TRACES OF ESQUIMAUX. 337 



While rounding the head of Gould Bay, I observed 

 that, as at Port Foulke, Van Rensselaer Harbor, and 

 indeed in almost every bay of the Greenland coast 

 which I have visited above Cape York, the land rises 

 with a gentle slope, broken into steppes of greater 

 or less regularity, — a series of terraced beaches, the 

 highest of which I estimated to be from one hundred 

 and twenty to one hundred and fifty feet above the 

 sea. To these terraces I shall have occasion hereafter 

 to refer, and will not now longer detain the reader 

 than merely to observe that they indicate a consecu- 

 tive elevation of the two coasts. I also found in that 

 Bay the remains of an Esquimau camp. The marks 

 were quite unmistakable in their character although 

 of very ancient date. The discovery was the more 

 gratifying, that it confirmed the native traditions 

 which had been recited to me by Kalutunah. They 

 were a single circle of heavy stones lying upon the 

 shingly terrace. The circle was about twelve feet in 

 diameter, and is such as may be seen in all places 

 where Esquimaux have been in the summer time. 

 The stones answer the purpose of securing the lower 

 margin of their seal-skin tent ; and, w T hen they break 

 up camp, the skins are drawn out, leaving the stones 

 in the situation above described. 



The journey of the next day was the most satis- 

 factory of any that had been made, yet it had its 

 drawbacks. As we proceeded, we began to experi- 

 ence in even a greater degree than in Smith Sound 

 the immense force of ice-pressure resulting from the 

 southerly set of the current. Every point of land 

 exposed to the northward was buried under ice of the 

 most massive description. Many blocks from thirty 

 to sixty feet thick, and of much greater breadth, were 



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