346 ENCAMP ON AN ISLAND. 



time to time we found a current ; still we were 

 baffled, and had often to turn on our track, only 

 perhaps to make another deviation. At length 

 we observed a number of grayling playing in a 

 narrow, and rising at the flies which fell acci- 

 dentally into the water; and aware that these 

 fish usually frequent the outlets and channels of 

 connecting water, we profited by the hint, and 

 so far had reason to be satisfied with our judg- 

 ment. But towards evening our hopes were again 

 blighted by the startling sight of extensive and 

 unbroken fields of ice, stretching to the extremest 

 point of vision. Seeing, therefore, no chance 

 of further progress at present, I encamped on a 

 spot which, judging from the circles of stones 

 found regularly placed, had doubtless at some 

 time been used by the Esquimaux for the same 



purpose. 



We were on an island ; and the ridges and 

 cones of sand were not only of great height, but 

 singularly crowned with immense boulders, grey 

 with lichen, which assuredly would have been 

 considered as having been placed by design, had 

 not the impossibility of moving such enormous 

 masses proved incontestibly that it was Nature's 

 work. It was with indescribable sorrow that I 

 beheld from one of these boulders a firm field of 

 old ice, which had not yet been disturbed from 

 its winter station. The nearest land was a bold 



