires du Lpril 1872.) them upon the rivers and lakes in that part of America. This de- velopment must have been promoted by the necessity of co-operating for mutual defence against the inland people ; but as soon as a certain stage of development was attained, and tlie tribes spread over the Arctic coasts towards Asia on the one side and Greenland on the other, the further improvement of the race appears to have ceased, or to have been considerably checked. The author draws a comparison between the Eskimo and the nations adjoining them, both in Asia and America, in regard to their arts of subsistence, language, social laws, customs, traditions, and other branches of culture, particularly dwelling on their traditions. of which he has collected a great number from all the inhaliited places on the east side of Davis Straits, together with some frcim Kiist Greenland and Labradox'. He shows that an astoni.shing rc- senihlance exists between the stories received from the moht distant. places, as, for instance, between those of Cape Farewell and Labra- dor, the inhabitants of which apjiear to have had no intercourse wiih each other for upwards of a thousand years. As the distance from Capo Farewell to Labrador, by the ordinary clianuels nf Eskimo communication, is as far as from either of those two places to the most western limit of the Eskimo region, it may bo a.-'sunitd that a certain stock of traditions is more or le.^s common to all the tribes of Eskimo. The author's studies have led him to the following con- clusions : 1. That the principal stock of traditions were not invented from time to time, but originated during the same stage of their migrations, in which the nation developed itself in other branches of culture ; viz., the period during which they made the great step from an inland to a coast people. The traditions invented subse- quent to this are more or less composed of elements taken from the older stories, and have only had a more or less temporary existence, passing into oblivion during the lapse of one or two centuries. 2. That the neal historical events upon which some of the principal of the oldest tales are founded, consisted of wars conducted against the saihc hostile nations, or of journeys to the same distant countries ; and that the original tales were subsequently localised, the piesent narratois pretending that the events took place each in the country in which they now reside — as, for instance, in Gieenland, or even in special disiricts of it. By this means it has come to pass that the men and animals of the original tales, which are wanting in the localities in which the several tribes have now settled, have been converted into supernatural beings, many of which are now sup- posed to be occupying the unknown regions in the interior of Greenland. i'-l ill 2'J2 ESKIMO TRADITIONS. I In accordance with these views, the author explains some of the mo8t common traditions from Greenland as simply mythical narra- tions of events occurring in the far north-west corner of America, thereby pointing to the groat probability of that district having been the original homo of the nation, in which they first assumed the peculiarities of their present cultuie. Tlie Greenlander's tales about " inland people " are compared with what is known about the present intercourse of the Eskimo with the interior of that part of America, such as instances of relationship between the people of the coast and the interior, sudden and murderous attacks of the latter, and a very remarkable story about an expedition to the interior for the purpose of getting copper knives from the inland people. Lastly, there are some tales about the country beyond the sea called Akilinek, and about the training of wild animals for sledge expeditions to this country, in order to recover a woman carried off by some inhabitants of that coun try. When we consider the existing intercourse between the inhabitants on both sides of Bchring Straits, we find many cir- cumstances to justify the conclusion that those traditions of the Greenland Eskimo refer to the origin of the Eskimo sledge-dog from the training of the Arctic wolf, to the first journeys upon the frozen sea, and to intercourse between the aboriginal Eskimo and the Asiatic coast. ( 233 ) □ae of tho cal narra- f America, kving bcou suiued tho tales about the present if Aiuorica, B coast and and a very he purpose f, there are lilinek, and ens to this inhabitants rse between d many cir- ioas of the 1 sledge-dog sys upon tho Eskimo and III 111. THE WESTERN ESKIMO. Observations on the Western Eskimo, and the Country they inhabit ; from Notes taken during two years at Point Barrow. I?y Mr. John SiMisoN, (Surgeon, u.n., Her Majesty's Discovery Ship, Plover.^ The term Western Eskimo is usually understood to apply to all the people of that race who are found to the west of the Maokeuzlo liiver, but as they form two distinct communities, whose nearest respective settlements are separated by an interval of three hundred miles of coast, it is proper to state that the term is at present restricted to the more western branch. The tract of country exclusively inhabited by them is that small portion of tho north-weste) a extreme of the American continent included by a line extended between the mouth of the Colville Kiver and tho deepest {iiij'le of Norton Sound, and the coast-line from the latter through Beliring Straits and the Arctic Sea back to the Colville. The seaboaid for a little way to the south of Norton Sound is also occupied by a few scattered families of the same race. As these people divide themselves into numerous sections, named after the portions of land they inhabit or the rivers flowing through them, it will be convenient, before speaking more particularly of themselves, to give some account of the country as described by them. The iixformation is principally derived from the people of Point Burrow, some of whom have travelled and lived for a time in ditferent localities, and from stiangers who came to visit them during the time of the Plover'' s stay at that place. By Captain Beechey's survey, the south and western part of this district will be seen to be mountainous and deeply indented by arms of the sea, but the northern and more inland portions have been examined to only a short distance from the coast. The natives of Point Barrow describe the latter as uniformly low, and full of small lakes or pools of fresh water to a distance of about fifty miles ' From ' Further Papers relative to the IJeoent Arctic Expeditions in search of Sir Johu Fruuliliii.' Parlianjmitary lleports, 1855. 234 RIVEUS OF AHCTIC AMKRICA. ^ 1 i from the iiortli shoro, wlioro tlio surfaco becomes mHluldting and billy, and, furtbor Koutb, nionntainon.s. Tbo lovol part is a pcat- liko soil covered with moss and tufty grasH, interspersed with brushwood, j)orfeetly free frt)m rotikw or stont i, and only a little gravel is seen oeeasionally in the beds of rivers, Tbo bones of the fossil elephant and other anintals are found in n>any localitioH, and the lusks of the former aro used for some purptises. Small pieces of amber aro alsi) froiiuently found in tbo pools inland, or ilouliiig on iho sea, to which they have been carried in the summer by the floods. The whole is intersected in various directions by rivers, which are tiavorsed by boats in the summer and by sledges in tlie winter. i>iauy of the stieams seen from the ( oast become nniletl, or have a common origin in some pool in the interior, and sometimes otl'ei* a short channel from bay to bay, deep enough for boats, wliich tlms avoid a more circuitous and inconvenient passage round the const. The largest and best known rivers are four, all of which take their rise far to the south-east in a mountainous country, inhabited by Indians. Tiio most northerly of these is (he Ivang'-e-a-nok, which flows some distance westward, then turns northward, receiving on its right bank two tributaries, called the A'-nak-tok and Kil'-lek. At a distance of probably one hundred miles from the coast it divides into two streams, the eastern of which follows a nearly north course to the Arctic Sea, one hundred and forty miles east of Point Barrow, where it has been identified with the Colville. It liears the native name of Mig-a-lek Kok, or Goose Kivor, and is said to receive a large tributary at thirty jniles from its mouth, called the It'-ka-liug Kok, or Indian liiver, coming in from the mountains in the east. The other division flows through the level country nearly due west to lall into Wainwright Inlet, ninety miles S.W. of Point Barrow, when it is named Tu-tu-a-ling, but is moio generally known as Kok or Kong, '' the J^'ivor." The next is called the Nu-na-tak', also a large river, whose source is very close to that of the t'olville ; but instead of tixrning, like the latter, northward, it pursues a westerly course through the heart of the Country ; then, bending to the south and a little east, falls into Ilotham Inlet, near its opening into Kotzebue Sound. This certainly, in the estimation of the Point Barrow people, is the most important river iu their country, and gives its name to by far the larger portion of the inhabitants of the interior. At one point of its course it approaches so near a bend of the Colville that boats can be trans- ported iu less than two days from one river to the other. The K6- wak is the next in oideras well as iu size and importance, chiefly ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS AND SOURCES OF FOOD SOPl'LY. '2;!5 \i iting »n(l is a pcat- Hcd with ly a little bonoH of local itioH, js. Small inland, or 10 HUtiunor cctiouH by by sledges ist bfconio itorior, and onougli for iiut passage h t^ike their habited by •nok, which jceiving on lid Kil'-lck. the coHst it vs a nearly lies east of olville. It vor, and is its mouth, n from the ;h the level liuoty miles but is more >xt is called ilose to that northward, (iouutry ; tham Inlet, ly, in the rtant river f portion of course it In bo trans- Tho K6- ■nce, c ;hicfly on account of a few mineral Hiibstsincos procured in its neiglibour- hootl, and held in (;Ht(>eiu by the natives of the a)ast. It also tlovvs westvvai'd, and then betids southward to join Ilotliain Inhit near its eastern end. Tiie fourth is the Si-la-wik, which, liaving a more southerly origin, follows a more direct westerly course, and euipties itself into a large lake, communicating with the eastern extreme of the same inlet near the moutli of the K6-wak. All these rivers have been identified by ditferent ofH(3ors from the P/o».'cr having visittid tluiir embouchures, and thf)se falling into Ilotham Inlet were found bordered with large pine trees. The natives add, that tiee.s also grow on the banks of the rivers in some parts of the interior. The other riveis along the north and north-west coast are small and hardly known, except to peisons who have visited them ; and the Biickland and others lo the southward are but little spoken of by the people generally, although aware of their existence. The largest settlements are at I'oint IJarrow, Capo Smyth, Point Hope, and ( 'ape I'linco of \\ ales, which are never altogether desert(;d in the summer; but biisides these, there are numerous points along the coast, as at Wainwright Inlet, ley Cape, the shores of Kotzebuo Soiuid, i 'ort Clarence, and Norton Sound, where +here are smaller settlements or single huts, occupied in the winter but generally abandoned in the sinumer. The inhabitants state, that the sea affords them several varietit s of whale, only one of which is usually pursued, the narwhal (occa- sionally), the walrus, four different sorts of seal, the j)olur bear, and some small fish ; tlio inlets and rivers yield them the salmon, the herring, and the smelt, besides other kinds of large and small fish; and on the land, besides abundance of berries and a few edible roots, are obtained the reindeer, the inina (an animal which nearly answers to the description of the argali or Siberian sheep), the haie, the brown or black bear, a few wolverines and martens, the wolf, the lynx, blue and black foxes, the beaver, musk-rats and lemmings. In suunner, birds are very numerous, particularly geese in the interior and ducks on the coast. The ptarmigan and raven lemain throughout the winter, and the latter is the only living thing wo know to bo rejected as food. Black-lead, and several varieties of stones for making whet-stones, arrow-heads, and labrets, and for striking fire, are also enumeiated as the produce of the land and articles of barter. The articles in common use, for whit .1 tliey are indebted to strangers, are kettles, knives, tobacco, beads, and tin for making pipes, almost all of which come from Asia. English knives and beads are also in use, and within these few years, at Point Barrow, the Hudson's Bay musket and ammunition. The 11 M 236 ESKIMO TRADE ROUTES. I • i -^^ skin of the wolverine is held in high esteem, and is, like the English goods, procured from the Indians, occasionally directly, hut most commonly through their more eastern hrethren at Barter Point. The latter also supply narwhal-skins, large lamps or oil- burners, made of stone, which form part of the furniture of every hut. The great trading places are King-ing, at Caj^e Prince of Wales, Se-en'-a-ling, at the mouth of the Nu-na-tak, Isig'-a-lek, at the mouth of the Colville, within their own country; and Nu-wu-ak, at Point Barler, to the eastward, between all of which there is a yearly communication. It might be expected that the liussian ports near Norton Sound would supply the Russian goods, but such is not the case, as they are all, or nearly all, brought from the Kokh'-lit Nuna, as they call Asia. They say four or five Asiatic boats cross the Straits after midsummer, proceeding from P]ast Cape to the Diomede Islands, and thence to Cape Prince of Wales, where trade is carried on with people belonging to the neighbourhood of Norton Sound, Port Clarence, &c. The boats then proceed aloug the shore of Kotzcbuo Sound until the high land, near Cape Krusenstern comes into view, when they steer by it for Hotham Inlet, and encamp at Se-su-a-ling. At this place, towards the latter end of July, people from all the coast and rivers to a great distance meet, and an extensive barter takes place among the Esquimaux them- selves, as well as with the Asiatics, ainid feasting, dancing, and other enjoyments. A large proportion of the goods falls into the hands of the people living on the Nu-na-tak, who carry it into the interior, and either transfer it to others, or descend the Coivillo with it themselves the following year, to meet their friends IVom Point Barrow. At the Colville the same scene of barter and amusement takes place in the latter part of July, and early in August the goods are carried to I'oint Barter by the Point Barrow traders, to be exchanged for the English and other produce of the oast. The Nuna-tung'-meun, or Nu-na-tak people, thus become the carriers of the Eussian kettles, knives, &c., to be found along the north coast, and being known only by name to the inhabitants east of the Colville as the people from whom those articles are pro- cured, it is easy to peiceive how Sir J. Franklin and Mr. Simpson were led to conjecture that a liussian port existed upon that rivei', and that the agents residing there were called Nu na-tang'-meun. The word Nu-na-tak appeal's to signify "inland," from its being Commonly applied to persons coming from any part of th& interior ; but they do not use any corresponding word to comprehend the diliereut tribes on the coast. SETTLEMENT AT POINI^ BARROW. 237 like t\io sctly, but ,t Barter >s or oil- > of every of Wales, jk, at the ^ii-wu-ak, there is a jsian ports iuch is not . Kokh'-lit boats cross ipe to the 'here trade 1 of Norton g the shore irusenstern Inlet, and itter end of stance meet, aaux them- lancing, and Us into the it into the ihe Coivillo fiends from barter and |iid early in jint Barrow [dnce of the ins become ^ound along inhabitants kes are pro- llr. Simpson that river, kang'-meun. its being the- interior ; Vrehend the The number of inhabitants within the first-named boundaries does not, from all wo can learn, exceed 2500 souls, and is probably little more than 2000, all of whom have the same characteristics of form, feature, language, and dress, and follow, Avith little variation, according to the locality, whether on the coast or in the interior, the same habits and pursuits. The remarks which follow, therefore, though more particularly referring to the people of Point Barrow, will be equally applicable to them all. Point Barrow is the northern extreme of this part of the American continent, consisting of a low spit of sand and gravel projecting to the north-east. Its length is about four miles, and it is little more than a quarter of a mile in average breadth, but expands consider- ably at the extremity, where it rises to about sixteen feet in height, and sends out to the E.S.E. a low narrow ridge of gravel to a distance of more than two miles, succeeded in the same direction by a row of sandy islets, enclosing a shallow bay of considerable extent. The assemblage of winter huts is placed on the expanded and more elevated extremity, whore there is a thin layer of grassy turf. It is called Nu-wuk, or Noo-wook, which signifies emphati- cally "The Point." Ko doubt the settleraent owes its existence to the proximity of the deep sea, in which the whale can be success- fully pursued in the summer and autumn, and to the great extent of shallow waters around, where the seal may be taken at any season of the year. The number of inhabited huts in the winter of 1 852-8 was fifty-four, reduced to forty-eight in the succeeding year in consequence of the scarcity of oil to supply so many fires, besides a few others which do not seem to have been tenanted for several years, and two danco-houses. The total population at the end of 1853 was 309, of whom 166 were males and 143 females. The older people say their numbers are much diminished of late years, a statement to the truth of which the remains of a third dance-house and the number of unoccupied huts bear silent testimony. The latter are in some degree taken care of as if to preserve the right of ownership, and to prevent their being imlled down. Further, a disease, which from desciiption seems to have been influenza, is said to have carried oif no less than forty people in the commencement of the winter of 1851-2. In 1852-3 the births we heard of were four or five, and the deutlis about ten ; and within the last twelve- month, when our information was more accurate, we noted only four births, but no fewer than twenty-seven deaths, inost of which occurred from famine, reducing the population at the present time to 280. The settlement at ( 'ape Smyth, about ten miles distant, con- sisting of forty huts, and having about three -fouiths the inhabiiauts, !■■' 238 PHYSICAL CONFORMATION OF ESKIMOS. S l! lias been reduced in a more than proportionate degree, having lout forty people since July 185.'