1854.] YISTT NAVY BOARD INLET. 235 



to take the ice, we may as well try it at once." Such 

 was iny decision : I felt certain of success ; I even offered 

 a nominal bet that before night we should be clear of 

 ice. So it proved. 



I then determined on visiting the depot at Navy 

 Board Inlet, and running in between the Wollaston 

 Islands, anchored off the place, rather in scant water. 

 The provisions had been plundered by the natives. The 

 scene of mischief and wanton spoliation could only be 

 appreciated by those who witnessed the remnants of an 

 immense supply of human food, cask-staves, hoops, bags, 

 preserved meat tins, tobacco, flour, boots, and every ima- 

 ginable necessary for Arctic service. But what appeared 

 tome most extraordinary was the peculiar mode of destruc- 

 tion, 'Such as preserved meat tins cut longitudinally, 

 and the coal bags even, as they were detached separately 

 from their ice-bound cementation, also treated in a simi- 

 lar manner. It occurred to more than one spectator 

 that there was great method in this general destruction, 

 and that each bag must have been cut at the moment it 

 was deposited, or how could the underlying bags be so 

 treated? The ' Phoenix' had previously taken on board 

 nearly all the serviceable provision and tobacco ; the coal, 

 therefore, being useless to others and important to the 

 service, was embarked, and measures adopted for com- 

 pleting water. 



Our detention here, all the vessels having anchored 

 too near the shore, had nearly proved disastrous. A 

 strong breeze set in, they drove, and but for the aid of 

 steam, I much doubt if they would now exist But the 

 only matter of interest occurred in the attempt to a 



