124 OFF CAPE WARRENDER. Chap. IX. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Off Cape Warrender — Sight the whalers again — Enter Pond's Bay — 

 Communicate with Esquimaux — Ascend Pond's Inlet — Esquimaux 

 information — Arctic summer abode — An arctic village — No in- 

 telligence of Franklin's ships — Arctic trading — Geographical infor- 

 mation of natives — Information of Rae's visit — Improvidence of 

 Esquimaux — Travels of Esquimaux. 



\6th July. — To borrow a whaling phrase, we are "dodging 

 about in a hole of water " off Cape Warrender. I recognise 

 the little bay just to the west of the cape where Parry 

 landed in September, 1824. The "immense mass of snow 

 and ice containing strata of muddy-looking soil " is there 

 still, and, I should think, had considerably increased. 

 Here his party shot three reindeer out of a small herd. We 

 have narrowly scanned the steep hill-sides with our glasses, 

 but without discovering any such inducement to land. 



None of the cairns of former expeditions are visible upon 

 Cape Warrender ; the natives have probably removed them. 

 Dense pack prevents us from approaching Port Dundas or 

 crossing to the southern shore. We find these vexatious 

 delays by no means conducive to sleep. The mind is 

 busy with a sort of magic-lantern representation of the past, 

 the present, and the future, and resists for weary hours the 

 necessary repose. 



17///. — Last night's calm has allowed the pack to expand 

 so much, that to-day we have steamed through it until 

 within three miles of the noble cliffs of Cape Hay j and now 

 we are drifting eastward with the ice precisely as did the 



