424 TRACES OF ESQUIMAUX. 



prized, more cherished ; and the recollection which I 

 shall carry with me of this charming valley, and the 

 silvery lake, and the gushing rivulets, and the grot- 

 toed glacier, will be enhanced when I name them in 

 remembrance of the fairest forms that ever flitted 

 across the memory of storm-beaten traveler, and the 

 fairest fingers that ever turned Afghan wool into a 

 cunning device to brighten the light of a dingy 

 cabin ! 



Upon going ashore at Gale Point, I discovered 

 traces of Esquimaux much more recent than those at 

 Gould Bay and other places on the shores of Grinnell 

 Land. Indeed they were of such a character as to 

 cause me strongly to suspect that the shore is at 

 present inhabited. The cliffs are composed of a dark 

 sandstone which, to the northward of the Point, 

 breaks suddenly away into a broad plain that slopes 

 gently down to the water's edge. This plain is about 

 five miles wide, and is bounded at the north much as 

 at the south, by lofty cliffs, which rise above the prim- 

 itive rocks back of Cape Isabella. The plain was 

 composed of loose shingle, covered over in many 

 places with large patches of green, through which 

 flowed a number of broad streams of water. These 

 streams sprang from the front of a glacier which 

 bulged down the valley from the mer de glace. It 

 was about four miles from the sea, and bounded the 

 green and stony slope with a great white wall several 

 hundred feet high, above which the snow-covered 

 steep of the mer de glace led. the eye away up to the 

 bald summits of the distant mountains. As I looked 

 up at this immense stream of ice it seemed as if a 

 dozen Niagaras had been bounding together into the 