}. Some of these hud fled in tlie depth of winter from their own cold hearths to seek food and warmth at Nu-wuk, where, finding no relief, they perished miserably on the Know. These people are by no means tlie dwarfish race they were formerly supposed to be. In stature they are not inferior to many other races, and are robust, muscular, and active, inclining rather to spaieness than corpulence. The talkst individual was iound to bo 5 feet lOj^ inches, and tlio shortest 5 feet 1 inch. The heaviest man weighed 195 lbs., and the liglitest 125 lbs. The individuals weighed and measured were taken indiscriminately as they visited the ship, and were all supposed to have attained their full stature. Their chief muscular strength is in the back, which is best displayed in their games of wrestling. The shoulders are square, or rather raised, making the neck appear shorter than it really is, and the chest is deep ; but in strength of arm they cannot compete with our sailors. The hand is small, short, broad, and rather thick, and the thumb appears short, giving an air of clumsiness in handling any- thing; and the power of grasping is not great. The lower limbs are in good proportion to the body, and the feet, like the hamls, are short and broad, with a high instep. Considering their freqiient occupations as hiiniers they do not excel in sjieed, nor in jumping over a height or a level space, but they display great agility in leaping to kick with both feet together an object hanging as high as the chin, or even above the head. In walking, their tread istirm and elastic, the step short and quick ; and the toes being turnt d outwards and the knee at each advance inclining in the same dijection, give a certain peculiarity to their gait difficult to describe. The hair is sooty black, without gloss, and coarse, cut in an even line across the forehead, but allowed to grow long at the back of the head and about the ears, whilst the crown is cropped close or shaven. The colour of the skin is a light yellowish brown, but variable in shade, and in a few instances was observed to be very dark. In the young, the complexion is comparatively fair, pre- senting a remarkably healthy sunburnt appearance, through which the rosy hue of the cheeks is visible ; before middle life, however, this, from exposure, gives place to a weather-beaten appearance, so that it is difficult to guess their ages. The face is flat, broad, rounded, and commonly plump, the cheek- bones high, the forehead low, but broad across the eyebrows, and nairowing upwards ; the whole head becomes somewhat pointed towards the crown. The nose is short and flat, giving an appear PITYSTCAL CON FORMATION OF KSKIMOS. 230 ving loKt he (leptU ariutb at y on the hey were to many r 1 atlior to und to be > heaviest idividuiils viij'ited tbo ire. Their splayed in or rather is, and the te with our ck, and the iidling any- lower limbs Q lijiiids, are air ire(inei>t in jumping it agility in ; us high read is tirm jiiig turnid 111 the t-ame 1 difficult to It in an even |the back of ped close or I brown, bnt to be very ly fair, pre- longh which te, however, Ipearance, so the cheek- jbrows, and |hat pointed an appef^r ancc of considerable space between the eyes. The eyes are brown, of diffbrent shades, usnally dark, seldom if ever altogether black, and generally have a soft expression ; some have a pecnliar glitter, whicli we call gipsy-like. They slope slightly upwards from the nose, and have a fold of skin stretching across the inner angle to the upper eyelid, most perceptible in childhood, which gives to some individuals a cast of countenance almost perteuil^ Chinese. The eyelids seem tumid, opening to only a moderate extent, and the slightly arched eyebrows scarcely project beyond them. The ears are by no means largo, but frequently stand out sideways. The mouth is prominent and large, and the lips, especially the lower one, rather thick and protruding. 1'he jaw-bones are strong, supporting remarkably firm and commonly regular teeth. In the youthful these are in general white, but towards niiddle age they have lost their enamel and become black, or are worn down to the gums. The incisors of the lower jaw do not pass behind those of the upper, but meet edge to edge, so that by the time an individual arrivo« at maturity, the opposing surfaces of the eye and front teeth are perfectly flat, independently of the wear they are subjected to in every possible way to assist the hands. The expres- sion of the countenance is one of habitual good -humour in the great majority of both sexes, but is a good deal marred in the men by wearing heavy lip ornaments. The lower lip in early youth is perforated at each side* opposite the eye-tooth ; and a slender piece of ivory, smaller than a crow- quill, having one end broad and flat like the head of a nail or tack to rest against the gum, is inserted from within, to prevent the wound healing up. This is followed by others successively larger dru'ing a period of six months or longer, until the openings are sufficiently dilated to admit the lip ornaments or labrets. As the dilatation takes place in the direction of the fibres of the muscle surrounding the mouth, the incisions appears so very uniform as to lead one to suppose each tribe had a skilful operator for the pur- pose ; this, however, is not the case, neither is there any cei-emony attending the operation. The labrets worn by the men are made of many different kinds of stone and even of coal, but the largest, most expensive, and most coveted, are each made of a fl it circular piece of white stone, an inch and a half in diameter, the front surface of which is flat, and has cemented to it half of a large blue bead. The ba(;k surface is also flat, except at the centre, where a projection is left to fit the hole in the lip, with a broad expanded end to prevent it falling out, and so shipcd as to lie in contact with the gum. It is surprising li;; 240 PHYSICAL CONFORMATION OF ESKIMOS. I I I m how a man can face a breeze, however light, at 30° or 40° below zero, with pieces of stone in contact with his face, yet it seems from habit the unoccupied openings would be a greater inconvenience than the labrets which fill them. Their sight is remarkably acute, and seemed particularly so to us, who often experienced a difiBculty in estimating the true distance and size of objects on the snow. Their hearing also is good, but we doubt if it possesses the same degree of acuteness. Of the other senses we have not been able to form an opinion. While young the women are generally well-formed and good-look- ing, having good eyes and teeth. To a few, who besides possessed something of the Circassian cast of features, was attributed a certain degree of brunette beauty. Their hands and feet are small, and the former delicate in the young, but soon become rough and coarse when the household cares devolve upon them. Their move- ments are awkward and ungainly, and though capable of making long jounaeys on foot.^t is almost painful to see many of them walk. Unlike the men, they shuffle along commonly a little sideways, with the toes turned inwards, stooping slightly forward as if carry- ing a burden ; and their general appearance is not enhanced by the coat being made large enough to accommodate a child on the back, whilst the tight-fitting nether garment only serves to display the deformity of their bow legs. Beyond the front view of the face, they seem utterly regardless of cleanliness ; and though careful in arranging the beads in their hair, they seldom use a comb either for comfort or tidiness. A sort of cleansing of the body generally is occasionally practised, but it is far from deserving the name of ablution. It is but fair to state that we believe they might be easily taught habits of cleanliness, but these could be attended to with the greatest difficulty, as they have no more water in the long winter than is just sufficient for their drinking and cooking. Around Michaelowski, in Norton Sound, some of the women wear cotton garments next the skin ; and on bath days, after the people of the Fort had done, they eagerly availed themselves of the opportunity, when allowed, to wash both themselves and their clothes. The hair is worn parted in the middle from the back to the front, and plaited on each side behind the ear into a roll, which hangs down to the bosom and is wrapped round with small beads of various colours. Length of hair generally accompanies softness of its texture, and is considered a point of female beauty. The ears are, with very few excei)tions, pierced to support, with ivory or copper hooks, four or five long strings of small beads suspended at a dis- PERFORATION OF LIPS. TATTOOING. DRESS. 241 0° bolow sms from veT)ience ^ so to US, ! distance ,d,b«t we the other rood-look- , possessed 1 a certain small, and rough and heir move- of making them walk. ) sideways, as if carry- aced by the )n the back, display the ■ the face, careful in , either for ;en orally is le name of y might be attended to in the long id cooking, [omen wear the people ives of the and their lo the front, Ihich hangs \\ beads of softness of |he ears are, or copper bd at a dis- tance from the ends, which hang fi ;o, leaving the middle part to fall loosely across the breast. Not unfreqnently the ends are long enough to be each fastened back in another loop to the hair behind the cars. Fortunately for the appearance of the countenance it is not deformed by the perforations in the lip, but instead it is marked with three tattooed lines from the margin of the lower lip to the under surface of the chin. The middle one of these is rather more than half an inch broad, with a narrower one at a little distance on either side, diverging slightly downwards. The manner in which tattooing is performed is by pinching up the skin in the direction of the line required, and passing through it at short intervals a fine needle, in the ej'e of which is a small thread of sinew blackened with soot, as in ordinary sewing, except that the thread is pulled through at each stitch. The narrow line on each side is the result of one seam or series of stitches, but the middle one requires three or four such close together. It has been supposed that this opera- tion is performed at a particular period when the girl verges into womanhood, and some of the natives profess that this is the case, but inquiry does not substantiate the supposition. A single line is frequently seen in mere children, and the three in very young girls, whilst a few are not marked until they seem almost full grown women, and have been called wives for a considerable time. The same irregularity exists with regard to the age at which the lip ;.8 perforated for labrets in boys, who as soon as they can take a seal or kill a wolf are entitled to have the operation performed. But, in truth, no rule obtains in either case ; some, led by the force of example, submit to it early, and others delay it from shyness or timidity. A man is met with occasionally without holes for labrets, but a woman without the chin-marks we have never seen. The men's di-ess is simple and convenient, consisting of a frock reaching nearly half-way to the knee, with a hood, and confined at the waist by a loose belt, having the tail of some animal attached to it behind, and breeches tying below the knee over long boots or mocassins, which also tie at the ankle. These garments are double, the inner being generally made of fawn-skin, and worn with the fur inwards, and the outer of the skin of the half or full-grown animal with the hair outwards. To make the hood set well to the face, a triangular slip of skin is necessary to be inserted on each side of the neck, with long points extending down the breast ; and these pieces being usually white, form with the darker skin of the coat a contrast which readily catches the eye. Around the face is a fringe, frequently of wolf or wolverine-skin, on good coats, and the •!!lr !; m^fimmm I'J \ .1 II 212 DRESS OF THE WESTERN ESKIMOS. ftkirt is hemmed with a narrow edging of a similar kind ; some have also a border of white, with straps of the same colour on the arm near the shoulder. There is commonly an ermine-skin, a feather, or some such thing, which acts as a charm, attached to the back. The skins of various other animals besides the deer, as the fox, musk-rat, marten, dressed bird-skins, &c., are also used in making coats. The breeches are also of deer-skin, or sometimes dog or seal- skin, occasionally ornamented with a stripe of white down the out- side or front of the thigh. The boots are most frequently of the dark skin of the reindeer's legs, or this in alternate stripes with the white skin of the belly, extending from below the knee to the ankle, with soles of white dressed seal-skin, gathered in neatly around the toes and heels, having within a cushion of whalebone scrapings or dried grass, between them and the reindeer stockings, which are next the feet. They are particular in the arrangement of the skins ; thus the round spot of indurated skin on which the hair is stiffer and whiter than that around it just below the hock of the animal is always placed over the inside of the ankle-bone in men's mocassins at Point Barrow, and over the outer in women's ; but they say the reverse is the custom at Point Hope. Over these a pair of ankle- boots of black seal-skin, dressed only so far as to remove the hair, with soles of narwhal-skin, is worn on the ice. The hands are protected by deer-skin mittens, with the hair inwards ; but for cold weather and working on the ice, the thicker skin of the polar bear, with the hair outwards, is preferred, as it is warmer and less liable to injury from getting wet. The whole dress is roomy, particularly the coat, which has the sleeves large enough to allow the hands to be withdrawn, one of the greatest comforts that can be imagined in cold weather. In winter a cloak of dark and white deer-skins is worn over the shoulders, held on by a thong across the throat, and gives the whole figure a very gay appearance. According as the wind is in front or on one side, the cloak can be turned as a pro- tection against it. The usual belt is made of the smaller wing- feuthers of ducks, after the plumes are torn off, partly sewed and partly woven with small plaited cords of sinew, taking care to keep the glossy back surface of the feathers outwards, and their ends, which form the edges of the belt, are confined by a narrow binding of skin. In some of these there is a checkered appearance, produced by alternate rows of black and white feathers ; but the white tdpsi, or belt, is certainly the gayest. The pipe-bag on one side, and the knife on the other, suspended to the girdle supporting the breeches, may be considered part of the usual dress. For procuring fire, the flint and steel is used in the North, and kept in a little bag hanging !■] ^ i\ DRESS OF 'HIE WESTERN ESKIMOS. 243 )rae havo the arm feather, the back, the fox, n making ig or seal- 1 the out- tly of the , -with the the ankle, i,r(>und the rapings or which are 'the skins; ir is stiffer e animal is 5 mocassins dey say the r of ankle- ve the hair, h hands are but for cold polar hear, less liable larticularly le hands to imagined in eer-skins is Ihroat, and •ding as the id as a pro- taller wing- sewed and [care to keep their ends, •ow binding [ce, produced white tdpsi, iide, and the the breeches, ■ing fire, the Ibag hanging round the neck ; and in Kotzebue Sound the pipo-hag contains two pieces of dry wood, with a small bow for rotating the one rapidly while firmly pressed against the other until fire is produced. In the absence of these, two lumps of iron pyrites are u>*ed to strike fire ixpun tinder, made by rubbing the down taken from the seeds of plants with charcoal. The tobacco-bag, or •' del-la-mai'-yu," is the constant companion of men, Avomen, and even children, and is kept also at the inner belt. In summer, as their occupations are more in boats, the dress is (somewhat different. The feet and legs are incased in watertight sealskin boots, and an outside coat of the same material,or of whale - gnt, covers the body ; or these are made all in one, with a drawing- string round the face. The least valuable skins are also used at this time, as they soon become soiled and filthy with blubber, becoming quite unfit for a second season. It would be impossible to enumerate the vai'ieties of dress wo witnessed at the grand summer dance, when, among new skin coats, might be seen the clean white-cotton shirt and the greasy and tattered Guernsey frock, besides others made up of odds and ends, such as cotton or silk handkerchiefs procured at the ship, showing that they were bound by no rule as to dress on the occasion. On the head of every dancer, however, was a band supporting one, two, or three large eagle's featheis, which, together with a streak of black- lead, either in a diagonal line across or down one side of the face, gave them a more savage appearance than they usually exhibit. Many of these head-bands were made of the skin of the head and neck of some animal or bird, of which the nose or beak was retained to project from the middle of the forehead. The long beak of the great northern diver formed the most conspicuons of these ornaments. Another head-dress, which is looked upon with superstitious regard, and only worn when engaged in whaling, conisists of a band of deer- skin ornamented with needlework, from which are suspended around the forehead and temples, in the form of a fringe, the front teeth of the im'-na, a sort of deer, which has been before mentioned as inhabiting the interior. Snow-shoes are so seldom used in the Korth when the drifted snow presents a hard frozen surface to walk upon, that certainly not half a dozen pairs were in existence at Point Barrow at the time of our arrival, and those were of an inferior sort. Inland, and near Kotzebue Sound, where trees and underwood grow, the snow remains so soft it would be impossible to travel any distance in the winter without them. The most common one is two pieces of alder, about, two feet and a half long, curved towards each other at the I'uds, s 244 DRESS OF ESKIMO WOMEN. whore thoy are bound together, and kept apart in the iniddlo by two cross-pieces, each end of which is hehl in a moitice. Between tlie cross-pieces is stretched a stout thong, lengthwise and acioss, for the foot to rest upon, with another which first forms a htup to aHow tlio toes to pass beneath ; this is carried round the back of the ankle to the opposite side of the foot, so as to sling the snow-shoe under the joint of the great too. As the shoe is thus suspended at a point a little before its centre, the heel end trails lightly over the snow at each step, whilst the too is raised over any slight unovenncss in the v/ay. Some are five feet long by fourteen inclies wide, rounded and turned up at the toe, and pointed at the heel, neatly filled in before and behind the cross-bars with a network of sinew, or of a very small thong made from the skin of the small seal, nat'-sik. The women's dress differs from the men's in the mocassins and breeches forming a single close-fitting garment tied round the waist, as well as in being more uniformly striped, and the coat in being longer, reaching to below the knees in a rounded flap before and behind. The back of the coat and the hood are also made large enough to contain a child, whose weight is chiefly sustained by tlio bolt. For common use, and among the poorer people, the inner one is made of bird-skins, and among those who are better off, of deer-skin, and is plain. In winter, when out of doors, an outer coat of thick deer-skin is worn, and in summer a light one of the skins procured during the summer when the animal is changing its hair. For dress occasions, one is worn by +hoso who can afford it which is made of patchwork, always according to one invariable plan as to the shape and principal seams ; but there is considerable variety allowed in the arrangement of the white and different shades of fawn-skins of which it is made, besides a countless multitude of strips and tufts of fir sewed to the back, shoulders, and front of tlie garment, producing always a pleasing effect, and indicating con- siderable industry on the part of the seamstress. The woman's tapsi or belt is made from the skin of the wolverine's feet, with the claws directed downwards and placed at regular inter- vals. Near Kotzebue Sound a belt of a different kind is much in use, consisting of a piece of skin, of proper length, having the front teeth of the reindeer, adhering to the dried gum of the animal, stitched to it ; so that the second row of teeth overlies the sewing on the first, and so on, beginning at each end and joining at the middle. A belt of this description is about two and a half inches broad, and has from fifty to sixty rows of teeth. The other personal ornaments, besides the beads in the hair and ears, are rings of iron DllESS OF WOMEN, LON'GKVITY. 