228 



AKCTIC SEAS. 



From these natives he learned that another party of 

 the same tribe had met, in the spring of 1850, a band of 

 about forty white men dragging a boat and sledges along 

 the coast side of King William's Land, and making 

 apparently for the Great Fish River. None of them 

 could speak the Eskimo language ; but, from their signs, 

 the natives understood that their vessels had been* 



DRAGGING BOAT ACROSS ICE-FIELDS. 



crushed in the ice, and that they were then proceeding 

 where they hoped to find deer to shoot, They had 

 purchased a small seal from the natives, and from the 

 thin appearance of the men all of whom, with the 

 exception of one, who appeared to be an officer, were 

 dragging on the haul-ropes of the sledge were thought 

 to be running short of provisions. 



