831 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



coast, evidenced by the whalebone we found in 

 Esquimaux Cove, may be considered as an ar- 

 gument for an open sea ; and a connexion with 

 Hudson's Bay is rendered more probable from 

 the same kind of fish abounding on the coasts 

 we visited, and on those to the north of Churchill 

 River. I allude more particularly to the Capelin 

 or Salmo Arcticus, which we found in large shoals 

 in Bathurst's Inlet, and which not only abounds, . 

 as Augustus told us, in the bays in his country, 

 but swarms in the Greenland firths *. The por- 

 tion of the sea over which we passed is navigable 

 for vessels of any size ; the ice we met, parti- 

 cularly after quitting Detention Harbour, would 

 not have arrested a strong boat. The chain of 

 islands affords shelter from all heavy seas, and 

 there are good harbours at convenient dis- 

 tances. I entertain, indeed, sanguine hopes that 

 the skill and exertions of my friend Captain 

 Parry will soon render this question no longer 

 problematical. His task is doubtless an arduous 

 one, and, if ultimately successful, may occupy 

 two and perhaps three seasons ; but confiding as 

 I do, from personal knowledge, in his perse- 

 verance and talent for surmounting difficulties, 



* Arctic Zoology, vol. ii, p. 394. 



