1853.] A SPAR FOUND INLAND. 379 



to take fish by a small net of twenty feet span, and the 

 bottom was scraped by the dredge, but without success : 

 unfortunately, the seine ordered to be embarked in the 

 ' Pioneer' was left behind, and thus all hopes of salmon, 

 or large fish, frustrated. On my return I observed two 

 of the officers bearing between them a hare they had 

 killed, and immediately where we then stood the tracks 

 of several, or of the same animal, were noticed. One evi- 

 dently had been pursued by a wolf, and a very smart 

 chase it must have proved; but which might have 

 proved victorious I was too far fatigued to follow up ; 

 the traces proved that the fore-paws of the wolf at each 

 bound were never two inches behind those of the hare, 

 and the measured leaps of several averaged six feet : 

 evidently in earnest ! 



A party which I sent to erect marks on the neighbour- 

 ing hills easterly also succeeded in killing a hare ; so 

 that we have some hopes of not being quite so badly off 

 for game as at our last (but very secure) winter-quarters. 

 This set all the sportsmen agog, and eager for sport ; and 

 of this feeling I did not fail to take advantage, despatch- 

 ing one party, as far as they pleased to go, northerly, in 

 hopes of gaining some further information as to traces 

 of the late boat party in that direction. 



The issue of one of these excursions, by our leading 

 huntsman, the Boatswain, was the discovery of a spar, 

 about a mile and a half inland, which, from the report, 

 disturbing me about midnight, was " evidently the top- 

 gallantmast of a ship ;" the carpenter's mate, who was 

 one of the party, being of opinion " that it was a worked 

 spar, of about eight inches' diameter." Such a report from 



