252 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. VIII. 



Parties were sent from Port Bowen to travel by 

 land on the sea-coast, on each side of the port. The 

 first, however, was directed to proceed inland to the 

 eastward under Commander Hoppner. This party 

 returned, after a very fatiguing journey, having 

 with difficulty travelled a degree and three quarters 

 easterly, in the lat. 73° 19'; but no appearance 

 of sea was observed in that direction ; the country 

 consisted of ravines, many of them four or five hun- 

 dred feet deep, and very precipitous. During the 

 whole fortnight's excursion scarcely a patch of vege- 

 tation could be seen ; a few snow-buntings and some 

 ivory -gulls were all the animals they met with, to 

 enliven this most barren and desolate country. 



Hares, foxes, and bears were sparingly met with ; 

 and the last animal is not disposed to have any affec- 

 tion for mankind. Instances, however, did occur 

 to show that maternal affection is not wanting in 

 this animal, but was as apparent in it as in that 

 of the walrus described by Beechey : — 



" A she-bear, killed in the open water, on our first arrival 

 at Port Bowen, afforded a striking instance of maternal 

 affection in her anxiety to save her two cubs. She might 

 herself have easily escaped the boat, but would not forsake 

 her young, which she was actually ' towing ' off, by allowing 

 them to rest on her back, when the boat came near them. 

 A second similar instance occurred in the spring, when two 

 cubs having got down into a large crack in the ice, their 

 mother placed herself before them, so as to secure them 

 from the attacks of our people, which she might easily have 

 avoided herself." — p. 79. 



