JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



of absolute starvation, at a future period, for the 

 present gratification of their appetites ; to indulge 

 which they do not hesitate, as we more than 

 once experienced, helping themselves secretly ; 

 it being, in their opinion, no disgrace to be 

 caught in the act of pilfering food. 



Our only luxury now was a little salt, which 

 had long been our substitute both for bread and 

 vegetables. Since our departure from Point 

 Lake we had boiled the Indian tea plant, ledum 

 palustre, which produced a beverage in smell 

 much resembling rhubarb ; notwithstanding which 

 we found it refreshing, and were gratified to see 

 this plant flourishing abundantly, though of dwarf- 

 ish growth, on the sea-shore. 



July 21.— The wind, which had blown strong 

 through the night, became moderate in the morn- 

 ing, but a dense fog prevented us from embark- 

 mg until noon, when we commenced our voyage 

 on the Hyperborean Sea. Soon afterwards we 

 landed on an island where the Esquimaux had 

 erected a stage of drift timber, and stored up 

 many of their fishing implements and winter 

 sledges, together with a great many dressed seal, 

 musk ox, and deer skins. Their spears headed 

 with bone, and many small articles of the same 

 material, were worked with extreme neatness, as 

 well as their wooden dishes, and cooking utensils 