245 i .1(1(11 l)y Bt'twcon d acvosH, a loop to ack of the mow-slioe pended at rhtly over iiy sliglit. oen inches the heel, letwork of small seal, ■assins and il the waist, vt in heing before and made largo jncd by the I inner one is [)f deer-skin, ;oat of thick ms procnrcd hair. For it which is plan as to liblo variety nt shades of [niiltitudo of front of the licating con- i wolverine's lea:ular inter- • is much m Ing the front 1 the animal, the sewing Ining at the half inches Iher personal rings of iron and copper for the wrists, and on dancing occasions their wealth is displayed in broad bands of small beads of different colours, arranged according to the taste of the wearer, attached by one end to the coat at the neck, and by the other to the middle of the front skirt. Large beads seem to be used only by the men, some of whom wore vain enough to display them in strings round the head or hanging in front of the coat, and we remarkid that no part of the materials procured from the ship was u.soii as clothing by the women". Buttons were the only orn iments they seemed to adopt for the bolt, and to fasten the beads in their hair. Instead of a knife the women wear at the inner belt a needlo-caRe, which is merely a narrow strip (,f skin in which the needles are stuck, with a tube of bone, ivoiy, or iron to slide down over them, and kept from slipping otf the lowi-r end by a knot or large bead. Their pipe is commonly smaller and lighter than the men's, and they do not carry it in a bag, but in the hand or inside the coat at the back ; and the flint and steel is not so general with them, as their work is seldom out of doors except in com- pany with the men. Tliey have a singular habit of wearing only one mitten, protecting the other hand under the flap of the coat, or drawing it inside the sloe\ e, in preference to carrying a second. Tlie shape of the coat serves to distinguish the sex of children as soon as they are able to walk alone, but the woman's form of mocassins is used by boys until they are well grown. The physical constitution of both sexes is strong, and they bear exposure during the coldest weather for many hours together Avith- out appearing inconvenienced, further than occasional frost-bites on the cheeks. They also show great endurance of iUtigue during their journeys in the summer, particularly that part in which they require to drag the family boat, laden with their summer tent and all their moveables, on a sledge over the ice. Extreme longevity is probably not unknown among them ; but as they take no heed to number the years as they pass, they can form no guess of their own ages, invariably stating " they have many years." Judging altogether from appearance, a man whom we saw in the neighbourhood of Kotzebue Sound could not be less than eighty years of age. He had long been confined to his bed, and appeared quite in his dotage. There was anotlier at Point Barrow, whose wrinkled face, silvery hair, toothless gums, and shrunk limbs indicated an age nothing short of seventy-five. This man died in the month of April 1853, and had paid a visit to the ship only a few days before, when his intellect seemed unimpaired, and his vision s 2 246 DISPOSITION OF WESTERN ESKIMOS. wonderfully acnto for his time of life. There is another nlill alive, wlio is Hnid to ho a few years older. IJoforo oUbring any remarks on the character of those people, it slionld bo premised that the subject is approached witli great diffidence, lest wesliould give erroneous views respecting them ; for although wo have resided two years within three miles of their largest settlement, we could never wholly divest ourselves of the feeling that we were looked npon by them as foreigners, if not intmdei's, who were more feared than trusted; the more favourable points of their character wore not therefore brought prominently before us ; whilst from being frequently annoyed by petty thefts, false I'eports, broken promiscH, and evasions, we perhaps too hastily concluded that thieving and lying were their natural characteristics, without attributing to them a single redeeming quality. Yet, as we became 1 :'tter acquainted, we found individuals of weight and influence among them, whoso conduct seemed guided by a rude inward sense of honesty and truth, and whom it would be unfair to judge by a civilized standard, or to blame for yielding to temptations to them greater than wo can conceive. A leaf of tobacco is a matter of small value, yet the end of it sticking from one's pocket amid a knot of natives at Nu-wuk, would bo a greater temptation there, and would more surely be stolen than a handkerchief or a purse seen dangling from one's skirt in a London mob. And when the parental and filial dtitles are so carefully performed, it would be hard to deny tlio existence of even a spark of generosity. In disposition they are good-humoured and cheerful, seemingly burdened by no care. Their feelings are lively but not lasting, and the temper frequently quick, but placable. Of their placable temper, an instance occurred in September 1852. An old man, of some con- sideration at Nu-wuk, had with his wife been ahmgside the ship, and in the crowd were refused admittance ; the woman also, by some accident, had received a blow on the head from an oar. B}' way of retaliation, a day or two afterwards he tried to send away our watering-party from a pond near the village ; and finding our men took little heed of him, he set about persuading his countrymen to expel the strangers " for stealing the water." Captain Maguiro seeing the disturbed state of his feelings depicted in his countenance, advanced to meet him, and at once presented him with a needle. The man's embarrassment was extreme. Trifling as the present was, it flattered him out of more than half of his anger, and ho dis- sipated the rest in a long talk, the people seating themselves iu a ring, and requesting the captain and his companions to take a place in the centre, when the old man and his wife — his better half — DISPOSITION OF WKSTEUN ESKIMOS. 247 ill alive, looplo, it til gi'i-ivt. lom ; fov of thoir D8 of tlio •s, if not ivourablo )miuo«itly ty thefts, ,00 hastily icteristics, '. Yet, as freight and by a riido 3 unfair to omptationw is a matter kot amiil a ttion there, or a purse when the ,t would ho ittcr half — explained the had treatment they had received at the ship. In the ineantimo the huat was laden, and thedistrihntion of a little tohacco hil't a momentary impresHion that we were angelm. Their conjugal and jjarcntal afTections are strong, the latter especially, whilst the children are still young; hut heyoud tl»o sphere of thoir own family or hut they ap';>ear to have no regard. The loss of a hntiband, a wife, or a child, makes no permanent deep impres.sion, unless the hereavement leaves them destitute of tho comforts they have heen accustomed to ; indeed, it is not rare to find a woman nnahlotogivo an accurate account of her children, in- cluding the dead ; yet when thoir afflictions are brought to mind hy intjuiry, the cheerful smile leaves the face to he replaced hy a look of sadness, and tho tone of the voice hecomes doleful. Under the real or protended influence of grief, acts of violence are sometimes committed hy the men, and thefts at tho ship were occasionally said to he prompted hy domestic sorrows. Though thankful at times for favours, they seldom offered any return, and gratitude heyond the hour is not to he looked for. I'erhaps it is not too much to say that a free and disinterested gift is totally unknown among them. On making a present to a stranger, it was not uncommon to see him put on a look of incredulity, and repeatedly ask if it were really a gift. They vied with each other for a long time in pilfering from tho ship, whilst among themselves honesty seemed to prevail ; hut as we came to know them hotter, and were ahlo to detect delinquents, our losses hecame fewer, and we learned that thefts from each other were not unfrequent, so that we arrived at the very unsatis- factory conclusion that it is the certainty of detection that prevents theft. Many articles, such as spears and other implements, are left exposed, and run no risk, as they would certainly he recognized hy many others hesides the owner ; hut when food, oil, tohacco, or such other things as would ho difficult to identify, are concerned, the ease is different. In the long passage leading to tho winter hut, many articles are kept which could he easily taken unknown to the inmates; hut duiing the day some neighbour would be sure to see the thief, or, if the deed were done in the night, his footmarks on the snow would tell the tale. It is in the stormy, dark nights the Nu-wuk burglar goes his rounds, trusting to the snow-drift to ob- literate his footsteps. His visits are not unprovided against, for a trap is laid in most huts, not to catch the marauder, hut to alarm and drive him away. This is affected hy placing a hoard with a large wooden vessel on it in such a position, that both may fall on the slightest touch, thereby making sufficient noise to arouse the % ;y 248 CllAUACrEU OK TIIK KSKIMOH. household, sorao of whom get up, re-adjust the trap, and retire again. We were also informed of instances as tliey occurred of stealing from each other seals left on the ice, and in one case a not was taken up and carried off to Capo Smyth. It is almost natural to expect that 'al.sohood should follow to conceal theft, and we found i^ here accordingly. To invent stories disparaging to others was a practice some addicted themselves to without any conceivable motive, and the women backbite each other and talk scandal very freely. Their confidence in our honesty soon became unbounded, and goods brought to the ship and not disposed of wore frequently left behind ; yet though they knew our engagements would be fulfilled, when a bargain was made they appeared uneasy until the payment was effected. Selfish gratification at the present moment is all they seem to live for, and no promise of a reward, however great, would induce them to deviate from their tisual life for any continued period. If they do not possess courage of a daring character, they have given us no reasor to look upon them as cowards. When the crew of Mr. Shcdden's vessel, the Nancy Dawson, landed on the ice to shoot birds, the handful of men whose tents were in the neighbour- hood advanced, bow in hand, to meet them and drive them back. Some of these men have since explained, that fearing the guns, they thought it better to oppose the landing of the strangei's than trust them on shore, before knowing them to be friends ; adding, that " jNIr. Martin was a good man, who said they were friends, and made the ship's people put away their guns." After committing a robbery at our stoiehouse, they attempted to direct attention to the Cape Smyth people as the thieves, although the tiack left by dragging some sails had been followed to near Ts'u-wuk. When this was pointed out, and a threat made to send an armed force to recover the stolen property, they turned out to the number of eighty men, with bows and spears, and advanced within musket shot of the ship, rather than stand a siege in their own dwellings. We have learned enough from them to believe they at first looked upon us as a contemptible few whom they could easilv overcome, and certainly would have attempted it but for fear of the firearms ; but since then, they have gene to the opposite extreme, and invested us with greater powers tlia.i we really possess. On trifling occa- sions some of them have shown a degree of obstinacy which renders it probable, that if once engaged in a fight they would not readily give in, at least if there was anything like equality of weapons ; and, under any circinustances, iney might be expected to defend their homes to the last extremity. TllEATMHN'r OF 011IM)UKN AND OLD PKOPI-K. 249 d retire iirrcd of ise a not bllow to it stories selves to ich other honesty and not icy knew jade they itification 3 promise rom their they have I the crew uhe ice to leighhour- heni back, the guns, iiiiors tlian ; adding, liends, and iimitting a Being in the hahit of making frequent journeys of four or five days without taking more than two days' provisions, thoy ai)pear to rely on the kindness of others as they pass ; and as this is perliaps never denied, hos])itality to strangers may bo esteemed a duty. Wo are of opinion, however, this has its limits. A man of good name would have no difficulty in procuring food and shelter while travelling through any part of his country, as, where he cefised to bo known by his own rejjutation, he would be aicopted as a guest on mentioning the name of his last entertainer ; and w(! have never entered a strange liut without inquiry being made as to what soit of food wo used, and generally some of their best was set before us, or an apology made that they liad nothing to oiler which wo would rolish. liut an Eskimo never undertaken ,•» distant journey imless he well knows the people he is g( ng among, or he goes in couipany with others on whom he can depend for a welcome. In a 8(jciety so largo as that ah Point Barrow, it is impossible that dilferent families should be at all times totally independent of each other, and the successful hunter of to-day lends to his neighbour, wlu), when the luck turns, repays the favour ; but dealings of this kind are practised no more than necessity requires. A man returned during the hunting-time to the village, and his own hut being closed, he lived with a relative for four or five days ; in return for which, when the season was over, that relative and some of his family spent a whole day in the other's hut, where they were ctitertained with reindeer-flesh, which was then very scar' ", For the tender solicitude with which their own infancy and childhood have been tended, in the treatment of their aged and infirm parents they make a return which redounds to their credit, for thoy not only give them food and clothing, sharing with them every comfort they possess, but on their longest and most fatiguing journeys make provision for their easy conveyance. In this way we witnessed auiong the people of fourteen summer tents and as many boats, one crippled old man, a blind and helpless old woman, two grown-up women with sprained ankles, and one other old invalid, besides children of various ages, carried by their re- s])octivo families, who had done the same for the two first during many successive summers. Here, again, the tie of kindred dictates the duty, and wo fear it would go hard with the childless. When a man dies, his next of kin supports his widow ; or if unprovided already, he may make her his wife, unless he allows her to be taken by a 8tra;nger. Oiphan children are provided for in the same way, and adoption is so frequent among them that it becomes almost im- possible to trace relationship ; this is, however, of no importance, ! 250 'RKATMENT OF CHII.DHEN AND AGED PERSONS. as thc! adopted takes tho place of a real cliild, and perl'orms his duties towards his benefactors as if for his own parents. Grief is sometimes made the excuse for violence, but it is also assuaged in a nobler manner by adopting tho cliildren of the deceased ; or a stranger's orphan, to whom the name of the lost one is given. In this manner 0-mig-a-loon, the principal man at Point Barrow, the same who followed and annoyed Captain Tnllen at I'oint Bcrens, adopted an Indian infant which fell into his hands by accident while grieving for his father, then recently dead, whose name tho yonth now bears. Wo have never heard of the sick or aged being left to perish, though at Icy Capo wo saw a woman lying dead, in a hut, who had been subject to bad treatment, as evidenced by the bruises on her face. Within her reach were placed food and water, which we are willing to look upon as proofs that it was not intended she should die of starvatiun. One instance of infanticide came within our knowledge during the last winter ; but a child, they say, is only destroyed when afflicted with disease of a fatal tendency, or, in scarce seasons, when one or both parents die. In the case alluded to both these conditions were present. They state that children are rarely put to death at Nu-wuk, though frequently in tho inland regions ; as if by pointing out its greater frequency there they palliated the crime among themselves. Having but little food of a nature adapted to supply the place of milk, it is no unusual thing to see a boy of four or five years old take the breast ; and the indulgence with which children are treated is attributable in some degree to the difficulty in rearing them. We have seen a child of four years old demand a chew of tobacco from his father, and, not receiving it immediately, strike him a severe blow on the face with a piece of wood, without giving offence. It is not improbable that such indulgence should Jiave a permanent effect on tho temper and character of the people. The children fight with and bully each other in their play, but among the grown-up men or women we have never seen anything approach- ing a quarrel ; and, as a general rule, they are particularly careful not to say anything displeasing in each other's presence. If a man gets angry or out of temper, the others, even his nearest friends, keep out of his way, trusting to his recovery in a short time. Whenever we have met them at a distance from the ship in small parties, they have proved tractable and willing to assist when re- tpiired ; bnt when the numbers were large they were mischievous bullies, threatened to use their knives on the slightest provocation, and, instead of giving assistance, would rather throw impediments in our way. \Ve hardly think them likely to commit wanton cruelty, TNTELLKiENCE OF ESKIMOS. 