May, 1S59. APPEARANCE OF CAIRNS. 243 



but if recently disturbed, these appearances are altered. If a 

 cairn has been recently built, it will be evident, because the 

 stones picked up would be bleached on top by the exposure 

 of centuries, whilst underneath they would be coloured by the 

 soil in which they were imbedded. When at Melville Island, 

 in 1853, I visited several places explored by Parry in 1820, 

 and was perfectly astonished at the freshness which his 

 traces presented ; at one place the rut of his cart-wheels was 

 distinctly impressed in spungy moss ; the stones with which 

 his cairn was built retained the colouring of the earth on the 

 one side, the other being bleached with the frosts of ages ; 

 even their impressions remained so distinct that we could have 

 replaced several of them in their own moulds in the earth 

 from which Parry had removed them thirty-three years before ! 

 To the observant eye of the native hunter these marks are at 

 once apparent ; and, therefore, unless Simpson's cairn (built 

 in 1839) had been disturbed by Crozier, I do not think the 

 Esquimaux would have been at the trouble of pulling it down 

 to plunder the cache; but, having commenced to do so, 

 would not have left any of it standing, unless they found what 

 they sought. 



I noticed with great care the appearance of the stones, 

 and came to the conclusion that the cairn itself had been 

 erected many years ago, but was reduced to the state in 

 which we found it by people having broken down one side 

 of it, the displaced stones, from being turned over, looking 

 far more fresh than those in that portion of the cairn which 

 had been left standing. It was with a feeling of deep regret 

 and much disappointment that I left this spot without finding 

 some certain record of those martyrs to their country's fame. 



A few miles beyond Cape Herschel the land becomes 

 very low ; many islets and shingle-ridges lie far off the coast ; 

 and as we advanced, we met with hummocks of unusually 

 heavy ice, showing plainly that we were now travelling upon a 



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