AN ABANDONED SETTLEMENT. 651 



bad state. "With this exception, the whole of the stores 

 were in such a condition as that life could be sustained, so 

 far as food is concerned, comfortably on them. The life- 

 boats left by Sir James were also in tolerably good order, 

 and could be readily made seaworthy. Captain Markham 

 also landed at the place in the North Georgian Islands 

 where Captain Parry wintered in 1819. (See Chapter IV.) 

 The depots remain in much the same state probably as 

 when Parry left them. At Cape Garry, on Melville 

 Peninsula, Captain Markham came across an abandoned 

 Esquimaux settlement. This had consisted of thirty-four 

 huts. These were formed of the skulls, sixty in number, 

 and ribs of whales. When inhabited, they would be 

 covered by the skins of deers and bears. From the 

 appearance of the abandoned settlement, Captain Mark- 

 ham came to the conclusion that there had been no Esqui- 

 maux at the place for at least a period of one hundred 

 years. Taking into account the distance of the huts from 

 the shore, and the nature of the coast, it must have been 

 a work of considerable difficulty and ingenuity to have got 

 the skulls and bones to the place. The object of Captain 

 Markham was of course to take observations for his own 

 information and for future use, and not merely to pick up 

 interesting items of this kind. Mere curiosity was sub- 

 ordinated to scientific inquiry, and probably we will by-and- 

 by hear of some practical result flowing from the obser- 

 vations he has made during this interesting and successful 

 voyage. It may then be our privilege to take note and 

 record for our readers the additional discoveries. Mean- 

 while, we bid adieu to the interesting subject and to our 

 readers, in the hope that they will find in the perusal of this 

 volume as absorbing interest as we have in the compiling. 



