﻿1848. OF CAPE BATIIURST. 267 



from muddy water into a green sea, in which we 

 had no bottom with the hand-lead. In 1826 we 

 sought a way out to the eastward of the island, 

 and, the bar there being muddy and shallow, found 

 no little difficulty in forcing the boats through. 

 The northern channel would form a good ship 

 harbour. 



From these people we learnt that during their 

 summer of two moons they see no ice whatever, 

 that they were now assembling to hunt whales, 

 and would go out to sea to-morrow for that pur- 

 pose. The black whale, their present object, they 

 call ai-e-iverk, and the white whale, which also 

 frequents this coast, keilaloo-alc. In some summers 

 they kill two black whales, very rarely three, and 

 sometimes they are altogether unsuccessful. In 

 the course of conversation, we were told that the 

 several families have hunting grounds near their 

 winter houses, on which the others do not tres- 

 pass ; and the proprietors of several points of land 

 in sight were named to me. They knew but little 

 of the country beyond their own vicinity ; and one 

 of them having told me that Cape Bathurst was an 

 island, I affirmed that it Avas not, on which, with 

 an air of surprise, he exclaimed, " Are not all 

 lands islands ?" None of them could remember 

 my former visit, though I had communicated with 

 a party of their countrymen only a few miles from 



