KENNEDY'S JOURNEY. 387 



adopted the practice, common among Indians, of freez- 

 ing them, and, while in this state, eating them raw ; 

 and we are assured that a ''frozen ptarmigan, after a 

 hard day's march, is by no means an unwelcome addi- 

 tion to an Arctic traveller's bill of fare I ' 



At last they arrived at Cape Walker. Its bold and 

 conspicuous headland first met their gaze on the 4th 

 of May ; but here, as at Fury Beach, they were doomed 

 to disappointment. Not a sign of Franklin's expedition 

 having visited the spot was to be met with. Bellot 

 carefully followed the windings of the rough ice outside 

 the beach, in order to have a commanding view of the 

 cliffs, while Kennedy searched along shore ; but all with- 

 out success. Ignorant that he had been preceded by 

 Captain Austin's parties, Kennedy mistook the large 

 cairn they had erected for a part of the cliff, and actu- 

 ally walked over a smaller one deeply covered with snow, 

 without for a moment suspecting that the spot had been 

 previously visited. If the large cairns, formed by the 

 parties of Ommaney and Osborne the previous spring, 

 could thus be overlooked, might not signals erected by 

 Franklin have been equally undistinguishable amid the 

 deep snow which enveloped this bleak and rugged 

 coast ? 



Their stock of provisions now getting very low, Ken- 

 nedy's party were obliged to go on short allowance ; 

 and, to make it last longer, they fed the dogs, from this 

 time forward, on "old leather shoes, and fag-ends of 

 buffalo robes' 7 on which, we are told, "they thrived 

 wonderfully." It is added that one old snarling brute, 

 who had received the name of Boatswain from the men 

 on account of his ill-nature, " never seemed thoroughly 

 to enjoy his meals till put upon a course of old shoes." 



From this time the men grew worse and worse with 

 scurvy ; but were much revived by lighting upon a 