251 >riof is jed iti a I ; or a en. In row, tlio I'crens, iccident Jiiuc the ng (lead, M\cod by bod and ; was not fanticide S a child, af a fatal die. In 'hoy state i-oque»itly 'reqnency or to wliod human blood without, a strong motive, yet wo would bo unwilling to trust to the humanity of a people whoso cupidity is otisily excited, and who arc accustomed to no restraint save their ov/n free will. \\ hen murder is committt'd, as it sometimes i«, it is in retaliation for injury, real or fancied ; and then the victim is stolen upon while asleep and overpowered by numbers, or he receives his death- wound unawares from some one behind him. In point of intelligence, some o.vhibit considerable capacity, and in general they are observant and shrewd. As a people, they are very communicative, those of most consideration being generally moist silent ; and wisdom is commonly imputed to those who tilk least. They possess great curiosity, and are chiefly attracted b\ wluitcver might be useful to themselves. In this way a gun would bo a study they seemed never to tire of, particularly the lock ; and the blacksmith when working at the foi'go was, perhaps, as great un attraction as there was on board the ship. Th(vy soon began to appreciate prints and drawings, and latterly often borrowed books of plates to amuse them at home, always taking great care of them and returning them in good order. When shown the construction of a (lii. of bellows, a few appeared to perceive and admire the mechanistn at once, whilst to many it remained quite a mystery to the end. They were totally unable to comprehend how the sounds were produced fiom a flute, and it was highly amusing to see one of the most intelligent amongst them, who fancied there was some trick practised, examine the fingers and lips of the musician to find out the deceit. Every article that fell under their notice became the subject of inquiry as to what were its uses, the material it was made from, how it was manufactured, and if it pleased them much, the name of the maker. At first they exhibited some caution in receiving information, and went slyly from one to another asking the same questions ; but latterly they ceased to do so. A perfect stranger, especially if young, and allowed to roam at large about the ship, would in a short time be able to name almost every one on board, but in a way hardly recognisable. One boy at the end of six months could coimt on his fingers as far as ten, mastering the letter /in four and five tolerably, but still with great effort; and learned a few other -^vords. A number of others tried at first to follow his example, withoiit success ; and it was remarked that •' poase-soup " was the only English word generally known and distinctly pronounced. The majority have a strong sense of the ludicrous, and readily observe personal peculiarities, which they will afterwards describe with groat zest. Some of them are tolerable minncs, and their efforts are sure to meet with applause, especially 252 OCCUTATIONS OF WOMEN. !l ) I s I : ,1 ; i \\ i ' '■ h M t when the subject is ;i stranger ; but among ihenistlves they arc very d'soreot in the exorcise of this faculty. A few of the nu;n showed isome qnickneNS in interpreting the drift of our incjnirits respecting their superstitions and usages ; but for the insight we gained of these we weie usually indebted to the women — especially the youngtjr ones, who, besides being more conininnicative, dispLvyed more leadiness in this respect — for the first information, which, being afterwards confirmed by the older men, served as a clue to guide farther inquiry. A man seems to have unlimited authority in his own hut, but as, with few exceptions, his rule is mild, tlio domestic aiid social i)osi- tion of the women is one of comfoi t and enjoyment. As there is no affected dignity or importance in the men, they do not make mere shives and drudges of the women; on the contraiy, they endure their full share of fatigue and hardship in the coldest season of the year, only calling in the assistance of the women if tuo wearied themselves to bring in the fruits of their own industry and patience; and at other seasons the women appear to think it a piivation not to share the labours of the men'. A woman's ordinary occupations are sewing, the preparation of skins for making and mending, cooking, and the general care of the supplies of provisions. Occa- sionally in the wintev siie is sent out on the ice for a seal which her husband has taken, to which she is guided by his foot-marks; and in spring and summer she takes her ]ilj',i,'e in the boat, if recpnrod. Seniority gives precedence when there are several women in one hilt, and the sway of the elder in the directiorx of everything con- nected with her duties seems never disputed. In the superinten- dence of household aifuirs the active mother of the master t)f a hut or of his wife must bo a great acquisition to his family, from her expe- rience and from the care and interest she displays in their manage- ment ; and, as her natural desire is to see her children happy around her, she exerts herself to promote their well-being and harmony. It is said by themselves that the women are very continent before marriage., as well as faithful afterwards to their luisbands ; and this seems to a ceitain extent true. In their conduct towards strangers, the elderly women frequently exhibit a shameless want of modesty, and the men an equally shameless inditVerenco, except for the re- ward of their partner's frailty. In the neighbourhood of I'ort Clarence this is less the case than farther north, whilst on the Island of St. Lawrence it is, perhaps, more so than on any part of the coast. The state of wedlock is entered at a variable time, but seldom in extreme youth, unless as a convenience to the elders, who desire an addition to the household. The usual case is, that as soon as tiie i' \ r. i MARRIAGE. 253 ey arc 10 uieii ght wo iccially splaytnl wliicli, cluo to , but as, al i)Osi- jre is no ,ko nuu-o cntluvc (n of tlio wearioil laticnce ; ition not jupations mending, s. Occa- irliicli ber p-ks; and it«(i[uiiod. 11 in ono liing con- Ipevinten- of a hnt llier C'xpc- manage- \y aiunnd linony. |nt before , and t\»is Itiangers, |niodesty, tlio vc- of Tort lie Island Iho coast, loldoni in lu) dessiro Ln as the young man desires a partner, and is able to support one, his mother selects a girl according to her judgment or fancy, and invites her to the hilt, where she first takes the part of a "'kir-gak" or servant, having all the cooking and other kitchen duties to perform diiriiig the day, and returns to her homo at night. If her conduct provo satisfactory, she is further invited to become a member of the family, and this being agreed to, the old people jiresent her with a new suit of clothes. The intimacy between the young couple appears to spring up very gradually, and a great many changes take place before a permanent choice is made. Obedience seems to bo the great virtue required, and is enforced by blows when necessary, until the man's authority is established. In the ordinary coui-se of events life runs smoothly enough, and is only checked by a few lover's quarrels or fits of sulkiness ; but it occasionally happens that the husband finds his regard unrequited, and he either trusts to time to overcome her indifference, keeping a strict watch over her conduct, or he treats her with severity. The consequence of this is her re- turn to her friends, whither he may follow and drag her back to his hut. Kepeatetl occurrences of this kind may take place and end in permanent harmony ; but if his ti'eatment has been cruel, which it seldom is to their view, and her relatives not interested in enforcing the union, she is taken back and pi otected from his farther violence. We have been assured it sometimes happens that several men entertain a passion for the same woman, the result of which is a fight with bows and arrows, ending in the death of some of the aspii'ants, and she falls to the lot of the victor. A man of mature years chooses a wife for himself, and fetches her home, fre(iuent1y, to all appciirance, much against her will ; but she manages in a wonder- filly short time to got reconciled to her lot. A tmion once appa- rently settled between parties grown-up is rarely dissolved ; though we have seen a woman and her child residing with her relatives, having been deserted by her husband, for what reason couhl not be ascertained. The woman's property, consisting of her beads and other ornaments, her needle-case, knife, &o., are considered her own ; and if a separation takes place, the clothes and presents are returned, and she merely takes away with her whatever she has bi-ought. Unless she has proved an untameable shrew she need not be appre- hensive of remaining long single, as the proportion of aales to females in tho popuUition is more than eight to seven, besides which several of the leading men have each two wives. Bigamy is evidently looked upon as a sign of wealth, and is in many instances analogous to the adoi)tion of I'hildn.-n. Thus, if a man is a trader and well oil", he may re(juire the assistance of |il I ^ ' 254 MARRIAGE. ; a another woman to work npliis peltry into coats for the next market ; or his wife may bo nursing, and cannot well perform all the duties that usually devolve upon the mistress of a large establishment. Under such circumstances he may take home as an additional help- mate some elderly widow, and both parties will bo benefited by the arrangement. This is, however, not always tlie motive, and no little jealousy is sometimes excited by the introduction of a younger and better-looking woman to the establishment. The practice is, after all, nut very common, as only four men out of a population of near 290 at Point Barrow had each trvo wives. Theie were four also at Capo Smyth, where the population is smaller, and several at Point Hope. At the latter place one was particularly mentioned as having no less than five wives ; and although it is the only instance of polygamy we heard of, it serves to show that custom has put no limit to the number of wives a native of this country may have. The age at which the women are married is probably in general fifteen to sixteen. They do not commonly bear children before twenty ; and there is usually an interval of four years or more between the births. They relate, apparently with little hope of being believed, that some years ago a woman at Capo Smyth had two -children at one birth. For one woman to have borne seven children is a rare case, and for five to live to maturity still more rare. If any one in the ship were stated to be the ninth or tenth child of one family it excited their astonishment, and if to this it wore added that seven or eight of them were still alive, they became incredulous. A couple is seldom met with more than three of a family, though inquiry may elicit the information that one or several " sleep on the earth." From this, and the great care and in- dulgence with which those of tender years are treated, it may be inferred that the greatest mortality takes place under the fifth year, but it does not appear that there is any particular form of disease to which they are, before this age, peculiarly liable ; the condition of the mother,, however, according as the season is one of abundance or scarcity, has by their own account a material influence on the health of the offspring. During first pregnancy great solicitude has been observed on the part of the husband for his wife, although there is no reason to believe childbirth anything but easy. In the particular instance alluded to, from the delicate appearance of the woman it was fancied that c'^ry precaution was taken to guai'd against premature labour, three cases uf which came under notice in the last winter. Previous to proceeding farther with the usages and occupations of those people, it will be well to give some idea of their habitations. ESKIMO WINTER-nUT AT HOTHAM INLET. 255 )xt TOarket ; I the duties aWiwhruent. tional help- fited by the md no little younger and 5 is, after all, of near 290 also at Capo roint Hope. B having no of polygamy limit to the »ly in general ildren before ears or more little hope of Smyth had ) borne seven ity still more linth or tenth if to this it |l alive, they ire than three a that one or t care and in- jed, it may be lie fifth year, ■m of disease the condition of abundance ence on the iolicitude has ife, although iasy. In the [irance of the (.n to gtiard ider notice in jcupations of Ihabitutions. 5J^;\^^;>, A, Upright pUliira porting roof. B. Kntnince bole in floor. C Central space for cook Ing-flre. r>. Utiderground passage. K. Sleeping-pUict's. Stone lamps li. Ivors for pillows. 11. Walls of plank. I. Kartli uniliai\l iNTKIiTOU OF ESKIMO WiNTEP-IhT AT IIimHAM Im.KI 266 ESKIMO HUTS AT POINT BARllOVV. The winter Inits at Point liarrow aro not placed with any regard to order or regularity, but form a scattered and confuKC-i group of grassy nioiindH, eaoVi of which generally covers two separate dwel- lings, with separate entrances ; some, however, are single, and a few are threefold. Behind each are placed a nnmher of tall posts of driftwood, with othera fastened a(;ros8 them, to form a stage on which are kept small boats or kaiaks, skins, food, &c., above the lieight to which the snow may be expected to bank up in the winter, and beyond the reach of dogs. Those posts show out very plainly against the horizon in the winter, when everything beneath is covered with snow, and in all seasons may bo seen at a con- siderable distance, long before the huts themselves become visible. Tho entrance to each hut is from the south by a square opening at ono end of the roof of a passage twenty-five feet long, and has a slab of ico or other substance of convenient shape to close it at })leasure. Tlio passage, which is at first six feet high, descends gradually until about five feet below the surface of the ground, becoming low and narrow before it terminates beneath the floor of the hut. Near its middle on one side branches off a recess, ten to twelve feet long, with a conical roof open at the top, forming an apartment which serves as a cook-house, and on the other is com- monly enough a similar place, used as a store or clothes' room. The " iglu " or dwelling-place is entered by a round aperture in the floor on tho side next the passage, and is a single chamber of a square form, varying in size from twelve to fourteen feet from north to soiith, by eight to ten from east to west. 1'he roof has a double slope of unequal extent, that on the south side being the larger, with a square opening or window, covered with a transparent membrane stretched into a dome-shape by two pieces of whalebone arched from corner to comer, and is generally a little more than five feet high under the ridge. The smaller part of the roof has between it and the floor a bench, on which a part of the family sleep at night, and sit or lounge during the day. Tho walls are of stout planks, placed perpendicularly, close at tho seams and carefully smoothed on the inside ; the floor and sleeping-bench are the same, whilst overhead are small ronnded beams, also smoothed and scraped, sustaining the weight of the earth heaped on top. As the bench and the sleeping-place beneath do not in many in- stances exceed four feet from the wall to tho cross-beam at the edge, which serves as a pillow, the occupants cannot be supposed to lie at full length, but this limited extent of the bed-place gives greater space in the other part of the hut, which is thus left nearly square, and is generally occupied by the women sewing or perform- ■S-h- FURNITUUE AND T'TKXSILS. 2:.7 regard roup of I, and a ,11 posts stii^o on (ovo tho in the out very beneath t a con- visible, loning at 11(1 lias a .oso it at descends ground, e floor of ss, ton to )rming an ing other household duties. The ontrarioo and bed-plico are at opposite ends; and on either hand is an oil-burner or fireplace, having a slondisr rack of wood suspended (A'er it, on which artielos of clothing are placed to dry, also a bloek of snow to melt and drip into a largo wooden vessel. I'enouth tho last agaitj are other vessels for ditferont purposes, some of them fre(£uently containing skins to undergo preparation for being dressed. These vessels are each made of a thin board of the breadth recpiired, bent into th-- form of n hooj), and tiio ends sowed together neatly with strips of whalebone, the bottoui being retained in its place by a score like the end of an ordinary cask. The oil-burner is the most curious, if not the most important piece of furniture in the establishment. It is purchased ready made from the eastern Eskimo, who procure it from a more distant people. It is a flat stono of peculiar shape, three to fotir and a half feet long, and four inches thick, pointed at tho ends by the union of the two unequally convex sides somewhat like tho gibbons moon. Tho upper suiface is hollowed to the depth of throe- (juarters of an inch to contain tho oil, leaving merely a thin lip all round, and several narrow ridges dividing tho hollow part botli lengthwise and transvei'sely. It is placed on two horizontal pit-ces of wood fixed in the side of tho hut, about a foot from the floor, with tho most convex side towards the wall, tho other being that where a broad flame of any extent required is sustained from whale or seal-oil V)y means of dry moss for wicks. When the length of one side of a lamp of this description is considered, it will readily bo conceived that not only a g(Kjd light but also a great dual of heat may be produced, so that tho temperature of a hut is seldom below 70'^ of Fahr., though we have hardly ever seen a flame of moie than a foot in extent ; and as great care is taken to keep it trimmed, no offensive degree of smoke arises, though tho olfactories are saluted on first entering by a combinati«m of scents anything but agreeable. Ventilation is not altogether neglected, as there is near the middle of the roof a hole in which a funnel of stiff hide is inserted to carry off the vitiated air from the interior of the hut. When the place is much crowded or the temperature too high, a corner of the mem- brane can be raised; but we have seen it more speedily effected by tho master of a house at Nu-wuk, in his impatience to contribute to onr comfort, by making an incision with his knife through the middle of it — a proceeding which did not seem to be entirel}' approved of by his wife, to whose lot it would doubtless fall to repair it. Such are the usual habitations on the coast of the Arctic Sea ; but there are also others of a greater extent and different form, one of 258 HUTS IN KOTZEBUE SOUND. which near tho entrance of Ilotham Tnlot, Kotzebuo Sound, is worth mention in ji^, more particnhirly oh it l)ears some roseniblanco to one described l)y Sir John Ificliardson, on tho east side of tho Mackenzie lliver, Tlie ontside did not diH'er in appearance from tho others, except in size, as indeed they were all pretty well covered with snow, biit the interior was in shape something like three sides of a cross, twenty feet by sixteen, with a roof sloping down on all sides, like that of a verandah, from a square framework in tho centre, supported by four straight pillars, one at each corner, seven foot high and eight feet apart. The quadrangular space in the centre was covered with loose boards, which were removed when the firo was requiied for cooking. It was bounded by logs stretching between the bases of tho pillars, and rounded on the upper surface to rest tho head upon during sleep, and had above it the usual square aperture answering alternately the purpose of a chimney and a window. Three sides of tho house formed as many recesses, five and a half foot from tho log stretching between the pillars to tho walls, and were occupied at the time of our visit by six families, each family having their own lamp in the intervals between the recesses. Tho fourth side was only two feet deep, and left space for littlo more than tho entrance-hole in the floor and a few household utensils. Tho walls were only three feet high, and inclined slightly inwards the better to support the sloping roof, which, like them and the flooring of the recesses, was made of boards nearly two feet broad, quite smooth and neatly joined. The whole building was lemarkable for the regularity of tho form of tho interior, and for the mechanical skill displayed in tho work- manship. Hixts of this description may be looked upon as a com- bination of several, each recess representing a separate establish- ment, united in this form for mutual convenience, and are used where driftwood is abundant, the largo cooking-fire in the middle (>f the building imparting its warmth to all around. But the rushing down of cold air, and tho smoke not always ascending, proved sources of greater discomfort to us whenever we visited them than the close atmosphere of those in which oil only is burned. A modification of the last form, built of undressed timber, and sometimes of very small dimensions, with two recesses opposite each other, and raised about a foot above the middle space, is very common on tho shores of Kotzebue Sound ; but on the rivers, where trees grow, structures of a less permanent kind are erected. Then tho smaller trees are felled, cut to tho length required, and split; then laid inclining inw^ards in a pyramidal form, towards a rude SNOW HUTS. UTIIEII nUILDINGS. '>.