﻿268 PEMICAN DEPOSITED. August, 



their present residence. We told them that we 

 were looking for ships and men of our nation 

 whom we expected to meet ; and they said they 

 would be glad of the visits of white men, and would 

 treat them hospitably. In exchange for some fish, 

 seal and whale-skin leather, and a few other things, 

 we supplied them well with knives, files, hatchets, 

 and beads. Part of the number who wished to 

 come to the boats the preceding evening had, on 

 our declining the interview, gone to their winter 

 houses on the western shores of Baillie's Islands ; 

 and those who accompanied us from our anchorage 

 in the morning landed on the extremity of Cape 

 Bathurst, where their winter houses stood. 



It was part of my instructions to bury some 

 pemican at this cape, and to erect a signal-post ; 

 but the presence of the natives hindered me from 

 doing so. As soon, however, as we had gone far 

 enough to be, as we supposed, beyond their view, 

 Ave put on shore, and having dug a hole on the 

 top of the cliff, deposited therein a case of pemican, 

 with a memorandum explaining the objects of the 

 expedition. Every precaution was used to replace 

 the turf, so as not to betray that it had been 

 moved ; some drift-timber was piled upon it and 

 set on fire, and a pole, painted red and white, 

 planted at the distance of ten feet. As all the 

 drift-timber at this place had been gathered into 



