1853.] MEET SLEDGE IN NAPIER BAY. 327 



fowl, but that was all we benefited by this " teeming of 

 animal life." I think it possible, had we launched the 

 boat, that four or five ducks might have been killed ; 

 they were all very wary and strong on the wing. How 

 ten men, dependent on their guns, could subsist, I can- 

 not imagine ; if travelling, it would be next to impossi- 

 ble. Walrus or bear, if the party was stationary, woidd 

 afford fuel and food ; and, during the season, the skins 

 of both, aided by snow huts, might furnish a miserable 

 shelter : the frozen skin of the walrus would be impene- 

 trable, and the fat could be peeled off as required. How 

 many would survive such a life I venture not to surmise. 



At midnight on the 22nd we reached Depot Bay. I 

 was on the heights, obtaining angles, when I observed 

 both sledges, having entered well on the floe, simulta- 

 neously turn back : there certainly was open water not 

 far from them, but as both our return sledges coidd not 

 be much in advance, and we were on their track, I has- 

 tened down, and, on reaching them, found that merely 

 surface water had alarmed them. Having extricated the 

 sledges, we double-manned them alternately, and soon 

 surmounted the difficulty, occasionally sinking into the 

 holes, where surface pools had frozen, about knee-deep ; 

 but this I knew must be expected just at this season, the 

 true base of the floe having a thickness of at least three 

 feet ice : no accident or truly " break in" occurred. 



We now pushed forward for a low spit island, in the 

 depth of Napier Bay, in which direction I noticed a 

 sledge advancing under canvas : this was hauled up at 

 the spit, and her crew advanced to aid our party. It 

 proved to be Lieutenant Cheyne, despatched by Lieu- 