*»«) •*•'*.' , iB worth CO to »»nu lackcn/-io bo othovH, )recl with sklos of a 1 all sides, do centre, Bovon feet centre was ,0 fire was ig between ace to rest iual square ney anil a cesses, five lars to the ix families, etween the p, and left floor and a , feet high, loping roof, as made of atly joined, of the form n the work- as a com- e establish- id are used the middle But the aecending, we visited oil only is timber, and les opposite lace, is very Ivors, where ]ed. Then and split; lards a rude 1 square frame in the centre, supported by two or more upright posts. Upon those the smaller branches of the felled trees are placed, and the whole, except the aperture at the top and a small opening on one side, is covered with earth or only snow. The entrance is formed of a low porch, having a black bear-skin hanging in front, leading to a hole close to the ground, through which an unpractised person can hardly creep, farther protected from the breeze by a flap of deer-skin on the inside. In tlie hilly districts, near the source of the Spafaroif Kiver, this sort of snow- covered hut was in use, and the inland tribes on the Nu-na-tak, are described as living in dwellings of a similar kind, constructed of small wood, probably built afresh every year, and not always in the same locality. A stranger approaching a village of this description, if the numerous footmarks happened to be obliterated by a recent drift or fall of snow, might readily pass by unconscious of its existence, unless he happened to catch a glimpse of the black bear- skin doors, which are all turned in the one direction. Snow or ice huts are seldom used except for short intervals, and they are then made very small, consisting of two chambers, the (mter one of which serves as a cook-house, and is entered from above by an opening closed at pleasure by a slab of snow. The communication between this and the inner one is by a passage close to the floor, no larger than necessary for one person to creep through. The roof of the inner apartment is about five feet high, with a window facing the south, having beneath it a small lamp and rack for drying clothes ; and on one side the snow is raised two feet from the ground, and covered with boards, on which the skins are laid to form the bed. In fixed settlements, like those of Point Barrow or Cape Smyth, there are other buildings which seem public, though nominally the property of some of the more wealthy men. In the former of theso places there are two still in existence, and in the latter three. The largest is at Nu-wuk, and is eighteen feet by fourteen, built of planks stuck upright in the ground, and the crevices filled up with moss. The roof is similar to that of the other huts, only higher, and there is no sleeping bench within, but a low seat all round the four walls. It has the usual subterranean passage ibr entrance, but the window in the roof is often used as a door. Uulike the other huts, they are placed on the highest ground, and aro readily distinguished by not being built around, or covered with earth. Tliey are altogether constructed with little care, and evidently for only occasional use. A house of this description is called a Kar- ri-gi, and used by the men to assemble in for the purpose of T IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ^ k 1.0 nil I.I 1^12^8 |2.5 1^ liii 12.2 lio IIIII2.0 L8 11-25 mil 1.4 IIIIII.6 V] n 7 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WiSV MAIN STRUT WIBSTM.iJV. M'5tf (716) •72-4505 260 SUMMER TENTS. SEASONS. dancing, in which the women join, for working, conversing and idling, whilst the boys are unconsciously learning the custonis and imbibing the sentiments of their elders. In summer they live in conical shaped tents of deer or seal-skins, according as they are inland or coast people. Four or five poles, from twelve to thirteen feet long, slung together by a stout thong passing through holes in their tops, are spread out to the proper size, and within them, at a mark on each, about six feet from the ground, a large hoop is fastened. Smaller poles are then placed between the others in a circle on the ground, and leaning against the hoop to complete the frame of the tent. The skins are in two parts, each having a long comer sewed into a sort of pocket to fit the top of th6 long poles, over which one is placed above the other from opposite sides, so as to surround the whole framework, and allow the edges of one set of skins to overlap those of the other, and be secured by a few thongs. A large flap is sometimes cut in one side to form a window, fitted with a transparent membrene, over which the flap of skin may be replaced as a blind during sleeping-time. A tent of this kind is called a " tu'-pak," and makes a very comfortable summer abode, one side of which can be kept open to any extent, according to the weather : it is easily trans- ported, and may be set up or taken down in an incredibly short time. Comment ing with the first new moon after the freezing-over of Elson Bay, which took place on the 24th of September, 1852, and on the 16th of September, 1853, the Point Barrow people divide the year into four seasons, which they call O'-ki-ak, including October, November, and December ; O'-ki-ok, January, February, and March ; O-pen-rak'-sak, April, May, and part of June ; and 0-pen-rak', the remaining part of June, together with July, August, and Septem- ber. The successive moons, to the number of twelve, are also named by them, evidently in reference to their own occu- pations, to the phenomena observable in the season itself, or in animals, such as their migrations, &c., though we have been able to make out the precise meaning of only a few of them. These vary a little in diftbront localities; but the setting-in of the winter being taken as the beginning of the year in all parts of the country, and the summer moons being but little noticed, no confusion seems to result. Taking them as they occurred in the last season, 1853-4 each tad'-kak or moon was given us as follows. I. 1863, Oct. 2, Shud'-le-wing, sewing. II. „ Nov. 1, Shud'-le-wing ai-pa, sewing. III. „ Nov. 30, Kai-wig'-win, rejoicing. SEASONS. TIME. 2r>i jg and iiiB ami il-sWns, 3 poles, it thong > proper 'rom tbe II placed r against B in two jet to fit the other vork, and the other, les cut in aemhrane, ad during md makes ui he kept sily trans- aibly short IV. „ Dec. 30, Au-lak'-to-win, departing (to hunt the reindeer). V. 1854, Jan. 28. Ir'-ra shu'-ga-run sha-ke-nat'-si-a, great cold (and) new sun. yi. „ Feb. 27, E-sek-si-la' wing. VII. „ Mar. 28, Kat-tet-a'-wak, returning for whale (from hunting ground). VIII. „ April 27, Ka-wait-piv'-i-en, birds arrive. IX. „ May 26, Ka-wai-a-niv'-i-en, birds hatched. X. „ June 25, Ea-wai'-lan pa-yan-ra'-wi-en, (young) birds fledged. XI. „ July 25, A-mi-rak '-si-win. XII. „ Aug. 23, It-ko-wak'-to-win. As the new moon of September falls on the 21st of the month, it will require an early setting-in of the winter to make that the first moon of the next year. For denoting time they also have expressions equivalent to yes- terday, to-day, to-morrow, morning, afternoon, evening, Ac, but these are not by any means precise ; and in speaking of events a year or more past, they use two terms, ai-pa'-ne, which seems properly to mean two years ago (ai'-pa, two), but may bo as readily applied to twenty ; and al-ra'-ne, in the olden time, which is exceed- ingly indefinite. They have frequently declared that they keep no account of the years as they roll, and " never number them, as they do not write like us," so that it is next to impossible to got any- thing like exact dates from them. In describing the direction of any distant place they are equally vague, using the term a-wa'-ne, westward, or along the coast towards Icy Cape or Point Hope ; ka-wa'-ne, eastward, or towards the Colville or Mackenzie rivers ; pa-ne, south, or landward ; and u-na'-ne, north or seaward. The seasons, as mentioned above, seem to guide them almost instinctively in their different occupations ; and it will not perhaps be amiss to enumerate the principal ones which employ their time throughout the year. In the month of September they have almost all assembled at the winter huts, amongst which they pitch their seal-skin tents, living in them in preference to the yet damp underground ig-lu's, and are constantly on the look-out for whales, killing also a few walrus, bears, and seals, until the winter has fairly set in, and tho sea become shut up with ice, which generally takes place about the middle of October. During this time most of the women remain in comparative idleness at home, " as it is not good for them to sew while the men are out in the boats ;" but so soon are these are T 2 i'ii 262 EMPLOYMENT OF TIME. laid-up for the winter, the sewing, together with cleaning the skins, commences, and is most industriously carried on for two months following. The men are now also engaged in setting nets under the ice for seals, in catching small fish with hook and line through holes in the ice, or in preparing implements used at other seasons. As midwinter approaches, the new dresses are completed, and about ten days at this season are spent in enjoyments, chiefly dancing in the kar-ri-gi, every one appearing in his or her best attire. This time of the year being one in which hunting or fishing cannot well be attended to, and no indoor work remaining to be performed, is perhaps sufficient reason why it should bo chosen for festivities in the high latitude of Point Barrow, when the sun is not visible for about seventy days ; but it may not equally explain the prevalence of the same custom about the same period in Kotzebue Sound, lat. 66°, when the reindeer might be successfully pursued through- out the winter, the people then collecting from many miles around, to hold a festival in the neighbourhood of Cape Kruzenstern. The amusements being concluded, a few set out early in January ; but it is later when the larger parties take their departure for the land in search of deer, scattering themselves over the flat ground at a variable distance of three to eight or ton days' journey from the village, and hollowing out dwellings in the deep snow-drift under the banks of the rivers, through the ice of which they make holes for catching fish by nets and for obtaining a supply of water. This occupies the majority of the people until April, the few who remain at home receiving supplies from time to time, besides spearing a few seals by watching for them as they come to breathe through the cracks in the ice ; or, if it is not in a favourable state for this near the shore, they make snow-houses to live in among the grfjunded masses in the offing. Having brought home the spoils of the chase, in the end of April they commence preparing their boats for launching and the implements used in capturing the whale, which gives employment for the men. The women are now also busily engaged in making watertight seal-skin boots and other articles of dress appropriate for summer wear. Towards the end of May, birds, chiefly eider and king-ducks, engage much attention from the whole population as they pass over the village northward, in rapidly succeeding flights of one to two hundred birds, alter- nately male and female. The whales having disappeared and the birds passed, a short interval is allowed to prepare dresses for another festival, which takes place in the end of June, and occupies six or eight days, when the dancing is performed in the open air. Early in July more than one-third of the community take their DEPENDENCE ON SUCCESSFUL FISHING. 263 departure in a body to the eastward, to make the long journey to Colville Biver, and to Barter Point, many of the others following in small parties to scatter themselves over the land in search of deer, and over the lakes and rivers for birds and fish. About one-fourth of the population remains at the village, catching abundance of small seals, but chiefly looking out for those of a larger size, and walrus, until the whales re-appear in the end of August, soon after which, most of the travellers return from their wanderings to com- mence another year. At midsummer, when the sun has been some time above the horizon, the snow becomes soft and the rivers begin to flow, so that travelling or the pursuit of game is too fatiguing to be successfully carried on ; this season, therefore, like midwinter, becomes necessarily one of comparative idleness, or is only spent in amusement. Such is a brief sketch of the ordinary annual routine of the occu- pations of the Eskimo of Point Barrow ; but it is to be remarked that unusual success or the reverse in hunting or fishing, more especially as regards the whale, must always modify it in a great degree. Thus, in 1852, no less than seventeen whales were said to have been taken, sufficient to aflbrd the poorest and most im- provident abundance of food and fuel for the winter ; and '>n the succeeding spring, out of their superabundance of deer, a very con- sidemble number was brought to the ship for barter ; whilst, in 1853, only seven whales, and those mostly small ones, were killed, giving rise to such want of the necessaries of life in tho last winter that many families were obliged to use the decayed flesh and blubber of a dead whale which had been stranded on Cooper's Island, about twenty-five miles distant, more than two years before, and had remained up to this time neglected. But even this resource failed them, and many, as has been before mentioned, perished of famine. In the former year, at midwinter, feasting and dancing were constant for nearly a fortnight, and during October, November and December, the number of seals offered for sale at the Plover was very great ; but in the latter they had noue of these amusements, at least in public, as they had not oil enough to spare fur warming and lighting up the dance-huts, and up to July only a few sci-aps of seal were brought to the ship. The want of oil also prevented some of the most wealthy men from going to hunt the deer in the winter ; and consequently none but a few pounds of venison were brought to the ship for barter, the supply being hardly adequate to their own wants. From some of the more intelligent men, it appeais that they consider the Itist season one of uncommon privation, and that of ill " 264 TRAVELLING. 1852-3 was one of unusual abundance. Tracing back the years on the fingers, with some patience, it could be made out that in 1861-2 whales abounded, in 1860-1 the narwhal supplied the place of whale, giving them plenty of food and skins for covering their boats. 1848-9 was one of scarcity, as was also 1843-4. This, so far as it may be depended on, makes three successive fifth years to be seasons of unusual hardship. In 1837, Mr. T. Simpson remarked the number of fresh graves on Point Barrow, but no ^satisfactory account of the season preceding that could be obtained, and it was too remote to be recalled with anything approaching certairty by even those who remembered that gentleman's visit. Having cleared out most of the furniture from the ig'-In, and filled up the window with pieces of timber and other lumber placed on their ends, so as also to obstruct the eutrance-holo in the floor, the um'-i-ak or large boat is put upon a sledge, u'-ni-ek, when it is secured by a few cords or thongs, and in it are stowed the summer tent with all its furniture, the baggage of the whole family, the children and old people, together with the kayaks or canoes, and all their fittings belonging to the men and boys of the party, making a very considerable weight to drag. On a low sledge, ka-mo-tik, of a stouter structure, are generally carried their seal- skins, filled with oil for barter. The party consists on the average of six persons, four of whom are generally all who can drag, and are distributed, three to the largo sledge, and one to the ka-mo-tik. If they possess dogs, these are distributed also to assist where most required, and there appears to be as much care taken as possible to adapt the load to the strength of each individual. The ice at this season is much decayed and uneven from the formation of pools on its surface, and the labour of dragging a heavy load on a sledge is very great ; but, fortunately for them, it seldom lasts more than four or five days, during which they appear to travel at the rate of ten miles a day. Fourteen parties, with as many boats (the aggre- gate number of souls being seventy-four), passed the ship in this way on the 8d of July last, which is four days earlier than in the preceding summer. On the fourth day they arrive at Dease Inlet, which, from the rivers flowing into it, is then a sheet of water, and the mode of transport is reversed, the sledge being now carried in the u-mi-ak, and the small boats towed. In favourable seasons the journey may be continued by paddling or tracking the boat along the shore, between wHich and the ice there is generally a narrow lane of water, until they arrive at Smith's Bay. Here the laborious part of their journey is sure to end ; the sledges are left behind, and to make room in the large boat fur the oil-skins, the men get TRAVELLING. 