232 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



Except for a long patrol by the late Inspector A. H. Joy of the 

 R. C. M. P. to the island in 1920, no white man has visited Melville 

 Island since Stefansson's party in 1917. 



South of Griffith Point, Melville Island, where a cairn was built, 

 the St. Roch was forced to travel slowly, owing to shoal water of 4 

 to 8 fathoms for 2 miles off the coast. At midnight the expedition 

 anchored off Palmer Point, with still no ice in sight, and another rec- 

 ord was deposited. An excellent harbor north of the point was ex- 

 amined the following morning, when thick weather discouraged fur- 

 ther sailing. At noon on August 27 the weather cleared, and they 

 approached Dealey Island, where the huge cairn, topped by three 

 barrels on a post, could be seen for miles at sea. The party went 

 ashore and examined the large cache left by Captain Kellett of the 

 H. M. S. Resolute in 1852-53. The walls of the cache were still stand- 

 ing, but there was no roof and most of the contents had been de- 

 stroyed by the weather and marauding bears. The skeletons of two 

 bears found nearby suggested that they might have been poisoned by 

 consuming some of the spoiled food. Some of the barrels contained 

 clothing, sea boots, flour, chocolate, peas, beans, and tea ; all were in a 

 soggy, rotten condition. Some of the iron cans and tanks contained 

 hardtack and canned meats and vegetables, but most of them had 

 been broken into and the contents had spoiled. On the beach close 

 by the men found two broken rifles and a case of ammunition left by 

 Captain Bernier in 1909. 



They left Dealey Island on the morning of August 28, and traveled 

 along the low coast to Winter Harbor, about 30 miles to the south- 

 west. Winter Harbor was chosen by Captain Bernier as the winter 

 quarters for his Canadian Government Expedition of 1908-09, and 

 was visited again by him in 1910. The storehouse built by Bernier in 

 1910 was still in fair condition, although almost empty, and from a 

 rafter hung a bottle containing the record left by Inspector Joy who 

 had last patrolled there in 1929. Numerous tracks of musk oxen, 

 caribou, and wolves were noted around the harbor, but only one old 

 bull musk ox was seen. 



After depositing a record at Parry Rock. Larsen and his crew left 

 Winter Harbor on August 30 and had a clear run 30 miles to the 

 south before meeting heavy ice. Due to mist and rain, they moored 

 to a large floe to await visibility and replenished their fresh-water 

 tanks from pools on the ice. Early the following morning they began 

 working their way through the heaviest ice yet encountered, as it 

 pushed eastward from the Arctic Ocean through M'Clure Strait. 

 Several times heavy fog, which obscured leads, prevented progress, 

 and they were gripped by the general counterclockwise revolving 

 motion of the churning, growling ice. Soundings of 50 and 93 



