224 WELLINGTON STRAIT. Chap. XIII. 



the bays and indentations, lest we should lose our way ; for 

 be it remembered that in such proximity to the Magnetic 

 Pole the compass is wholly useless. 



We soon discovered that we had strayed inland ; but, 

 guided by the wind, continued our course. Upon May 4th 

 we descended into Wellington Strait, and the weather being 

 tolerably clear, we crossed over to the south-west extreme of 

 Matty Island, in the hope of meeting with natives, no traces 

 of them having been met with since leaving Cape Victoria. 

 Off this south-west point we found a deserted village of 

 nearly twenty snow huts, besides several others, within a few 

 miles upon either side of it ; in all of them I found shavings 

 or chips of different kinds of woods from the lost expedi- 

 tion ; they appeared to have been abandoned for only 

 a fortnight or three weeks. Abundance of blubber was 

 gathered up to increase our stock of fuel, and, had we 

 encamped here, the dogs would have feasted sumptuously 

 off the scraps and bones of seals strewed about. 



The runners (or sides) of some old sledges left here were 

 very ingeniously formed out of pointed rolls of sealskin, 

 about 31 feet long, and flattened so as to be 2 or '3 inches 

 wide and 5 inches high; the sealskins appeared to have 

 been well soaked and then rolled up, flattened into the 

 required form and allowed to freeze. The underneath part 

 was coated with a mixture of moss and ice laid smoothly on 

 by hand before being allowed to freeze, the moss, I suppose, 

 answering the purpose of hair in mortar, to make the com- 

 pound adhere more firmly. 



From this spot the shore-line of Matty Island turned 

 sharply to the N.N.E. ; there were some considerable islands 

 to the east, but thinking the most southerly of this group — 

 named " 0\vut-ta " by the Esquimaux — the most likely place 

 to find the natives, I pushed on in that direction until we 

 encamped. Thick fog enveloped us for the next two days ; 