265 into thoir kayaks. They outer a rivor which conducts them to a lake, or rather series of lakes, and descend another stream which joins the sea in Harrison Bay, within a day's journey and a half of the Colville. Whilst passing these streams and lakes they are enabled to supply themselves abundantly with fish of large size by nets ; a few birds are also taken, and occasionally a deer. About the eleventh day they encamp on a small island, within half a day's journey of the bartering place, and the different parties probably wait for each other there to enter the river in company. The Colville Kiver is described as having four mouths, the western of which is very shallow, but the second is a good deep channel, and is therefore followed until they get into the un- divided stream, on the left or west bank of which they see the tents of their friends, the Nu-na-tang'-meun. Six, eight, or ten days, for precise numbers could not be obtained, are spent in bartering, dancing, and revelry on a flat piece of ground on which the tents of the two parties are ranged opposite each other between two slight eminences, about a bow-shot apart. The scene is looked forward to by every one with pleasant anticipations, and is spoken of as one of such great excitement that they hardly sleep during the time it lasts. About the 26th of July this friendly meeting is dissolved, the Nu-na-tang'-meun ascejiii. • *h<^ Colviiio homewards, and the others descending its eastern mcutn u, ^"^^e their journey to O-lik'-to, Point Berens. In consequence of i Qv't occupying a great deal of time in hunting to provide supplies for the remainder of the journey, they spend four or five days in this short distance, which does not exceed twenty miles. Proceeding from Poii^t Berens they travel four sleeps, as marked in .red ink on the chart, to a place called Ting-o-wai'-ak (Boulder Island of Franklin), where the tents are pitched and the women and children left. Three boats are then selected, and additional benches placed in each for the accommo- dation of its crew, now increased to fifteen, including one or two women. The fifth sleep is within a short distance of Barter Point, from which they start prepared for a hostile or a friendly meeting, as the case may be, but it is uniformly the latter, at least of late years. The conduct of the Point Barrow people in their inter- course with those of the Mackenzie, or rather Demarcation Point, seems to be very wary, as if they constantly kept in mind that they were the weaker party, and in the oountry of strangers. They describe themselves as taking up a position opposite the place of barter on a small island to which they can retreat on any alarm, u^d cautiously advance from it making signs of friendship. They 266 ESKIMO TRADING. say that great distrust was formerly manifested on both sides by tlio way in which goods were snatched and concealed when a bargain was made ; but in later years more women go, and they have dancing ai 1 rmusements, though they never lemain long enough to sleep .I^ere. They state that on leaving Barter Point the wind is always easterly, and making sail on their boats, they can go to sleep. On the first day they pick up the women and children with their tents, and return to Point Bercns on the second. They now cross Harrison Bay in a direct line before the breeze to Cape Halkett,about the lOthof Augu8t, some taking the route through the rivers by which they had gone eastward, and others proceeding along the sea coast. Should the previous whaling season have been successful, they spend the time until September in fishing and catching deer ; but should the opposite have been the case, they make no delay beyond what is necessary for procuring supplies to bring them back to Ku-wiik, in order to make up in the ai tumn for the deficiency of the summer. The traffic, which is the main object of this yearly journey, has been already alluded to, but some more details of it may not prove uninteresting. At the Colville, the Nu-na-tang'-meun offered the goods procured at Se-su'-a-ling on Kotzebue Sound from the Asiatics, Kokh-lit' en'-yu-in, in the previous summer, consisting of iron and copper kettles, women's knives (o-lu'), double-edged knives (pan'-na), tobacco, beads, and tin for making pipes; and from their own countr}'men on the Ko'-wak Kiver, stones for making labrets, and whet^toneK, or these ready made, arrow-heads, and plumbago. Besides these are enumerated deer and fawn-skins, and coats made of them, the nkin, teeth, and horns of the im'-na (argali?), black fox, marten, and ermine-skins, and feathers for arrows and head-dresses. In exchange for these, the Point Barrow people (Nu-wung'-meun) give the goods procured to the eastward the year before, aud their own sea-produce, namely, whale or seal- oil, whalebone, wah"us-tusks, stout thong made from walrus-hide, seal-skins, &c., and proceed with their new stock to Point Barter. Here they offer it to the Kan'g-ma-li en'-yu-in, who may be called for distinction Western IVlackenzie Eskinio, and receive in return, wolverine, wolf, imna, and nai-whal skins (Kil-lel'-lu-a), thong of deer-skin, oil-burners, English knives, small white beads, and latterly guns and ammunition. In the course of the winter occasional trade takes place in these with the people of Point Hope, but most of the knives, beads, oil-burners, and wolverine-skins, are taken to the Colville the following year, and, in the next after, make their appearance at Kotzebue Sound and on the coast of Asia. ESKIMO TRADING. 2(37 From what we know positively of the trade thus far, we are inclined to believe there is a tolerably regiilar yearly communica- tion between each Eskimo tribe and their neighbours of the same race on either side. It seems highly probable the pan'-na, or double-edged knife, described by Sir W. E. Parry as in use among the tribe he met at Winter Island, may have been of Siberian origin, from being of the same form and identical in name with that brought by the Asiatics to Hotham Inlet, where they receive in return oil-burners, or stone lamps, which we have often seen in their tents in 1848-9, of a shape corresponding exactly with the drawing in that gentleman's journal of his second voyage ; they bear also a similar cme, kod'-lan, and are said to be brought from a very distant eastern country. Supposing a knife of this kind made in Sibi ria, to be carried at the usual rate, we compute it would not arrive at Winter Island before the sixth year, and, having been exchanged the year before for a stone lamp, this might come into the hands of the Asiatics on the ninth. The knife would remain the first winter in the possession of the Reindeer Tuski (or Tsau'-chu), the second with the inland Eskimo, Nu-na-tang'- meun, the third at Demarcation Point with the Kang'-ma-li-moun, the fourth with the East Mackenzie or the Cape Bathurst tribes, and on the fifth possibly fall into the hands of the people who make the lamps. The lamp, returning the same way, would remain the sixth winter at Gape Bathurst, the seventh at Demarcation Point, the eighth at Point Barrow, the ninth in the interior, and be received by the Asiatics on the following summer. For a very large portion of our information, we have been in- debted to a man called Erk-sin'-ra, who has sustained a most ex- cellent character throughout the whole time the Plover remained at Point Barrow. He drew the coast-line eastward as far as he knew it, giving the names of many places, some of which he described so minutely as to be undeniably identified with those mentioned in Sir J. Franklin's journal, and laid down in his chart. Erk-sin'-ra's coast-line has been drawn in red, parallel to that copied from the Admiralty chart, and a dotted line marks each place where the two were made out clearly to correspond. What seemed to us most singular was, that whilst his description of the coast agreed 80 minutely in many particulars with the narrative and chart of Messrs. Dease and Simpson, he denied the existence of the Pelly MounttUns, and maintained most positively that there are no hills on the west side of the Colville visible from the sea ; and at length said, " We never saw them, but perhaps you might with your long spy-glasses." He was the head man of the first party Commander 268 EXTENT OF TRAVELLING. Pullen mot at Puint Borons on the 11th of AuguHt, 1849, and gave O'-lik-to as the namo of the place where tho post wan erocted. By a letter dated H.M.S. Investigator, 8th of August, 1850, rocoived from a native of Point Barrow, to whom it had been given at Puint Drew, that ship must have passed Point Berens on the 9th or 10th of August, when she aleo was seen by Erk-sin'-ra. As he was on both those occasions on his return frum that bartering-place, tho iirst week in August may bo confidently assumed as the usual timo of tho two tribes mooting at Barter Point. Among the few remarkable features of this dreary coast is a large stone, about four sloops from Point Barrow, near Point Tangent, giving the name of Black Rock Point to tho projecting land oft* which it lies. It is mentioned by Mr. J. Simpson as the only stone of largo size he met with on this part of his journey. The natives assert it is a '* fire stone," and fell from the sky within the memory of people now living. No ono saw it fall ; but one woman, about sixty years of ago, said she travelled that way yearly as a girl, when there was no stone there, and that in returning one summer, her people were much surprised to see it, and believed it had fallen from the sky. Should it prove a meteoric stone, the story of its age might be true enough ; but at present it is doubtful. It is said to enlarge and present a full rounded appearance at times, when deer are plentiful in the neighbourhood, as it feeds upon them, killing and devouring a great many at a time. No doubt those animals are instinctively guided in their migrations by particular states of the atmosphere ; and as tho tides are much influenced by tho winds, it is not impossible that they should most abound in that locality when the tide is low, giving an apparent increase to tho ijize of the stone. We were anxious to get the history of the " Old Huts," marked by Sir J. Franklin in longitude 140° 20' W., but could ascertain dist\:ctly no more than that they were the remains of an ancient Kang'-ma-li settlement. In connection with this, our informants gave an account of the modem origin of the trade at Barter Point, agreeing with that given by Sir J. Franklin, to the effect that it was established within the memory of people recently dead, whilst their intercourse with the inland pooplo by the Colville is of ancient date. But from their having traditions of the Eastern people relating to a remote period, we think it probable that it was only renewed in recent times, having been previously kept up by a tribe inhabiting the " Old Huts," whose parties visited tho Colville on the west, and met the Mackenzie people on the east of their own country. From the well-known hostility of the Ked Indians to tho EXTENT OF GEOGRAPUIOAL KNOWLEDGE. 269 EHkimos, it may bo oonjoctured that the sottlemont was doBtruyod by them and the inhabittints put to death ; and that after sonio time had elapsed, the poople of Point Barrow would be induced to extend their journeys eastward farther in search of those whose goods they had been aooustomod to receive, and at length meeting with other people, none of whom they had over before seen, the establishment of a regular trade, as at present existing at Barter Point, would bo the result. Point Hope is generally visited by parties in the winter, who perform the journey in fifteen to twenty days, returning to Nu-wiik at the end of two moons. From that Cape, therefore, to a little beyond Barter Point, a distance of about 600 miles, is the extent of coast with which the Point Barrow people are actually acquainted, and their personal knowledge of the interior may be said to extend to fifty miles. But besides this they also >.now, by report, the names of more distant countries and their inhabitants ; thus the people they trade with at Barter Point are called Ka'ng-ma-li cn'- gu-in, whose winter huts are probably at Demarcation Point ; among them they have occasionally seen a few Eo-pan'g>meun, Great River (Mackenzie) people, whom they distinguish by having a tattooed band across the face. Beyond the Mackenzie is a country called Kit-te-ga'-ru, and farther still, but very distant, one inhabited by the people wlio make the stone lamps before spoken of. So far they speak with confidence ; and then relate the story of a singular race of men living somewhere in that direction, who have two faces, one in front and the other at the back of the head. In each face is one lai^e eye in the centre of the forehead, and a large mouth armed with formidable teeth. Their dogs, which are their constant companions, are similarly provided with a single eye in each. This fable seems to refer to the tribe of Indians who are said by their neighbours to see the arrows of their enemies behind them. Of the Indians they know but little personally, having only seen a few on rare occasions ; but they appear to know them well by report, both from the Ka'ng-ma-li-meun and Nu-na-tan'g-meun. Under the general term It'-ka-lyi, they describe them as a dan- gerous people, well armed with guns, who reside in the moun- tainous districts far away to the south and east of the Colville. The inland Eskimo also call them Ko'-yu-kan, and divide them into three sections or tribes, two of which they know, and say they have different modes of dancing. One is called It'-ka-lyi, and inhabits the It'-ka-ling Biver, east of the Colville ; the second, It-kal-ya'-ru-in, whose country is farther south ; and the third, whom they have never seen, but only heard of as the people who 270 KXTENT OF QKOORAI'lIICAL KN()W[iEI)aF<:. Itartor wolvorino-HkiriH, knives, f^uiis, and ammunition to tlio FjHkimu at HorHohel Island, for RuHHian kuttles, boads, &u., to};othor with whalobono and other 8ea-[>r(>duco. ThoHo thn^u tribus, thoy further ttay, are all dresHod alike, and are fierce and warlike, but not cannibals like other Indians they have hoard of. 'I'hoy are, without doubt, tho mountain Indians to whom Sir ,f. Franklin makes frequent allusion in his narrative of his journey westward from the Mackenzie Kiver, a tribe who have had but little intercourse with the Hudson's Bay Company ; and Mr. J. Simpson, travelling the same coast in 1837, also mentions them as but little known. As the name Ko'-yu-kan, by which they are known at Point Darrow, is the same as that given to the tribe in whose treacherous attack on the Russian post at Darabin Lieu- tenant Barnard lost his life in 1851, and as some of their coasts and other portions of dress ofifered for sale at the Plover, in 1852, were of the same make and material as tho suit in the possession of Mr. Edward Adams of the Enterprise, the companion of Lieutenant Barnard, there can bo little doubt thev are one and the same people. If, as seems probable, they are aluo the same who destroyed the Hudson's Bay post in 1839, in latitude 58", thoy occupy a great extent of country between the Colville and Mackevizie Kivers, and range from near Sitka to the Arctic Sea. It is at all times desirable that groat caution should be u^sed in drawing inferences from mere sounds in an unwritten language which is but partially known, yet it seems worthy of remark, that the Eskimo word Kok, a river, if prefixed to the name Yu-kon, will bear a strong resemblance to the name Ko'-yu-kan, given by them to the Indians inhabiting the country through which the You-kon flows. They also know by report the people of Cape Prince of Wales, Kin'g-a-meun, and the Kokh-lit' en'-yu-in, Asiatics, who come to Kotzebue Sound yearly. Some traditions they have besides which refer to a land named Ig'-lu, far away to the north or north-east of Point Barrow. The story is, that several men, who were carried away in the olden time by tho ice breaking under the influence of a southerly wind, after many sleeps arrived at a billy country inhabited by a people like themselves who spoke the same language. They were well received and had whales'-flesh given them to eat. Some of the.<-e wanderers found their way back to Point Barrow, and told the tale of their adventures. After some time, during a spring when there was no movement in the sea-ice, three men set out to visit this unknown country, taking provisions on their backs ; and having performed their journey without mitihap, brought home confirma- tion of the previous accounts. Nothing further could be learned IDKAS RKarKOTlNO MOON AND STARS. 271 ) the , &o., three and ivd of. Sir J. concerning thin nortliern expedition except that each man wore ont three pair of moea88in boIch in the journey ; and Hince then there hiuj heen no communication with the Ig'-lun Nu'-na, but they believe some others who have been carried away on the ice may have reached it in safety. We could never find any who remembered having seen Euro- peans before Mr. J. Simpson's visit in 1837, but had heard of them as Ka-blu'-nan from their eastern friends ; more recently they heard a good deal of them from the inland tribes as Tan-ning or Tan '-gin. This probably refers to the Russians, who have regular bath days at their posts, and is derived from tan-ni'kh-lu-go, to wash or cleanse the person. They also apply other names to us, apparently of their own invention ; one is E-ma'kh-b'p sea men (this is the name of the largest of the Diomode Islandd , another is Sha-ke-na-ta'-na-meun, people from beneath the sun Cen'-gu-in a-ta'-ne Sha-ke'-nik) ; but the most common one . Nel lu-an'g- meun, unknown people (nel-lu-a'-ga, I do not know ^. To themselves they apply the word En-yu-in, people, i\>r> plural of C-nyu'k, a i crson of any nation, piofixing, when nouebsary, the name of their nu-na or country, as, Nu-wu'ng-meuii, that is, Nu-wu'k En'-yu-in, Noo-wook or Point Barrow people ; Ing-ga-lan'- da-meun, Englishmen. Lately those mat with in Grantley Harbour and Port Clarence have adopted the epithet Es-ki-mo'. In addition to the notice of the phases of the moon, they possess sufficient knowledge of the stars to point out their position in the heavens at particular seasons, and we believe ute them as guides sometimes in travelling. They look upon them as fiery bodies, as proved in their estimation by the fihooting stars, which they look upon as portions thrown oflF by the fixed ones. They form them into groups, and give them names, many of which they explain. The star Aldebaran, with the cluster of the Hyades, and other smaller ones around, are called Pa-chiikh-lu-rin, ** the sharing-out " of food, the chief star representing a polar bear just killed, and the others the hunters around, preparing to cut up their prize, and give each hunter his portion. The three stars in Orion's Belt are three men who were carried away on the ice to the south- ward in the dark winter. Tiiey were for a long time covered with snow, but at length perceiving an opening above them, they ascended farther and farther until they became fixed among the stars. Another group is called the " house building," f.n.^ represents a few people engaged in constructing an ig-lu, or winter hut. But perhaps their most complete myth refers to the sun and moon, who, they say, are Bistui* and brother. Given as we received it, 272 MYTH TOUCHING THE SUN AND MOON. it runs as follows:--" A long time ago, in a country far away to the eastward, called Pin'g-o, the people held a winter festival, when one of the women, tirf 1 of dancing, left the company and retired to rest in her own hut. Before she had gone to sleep, she perceived some one enter, who blew out the light, and lay down beside her. Being desirous to know who her stealthy visitor was, she smeared her hands with soot from the lamp within her reach, and secretly blackened his body, that she might know him again among the dancers. After he had gone, she returned to the dance-house, and peeping in, saw to her horror that the man whose person she had marked was her own brother. She retired in great grief to the open air ; but soon returning to the dance-house, she went into the middle of the assembly, and with a woman's knife (o-lu) cut off her loft breast, which she gave her brother, saying, ' All this it is good that you should eat." They then went out, and both ascended slowly towards the heavens in a circular path, he with his dog going first and she following, and when nearly out of sight separated, the man, by name Nol-lu-kat'-si-a Tad-kak, to become the moon, and his sister, Sigh-ra-a-na, to become the sun, still dripping with her own gore, as may be seen occasionally in cloudy weather, when she looks red and angry." The moon is considered cold and covered with snow, on the white surface of which may be traced at the full the figure of the man perpetually travelling with his dog, whilst the lady sun enjoys the warmth of an eternal summer." In some of their pursuits necessity compels the men of different establishments to combine their strength, as in taking the whale, and in such circumstances, some must take the lead. It would seem an easy step from this to the permanent ascendency of indi- viduals over the others, and some have accordingly considerable weight in the community ; but there is nothing among them resembling acknowledged authority or chieftainship. A man who hr,s a boat out in the whaling season, engages a crew for the time ; but while in the boat he does not appear to have any control over them, and asks their opinion as to where they should direct their course, which, however, they generally leave him to determine, as well as to keep the principal look-out for whales. The chief men are called Ome'liks (wealthy), and have acquired their position by being more thrifty and intelligent, better traders, and usually better hunters, as well as physically stronger and more daring. At the winter and summer festivals, when the people draw together for • This is not given as a literal translation, but wo believe it conveys the meaning, nigh'-e-ro. The Eskimo words are " ta-man'g-ma mam-mang-mang-an'g-ua BFXIEF IN SPIRITS. 273 onjoymonts, proficiency in mnsic, with general knowledge of the cnstoms and siiporstitions of their tribe, give to the most intelligent a further ascendancy over the mnltitude ; and this sort of ascen- dancy once established, is retained without much effort. As they combine to form a boat's crew to pursue a common prey, so will they nnito to repel a common enemy, but it is only when danger is common they will so unite ; their habits of life leaving them per- fectly free from the control of others, and making them dependent solely on their own individual exertions for a livelihood ; they are bound together as a society only by ties of relationship and a few superstitious observances, and have no laws or rules excepting what custom has established in reference to the spoils of the chase. It cannot be doubted that their Ome'liks have considerable in- flueuce, more especially over their numerous relations and family connections, and may use some art to maintain and extend it ; 3'et O-mig'-a-loon, the most influential man at Nu-wu'k, the samo who headed the party against Commander PuUen at Point Bcrens, after informing us that a lad of eighteen had deceived us, and got food by telling a false tale of distress, would not for some time repeat his statement in the presence of the youth. Invisible spirits (sing, tum'-gak ; plural, tum'-gain) people the earth, the air, and the sea; and to them they apply similar notions of equality, attributing to none superior power, nor have they even a special name for any that we could learn. These tum'-gain are very numerous, some good, some bad ; they are sometimes seen, and then usually resemble the upper half of a man, but are likewise of every conceivable form. Their belief in ghosts seemed proved by the circumstance that two young girls who left the ship in the twilight of a short winter's day, turned back in breathless haste on seeing a sledge set up on end near the path to the village. They told the story of themselves next day, saying they were frightened, having mistaken the sledge, which was not therein the daytime when they had passed, for a turn'-gak. They are concerned in the production of all the evils of life, i^nd whatever seems inexplicable is said to bo caused by one of thenr^ One causes a bad wind to blow, so that the ice becomes unsafe ; another packs the ice so close on the surface of the sea, that the whales are smothered ; and a third strikes a man dead in the open air, without leaving any mark on his body ; or a fourth draws him by the feet into the bowels of the earth. These are evil genii ; and the good ones are little better, as they are very liable to get offended and turn their backs on suffering humanity, leaving it at +he mercy of the worse disposed. Their dances and ceremonies are all intended to please, to cajole, or to frighten these 274 BELIEF IN SPIRITS. spirits. The most curious ceremony that came under observation was performed at the village in the course of the last winter, when food had become very scarce in consequence of the ice continuing very close from a long continuance of north-westerly winds. On the sea beach, close to one of the dance-houses, a small space was cleared, and a fire of wood made, round which the men formed a ring and chanted for some time, without dancing or the usual accom- paniment of the tambourine. One of the old men then stepped towards the fire, and in a coaxing voice tried to persuade the evil genius, from whose baleful influence the people were suffering, to come under the fire to warm himself. When he was supposed to have arrived, a vessel of water, to which each man present had contributed, was thrown upon the fire by the old man, and im- mediately a number of arrows sped from the bows of the others into the earth where the fire had been, in the full belief that no turn'- gak would stop at a place where he received such bad treatment, but would soon depart to some other region, from which, on being detected, he would be driven away in a similar manner. To render the efiect still greater, three guns were fired in different directions, to alarm the spirits of the air, and make them change the wind. For the same object they several times requested the ship's guns, eighteen-pounders, to be fired against the wind. When our poor friend O-mis-yu-a'-a-run, commonly called the water-chief, from having accused us of stealing the water from the village, was carried away with two others on the ice to near Cape Lisburne, in the beginning of the winter, his wife had a thin thong of seal-skin stretched in four or five turns round the walls of the ig-lu, and anxiously watched it night and day until she heard of her husband's fate. They believe that so long as the person watched for is alive and moves about, his turn'-gak causes the cord to vibrate, and when at length it hangs slack and vibrates no longer, he is supposed to be dead. Having heard something of the hourly observations of the movements of a magnet suspended by a thread in the observatory, the old dame sent Erk-sin'-ra to see if its move- ments had any connection with her husband's case. 1 '.under is a rare occurrence at Point Barrow, but not altogether unknown to its inhabitants, and they say the sound of it is caused by a man spirit, who dwells with his family in a tent far away to the north. This Eskimo representative of Jupiter Tonans is an ill- natured follow who sleeps most of his time ; and when he wakes up he calls to his children to go out and make thunder and lightning by shaking inflated seal-skins and waving torches, which they do with great glee until he goes to sleep again. BELIEF IN SPIRITS. 275 bservation iter, when jontintimg rinds. On space was Q formed a stial accom- len stepped de the evil mffering, to jnpposed to present had an, and im- e others into lat no turn'- d treatment, ich, on heing ;. To render nt directions, ige the wind. e ship's gtins, ly called the ■ater from the to near Cape a thin thong ^ walls of the |e heard of her )n watched for )rd to -vibrate, no longer, he [of the hourly .a hy a thread je if its move- aot altogether kt is caused by t away to the lans is an ill- he wakes up and lightning (rhich they do They do not entertain any clear idea of a future state of existence, nor can they apparently imagine that a person altogether dies. Although death is a subject they dislike to talk of, we have heard the sentiments of several upon this, and the nature of the soul. About the last they diflfer a good deal, but they all agree in looking upon death as the greatest of human evils, and would invariably " rather bear the ills they have, than fly to others that they know not of." The soul is a turn'-gak, they say, seated in the breast, or rather in the lungs, and seems closely allied to the breath ; from it emanate all thoughts, which as they rise the tongue gives utterance to. Even as to its unity they hold different notions, for one person told us a man had four turn' -gain in his breast; and another, that wherever a man went there was in the ground beneath him his " familiar spirit," which moved as he moved, and was only severed from him in death. However this may be, in death the body sleeps and the spirit descends into the earth to associate with those which have gone before, and subsists on bad food, such as roots, stones, and mosquitoes. In order not to offend the spirits of the departed, their bodies are wrapped in skins and laid on the earth beside others already there, with the head to the east at Point Barrow ; but for this direction there is no general rule. As his clothes and other portions of property he habitually used, including the sledge on which he was carried, would bring ill-luck to any one else who took them, they are left with the body in a torn or broken state, and the family to which he belonged keep within the hut for five days, not daring to work lest the spirits should be offended; and instances can be readily adduced where they believe death to have happened to persons who infringed the custom of mourning five days. Diseases are also considered to be turn'-gaks ; and so hurtful do they think the touch of a corpse, that it is unwholesome to smoke from the same pipe or drink out of the same cup with any one who was the wife, mother, or other near relative of a deceased person ; this, they say, is because these relatives from tending the sick person become tainted by his breath, and another by using the same pipe or cup might acquire the disease. John Simpson, Surgeon, R.N. u ( 276 > IV. REPOET OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. To the Council of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Your Committee, to whom was referred the annexed letter from the Royal Geographical Society, have agreed to the following Report : — 24th May, 1872. Sir, — The President and Council of the Royal Geographical Society, after a careful consiJ oration of a Report drawn up by a Committee of Arctic Officers ' belonging to their body, having come 'o the conclusion that the time has arrived for once more representing the important results to be derived from Arctic explo- ration to Her Majesty's Government ; 1 have been directed to request that the following remarks may be laid before the President and Council of the Anthropological Institute. In a letter to me signed by the late Mr. George E. Roberts, and dated May 8th, 1865, he was instructed to say that the Council of the Anthropological Society viewed with the deepest interest the prospect of an Arctic exploring expedition ; believing that great advantage to their science would ensue from such an undertaking. Strengthened by the willingness expressed by the Council of the Anthropological Institute to co-operate with the Royal Geographical Society in adopting such measures as might be considered advisable to induce Her Majesty's Government to accede to the proposal of fitting out an Arctic expedition, and by other expressions of cordial approval received from kindred scientific Societies, Sir Roderick Murchison brought the subject of North Polar exploration to the notice of the Duke of Somerset, then First Lord of the Admiralty, in a letter dated 19th of May, 1865 ; and the subject was discussed between his Grace and a deputation from the Council of the Royal > Sir George Back, Admiral GoUinson, Admiral Ommanney, Admiral Sir L. McGlintock, Admiral Richards, Captain Sherard Osboru, Mr, A. O. Findlay, Mr. Clements Markham (Sec). ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS OF AN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 277 Geographical Society, in an intei-view which took place on the 20th of .1 line in the same yenr. But at that time there was some difference of opinion among Arctic authorities on the subject of the best route to be adopted, and the Duke said that he would wish to be in possession of the results of the Swedish Expedition tlien enjiijaged in exploring Spitzhergon, and of other information, before ho could recommend an Arctic exploring expedition to the consideration of the Govern- ment. In consequence of the view taken by his G race, the Council of the Eoyal Geographical Society have carefully watched the results of expeditions undertaken by foreign countries, in order to be in a position to lecommend one route as undoubtedly the best, before again pressing the subject upon the attention of the Government. Seven years have now passed, and during that time additional experience has been accumulated by the Swedes and Germans, which has enabled the Council to form an opinion that justifies a renewal of their representation made in 18G5. The distinguished Arctic oflBcers who are Members of the Geographical Council, and who have carefully considered the evidence accumulated since 1865 in a special Committee, are now unanimously of opinion that the route by Smith Sound is the one which should be adopted with a view to exploring the greatest extent of coast-line, and of securing the most valuable scientific results. The conclusion thus arrived at. by authorities of such eminence has placed the Royal Geographical ""ociety in a position which will enable its Council to represent to jhe Government that the conditions are now fulfilled which the First Lord of the Admiralty deemed essential in 1865, before he could entertain the project of North Polar Exploration. I am, therefore, instructed to represent the very great importance of stating the scientific results to be derived from the exploitation of the unknown North Polar Eegion in full detail, even in a first pre- limiuPT-" communication to the Government. It is believed that the success of any representation will depend to a considerable extent on the force and authority with which that portion of it is prepared, which enumerates the scientific results to be derived from the pro- posed expedition. I am to request that you will submit these views to the President and Council of the Anthropological Institute, and that they will be so good as to cause a statement to be drawn up and furnished to the Council of the Eoyal Geographical Society, embodying their views, in detail, of the various ways in which the Science of Anthropology would be advanced by Arctic exploration. I enclose, for the information of the President and Council of the u 2 III 278 ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS Institute, copies of a Memorandum which has been prepared upon the subject, atul of the papers which were read by Captain Sherard Osborn in 18G5 and 1872, advocating a renewal of Arctic explo- ration. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, Clkmknts R. Maukham. To the Secretary of the Anthropological Institute. Report of the Arctic Committek' of the ANTimoroLoaiCAL Institute. The knowledge already acquired of the Arctic Regions, leads to the conclusion that the discovery of the unknown portion of the Green- land coasts will yield very important results in the science of Anthropology. Although biirely one-half of the Arctic Regions has been explored, yet abundant traces of former inhabitants are found throughout their most desert wastes, where now there is absolute solitude. These wilds have not been inhabited for centimes, yet they are covered with traces of wanderers or of sojourners of a by- gone age. Hero and there, in Greenland, in Boothia, on the shores of America, where existence is possible, the descendants of former wanderers are still to bo found. The migrations of these people, the scanty notices of their origin and movements that are scattered through history, and the requirements of their existence, are all so many clues which, when carefully gathered together, throw light upon a most interesting subject. The migrations of man within the Arctic zone give rise to questions which are closely connected with the geography of the undiscovered portions of the Arctic Regions. The extreme points which exploration has yet reached on the shore of Greenland, are in about 80° on the west, and m 7 'J*' on the eastern side ; and these two points are about 600 miles apart. As there are inhabitants at both these points, and they are separated by an uninhabitable interval from the settlements further south, it may be inferred that the, unknown interval further north is or has been inhabited. On the western side of Greenland it was dis- covered, in 1818, that a small tribe inhabited the rugged coast, between 76^ and 79" n. ; their range being bounded on the south by the glaciers of Melville Bay, which bar all progress in that direction j and on the north by the Humboldt glacier ; while the ' This Committee consisteil of Sir John Liibhock (PresiJent), Professor Busk, Captain Slierard Osborn, Captain BedffuJ Pim, Col. Lane Fox, Mr. Clements Markbam, Mr. Flower, and Mr. Brabrook. OF AN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 279 red upon I Sherard tic explo- UKHAM. [nstitute. ads to the lie Green- icience of sgions has are found s absolute :uries, yet s of a by- the shores of former |so people, scattered are all so row light m within lonnected le Arctic d on the n 7 '3" on es apart. ;eparated south, it is or has was dis- sd coast, he south in that hile the ssor Bnsk, Clements Sernik-soah, or great glacier of the interior, confines thoni to the sea-coast. These " Arctic Highlanders " number about 140 souls, and their existence depends on open pools and lanes of water throughout the winter, which attract animal life. Hence, it is certain that where bueh conditions exist man may be found. The question whether the unexplored coast of Greenland is inhrtbiteil, therefore, depends upon tho existence of currents and other con- ditions such as prevail in the northern part of BalHn's Bay. I'ut this question is not even now loft entirely to conjecture. It is true that the "Arctic Highlanders" told l)i*. Kane that they knew of no inhabitants beyond the Humboldt glacier, and this is the furthest point which was indicated by Kulli-hirua (tho native lad who was on board the Assistance) on his wonderfully accurate chart. But neither did the Eskimo of Upernivik know anything of natives north of Melville Bay until the first voyage of Sir John Eoss. Yet now we know that there either are or have been inhabitants north of the Humboldt glacier, on the extreme verge of the unknown region ; for Morton (Dr. Kane's steward) found the runner of a sledge made of bone lying on the beach on tho nT)rthern side of it. There is a tradition, too, among tho " Arctic Highlanders," that there are herds of musk-oxen far to the north, on an island in an iceless sea. On the eastern side of Greenland there are similar in- dications. In 1823, Captain Clavering found twelve natives at Cape Borlase Warren in 76° n. ; but when Captain Koldewey wintered in the same neighbourhood in 18G1) none were to be found, though there were abundant traces of them and ample means of subsistence. As the Melville Bay glaciers f^irm an impassable barrier, pieventing tho " Arctic Highlanilers " from wandering southwards on the west side ; so the ice-bound coast on the east side, between Scoresby's discoveries and the Danebrog Isles, would jirevent the people seen by Clavering from taking a southern course. The alternative is that, as they were gone at the time of Koldewey's visit, they must have gone north. . These considerations lead to the conclusion that there are or have been inhabibrnts in the unexplored region to the north of the known parts of Greenland. If this be the case, the istudy of all the characteristics of a people who have lived for generations in a state of complete isolation, would be an investigation of the highest scientific interest. Light may not improbably be thrown upon the mysterious wanderings of these northern tribes, traces of which are found in every bay and or every cape in the cheerless Parry group ; and these wanderings may be found to bo tho most distant waves of 280 ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS storms raised in far off centres, and among other races. Many circumstances connected with the still unknown northern tribes may tend to elucidate such inquiries. Thus, if they use the iglu they may bo supposed to be kindred of the Greenlanders; snow- huts will point to some devious wanderings fiom Boothian or American shores ; while stone yourta would indicate a march from the coast of Siberia, across a wholly unknown region. The method of constructing sledges would be another indication of origin, as would also be the weapons, clothes, and utensils. The study of the language of a long isolated tribe will also tend to elucidate qtiestions of considerable interest ; and its points of coincidence and diver- gence, when compared with Greenland, Labrador, Boothian, and Siberian dialects, will lead to discoveries which, probably, could not otherwise be made. Dr. Hooker has pointed out that the problem connected with the Arctic flora can probably be solved only by a study of the physical conditions of much higher latitudes than have hitherto been explored. In like manner, the unsolved puzzles con- nected with the wanderings of man within the Arctic zone may depend for their explanation upon the clues to be found in the conditions of a tribe or tribes in the far north. These are speculations which the results gained by Polar discovery would probably but not certainly, show to be well founded. But there are other investigations which would undoubtedly yield valu- able materials for the student of man. Such would be carefully prepared notes on the skulls, the features, the stature, the dimen- sions of limbs, the intellectual and moral state of individuals belonging to a hitherto isolated and unknown tribe ; also on their religious ideas, on their superstitions, laws, language, songs, and traditions ; on their weapons and methods of hunting ; and on their skill in delineating the topography of the region within the range of their wanderings. There are also several questions which need investigation, having reference to marks and notches upon arrows and other weapons, and to their pignification. A series of questions has been prepared by Dr. Barnard Davis, Mr. Tylor, Col. Lane Fox, and others, on these and other points,' attention to which would ' 1. Instructions of Dr. Barnard Davis. 2. Enquiries as to Eeligion, Mythology, and Sociology of Eskimo Tribes, by E. B. Tylor, Esq., p.r.s. 3. Enquiries relating to Mammalia, Vegetation, &c., by W. Boyd Dawkins, Esq., F.K.s. 4. Enquiries into Customs relating to War, by -Col. A. Lane Fox. 4a. Enquiries relating to certain Arrow-marks and otlier Signs in use among the Eskimos. 46. Enquiries relating to Drawing, Carving, &c., by Col. A. Lane Fox. 5. Enquiries as to Ethnology, by A. W. Franks, Esq, 6. Enquiries OF AN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 281 Many n tribes the iglu ; snow- hian or ch from metliod rigin, as [y of the [iiestions d diver- ian, and iould not problem aly by a lan have zles con- one may d in the iscovery ed. But eld valu- carefuUy e dimen- iividuals on their ngs, and on their le range lich need arrows uestions ane Fox, 3h would Tribes, by Dawkins, use among x. Enquiries undoubtedly result in the collection of much exceedingly valuable information. The condition of an isolated tribe, deprived of the use of wood or metals, and dependent entirely upon bono and stone for the con- struction of all implements and utensils, is also a subject of study with reference to the condition of mankind in the stone age of the world; and a careful comparison of the former, as reported by explorers, with the latter, as deduced from the contents of tumuli and caves, will probably be of great importance in the advancement of the science of man. For the above reasons there cannot be a doubt that the despatch of an expedition to discover the northern shores of Greenland would lead to the collection of many important facts, and to the elucidation of deeply interesting questions connected with anthropology. APPENDIX. QUESTIONS FOR EXPLORERS. {With Special Beference to Arctic Exploration.) 1. General. By J. Barnard Davis, m.d., f.r.s. 1. Names of Tribes, indicating their divisions, and at the same time marking any peculiarities of any kind which distinguish them. This will embrace Tribal marks. 2. Stature of Men and Women. — For this purpose the traveller should be provided with a measuring-tape or other instrument. Measure twenty-five of each, if he can. 3. Colours of Skin, Eyes, and Hair. — These are easily determined by Broca's Tables. 4. Hair, Texture of and Mode of Wearing. — Specimen locks, tied up separately and accurately labelled, if possible. 5. Deformations carefully observed and accurately described. Those of the heads of infants iTipressed in nursing, if any ; those of the teeth produced by chipping, filing, &c. ; those of the skin done by tattooing, incisions, scars, wheals, &c., correctly described. 6. Crania diligently collected. These should always bo procured as perfect as possible, never leaving, anything behind, particularly 6. Enquiries relating to tlie Fhybical Characteristics of tho Eskimo, by Dr. J. Beddoe. 7. Further Ethnological Enquiries, by Professor W. Turner. 8. Instructions suggested by Captain Btdfonl I'ini, h.n. 282 ETHNOLOGICAL HINTS not lower jaws and teeth. On collection, they should be at once marked with tribal name, in ink if possible, to prevent confusion. 7. Diseases. — Careful observations upon their names, natures, peculiarities, &c., and their modes of treatment, if they can be ascertained. 8. Careful Observations of the habits and modes of life of the people : their social, intellectual, and moral state. 9. Portraits, by drawing or photography, should not on any account be omitted, if attainable. 10. Articles of dross, implements, &c., should be collected. 11. Systems of Belationship. — (See ' Journal of Anthropological Institute ' (vol. i. p. 1), paper by Sir J. Lubbock, President.) 12. Language. — As complete a vocabulaiy as circumstances .will allow should be recorded. 2. — Enquiries as to Religion, Mytholoqy, and Sociology of Eskimo Tribes. By E. B. Tylor, Esq., f.u.s. 1. What ideas have they as to souls and other spirits ? What do they think of dreams and visions ? are they appearances of spirits ? Are trances, &c., set down to exit of soul? Are hysterics, convul- sions, &c., ascribed to demoniacal possession ? 2.. Does the soul continue to exist after death? is there any dif- ference made in the fate of souls ? and, if so, is the difference duo to their conduct in life ? Is there any transmigration of souls ? 3. Are there spirits in rocks, springs, mountains, &c. ? if so, what are their appearance, functions, and names ? 4. Are there any groat gods believed in (e.g., a sun god), &c. ? Especially is there one called Torngarsuk, or Great Spirit ? 6. What prayers, sacrifices, fasts, ceremonial dances, religious festivals, &c., have they ? G. What sorcerers or seers have thsy ? how brought up, and prac- tising what crafts ? What necromancy, divinations, and other magic arts have they ? 7. What legends of gods and heroes have they ? What stories which seem to relate to personified natural phenomena, sun, moon, &o. ? . 8. What actions and dispositions are considered good and bad, virtuous and vicious ? Does public opinion make much difference in treatment of virtuous and vicious? Are there any set laws and penalties ? what restraint is there on theft, murder, adultery, &c. ? Do acts count as criminal differently when done on a member of the tribe or ioreigners ? What is the native law or custom as to FOR ARCTIC EXPLORERS. 283 vengeance ? What are the laws or customs as to marriage, inherit- anco, and clanship? 9. What recognition of chiefship and what form of civil govern- ment can bo traced ? Are the old men rulers, and do the strong men displace them ? What in the treatment of women and children, and of the sick and aged ? prac- I magic stories sun, bad, ice in and t, &c.? Der of las to 3. — QuKsriONS relating to the Mammalia, the Veoetation, and the Hemains of Anciknt Races. By W. Boyd Dawkins, m.a., f.r.s. Where do the Eskimos obtain the ivory which they use for handles to their scrapers and for other purposes? Besides the walrus ivory they use the tusks of the mammoth : how do they know where to seek for these, and have they any legends in connection with them ? The conditions under which these tusks occur in the regions bordering on the great Arctic Sea are of the h'ghest importance as throwing light on similar remains in Northern and Central Europe. The bones and teeth of the smaller animals, which most probably occuf in the same strata as the mammoth ivory, should be preserved, for there is reason to believe that at a time comparatively recent, zoologically speaking, the climate of the extreme north was far less severe than now. The sources from which the Eskimos obtained their wood should be carefully ascertained. Is it drift-wood brought down by great rivers, like the Obi or the Mackenzie, fjom more southern latitudes ? or is it derived from ancient forests which once flourished where at the present time no trees will grow ? Have the Eskimos any legends relating to other lands than those in which they new live ; in other words, what was their golden age? Have the Eskimos any legends relating to the musk-sheep, Ovihoa moschatus ? 4. — ExguiRiES into Cusrojis Relating to War. By Col. Lane Fox. 1. Tactics — Have the tribes any disposition or order of battle ? are the young or the weak placed in front? are they courageous? have they any war cries, war songs, or war dances, and if so give a detailed account of them? Do they employ noise as a means of encourage- ment, or do they preserve silence in conflict ? Do they stand and abuse each other befoie fighting, or boast of their warlike achieve- ments ? Do they rely on the use of missile-weapons or liand -weapons ? have they any special disposition for these in battle ? have they any knowledge of the advantages of ground or position in battle, as sug- 284 ETHNOLOGICAL HINTS gested by Capt. Bocchey ? bavo tbey any sham fights with blnnt and pointlosH woaponH, kucIi aH aro doscribod ])y Vaiuuiuvor in Hawaii and amongst tho lIotttMitots? How is the march of a ])ariy con- ducted? do thoy move in a body with a broiid IVunt or in file, and do they send forward adviineed parties ? do thoy make night attacks ? have they any stratagems for concealing their trail from the enemy ? Have they any snperstitious customs or omens in connection with war, and if so give an account of them? Wlmt is tho meaning of tho custom of nhooting an arrow with a tuft of fiathers attached, mentioned by Capt. Boechey, and supposed to boa declaration of war? (tho custom of shooting an arrow towards an enemy as a declsiration of war fonnerly existed in Persia.) Do they employ treachery, concealment, or ambush, and if so, what is their usual mode of pro- ceeding? Are their dogs employed in war? Are their treaties with other tribes binding? Do they form alliances with other tribes, and if so, to what extent do they act in concert, atid under what leadership? Aro personal conflicts common between men of the same trib3, and if so, what is their usual mode of proceeding? 2. Weapans. — What are their war weapons? are the same wea- pons used in war and the chase? What is the exact nature of their defensive armour, especially that described as being made o pieces of wood fastened together ? Is the throwing-stick used in war ? what is the accuracy, range, and pencti ation of a lance pro- jected by this means ? is there any evidence of its being a more ancient weapon than the bow ? is it an indigenous weapon or derived from without ? What are the difficulties in the construction of the bow from tho absence of suitable elastic wood ? is the practice of giving elasticity to the bow by means of sinews attached to it an independent invention or derived from the Asiatic Continent? what is the accuracy, range, and penetration of the bow?' In what manner are the performances of their weapons handed down from father to son, as is said to be the case? What is the exact meaning of the marks scored on their arrows and their weapons (with draw- ing;s of them) ? Have they any means of giving a rotation to their arrows or other missile-weapons? Have they any regular systtm of training to the use of the bow and other weapons ? At what age do the children commence the use of the bow ? Are the Eskimos ' It appears desirable that some test of accuracy should be established. If the natives can be induced to shoot at u target, the distance of each shot from the point aimed at should bo measuied, added, and divided by the number of shots. The figure of merit obtained by tlds means would enublo a comparison to be made with the shooting of otiier races. A target composed of grass bands, not less than six feet in diameter, might be used. Misses shoulil be scored with a deviation of four feet ; distances, titty, one hundred, one hundred and fltty, and two hundred paces of thirty inches. POU AHCTIC EXPLORERS. 285 expert in throwing stones with the hand ; and if so, how far can thoy throw witli accuracy and force, and for wimt pmjioso do thoy throw stones? Is tlio bow drawn to the shoulder or the chest? is it hold horizontally or vertically? Are the women trained to the use of wottpons? What are the varieties of the weapons employed in ditl'erent tribes and what is the caUHO of vai iation ? to what extent do the weapons vary in fijrm in each tribe? Have they anything resembling a standard, or state halb>«rd, or fetish for war purposos, as suggested by Capt. Becchey? (Careful drawings and collections of all the varieties of woa[)(in8 are very neccf^sary.) To what extent have the natives abandoned their anciicnt arms, and taken to those of civilised nations introduced among them? Do thoy readily adopt European weapons? 3. Leaders and Discipline. — How are their leaders appointed ? are they identical with the chiefs and Angekos ? have they any marks or distinctions of dress (with drawings) ? are they the stion'^est and most courageous ? have they any rewards for warlike achievements ? have they any subordinate leaders, and how are they appointed ? have the chiefs any aids or runners to carry mesfages? A\ hat kind )f discipline is preserved ? Have they any punishments fov offences in war? what is the function of the women in war? are auy of the adult males reserved from war for employment in other duties that are necessa y for the tribe, and if so, how is that aiTanged? 4. Fortifications and Outposts. — Have they any intrenchments, earth, o ' snow works or defensive pits, as described by Cnpt. Beechey, and if so, give plans and sections of them drawn to scale ? Do they employ pitfalls in war or the chase, and if so, give plans and sections ? Have they any knowledge of forming inundations for defensive pur- poses ? Have they any use of stakes for defence, or stockades, or abatis? Do they employ caltraps (small spikes of wood fixed into the ground to wound the feet) ? Do they ever build on raised piles for defence, as is practised in some parts of the N.VV. Coast? Do they occupy isolated positions, or hills, or promontories for the defence of their villages? Do they fortify their villages or have they other strong places to resort to in case of attack which are not usually inhabited? Have they scouts and outposts, and are they arranged on any kind of regular system? Have they any special signals fur war ? do they employ special men on these duties ? 6. Supply. — How do they supply themselves during war? does each man provide for himself or is there any general arrangement, and under what management? Are their proceedings much ham- pered by the difficulty of supply ? How do they curry their food, water, and baggage ? C. Causes and Effects of War. — What are the chief causes of war ? •JSO KTIINOIAXIICAI. MINTS Do ftMulN luNt. huig l)ol.w«H>t» iriltoM? How do ilu\v tn>at tlmir pri- H«>H(>rN? hiivo \\\o\ any Npooiul ouNlotiiH with roj;ur(l io llio Hi'nI, prisonor (hut talln into tlu>ir liMiKlsy iKt ( llio Hpoil y Are (lu»ir ailuokH alwiiyH HUciTctlod Ity rotroiH or do |1h\v follow up a vit^lorv ? In i(. likely (hula know ledg'o of ll\t> arts, oulliiiv, t1"i\, of ollith nproml liy inojiUM of war ? 'I\> whul «'x((MiI. has \\\o inor«>aH(M»r (li(> population boon ohoi'keil by wars? Mas Mii.u;ration lieen protnolvd to any ^jrcal. ojitont l»y warliko i'xpo«lition,s? KNaUs of niyNlorioiiN nij;'nH coiiHiHlin^; of " jtarll- oolonrotl patches s«>wn on l«»s»>al skinH.and hungup near tliedwellinjjj of the Ani;i>kok for tlu> information u'i »im\ujo Innuit travt>lleiH, and to dinvt thoui what, to do." An^ lliese si^ns lor utiamji' Innuit trari'llrra p;enorally understood Ity tlio lOskitno iiine? what, is tluur i>hjeet. and sij^iiifieamH^y luo they ^idy l>y tho Anji;eko8 ? Drawings and explanal ions ui' tlnvsti Hi}:;nH wouM 1)0 de.siralih\ 2. Sir I'Mward Uelehor, in the ' 'I'ransaetions of tho Kthnoloji!;ieaI Sooiety.' vol. i. p. i;l.'), now series, gives his opinion that, tho I'lski- uios *• are not. without, tho iu(>ans of nn'ording ovenls," and t.lniti " the use of notched sticks and working of the lingers has a dcttpcr signitication than mere numerals." What is tho exin^l. moaning cf these mark:*? are they cvtntined to particular trihi>H or (M>mn)on to the whole race? ^Drawings and oolleutions of these n(»lchus would be desirable. o. In otir Kthnographical Miiseums idoutical marks upon liorn- pointcd arrows appear to bo derived from ditVcrent localities and at ditVcrent times, so as to preclude tho possibility of their having belouiivd io the same owner. Sonu'' of these marks appear to bo piotographic. although consisting of straight lines n'presi>nting a man or an animal ; othci's are evidently not pictographic, and con- sist of a lougituilinal lino with other ishort lines branching from it, or an edge of the horn-point serves tb.e purposo of tho longitudinal lines, and the short lines are maiked upon it. Tlieir rcsouddanco to Kunes has been noticed. What is tlie exact meaning of each of these marks? are they the marks oi tho owner or do they record tho IXM-formances of the weapon, or have they any other signilicanco? aiv there simi\>r marks upon other woapotis and utensils or tipoii rocks ? are tliey understood beyond tho tribe ? is there any proba- bilitv of tlieir having been derived f* .^'n the Scandinavian settlers KOII AllCrif; KXI'LOIlKltS. 287 (\V treat tlirir i»ii- on s|iuMul liy i of llio popiilalioit iiolcil l«» any gnat and oilier SniNS in ,VNK Vo\. inislin^ of " |»arli- l» iuj; iiiit ln»V(>lloi8, and I lor HlraiKji' liiiiiiit laiio? what Ih tlu«ii' slodd l>_v dm iK'ttpUi tiiMiH of tho.so sigiiH r tlio Kthnolo^ical lion that ihn MhIcI ovi'hIh," ami that n^oi's has a (UH>i)('r oxai't moauinj; » I* hvH or ooinUMHi t'> i\si> iiotclios would liuiirks upon liorn- (t loi-alitios and at o\' tlu'ir liavinj;; [irks apjii'ar to bo [os r('|nvs('ntin«:; a l)>j;ra|>liic, and con- Itiiuu'hinjj; from it, If tlio lonj^itndinal IMioir ri'SDiiiblaneo [oaninj; ol' oaidi of llo they record the Ithor sij^nilicarico? utensils (ir upon there any proba- lidiuavian sottlore in tlrrrnlimd? Drawinj.'iH nn.i rolloctionH of tlioH(\ and any ofhor hiniihir niMiks, with Iho «rely drawn for aiuusenietit or for ornament? Are events of dif- ferent (n'riodsdepieled in tin* same drawing; ? Have they any eonven- ticuial mo(h>H of representing; certain ohjeetH? Do they draw from natunt or (!opy eaeh other's drawi?i^s? Do they iti e(»pyitij; from one anotlier vary iUo forms lhrouj:;h ni^^h'^curr, inahilily, or to savcj trotihle, so as t.o lose: si;j;h'.