DOWN THE MACKENZIE 



145 



There was still a heavy sea running as we passed Kay Point, 

 where the deepest soundings of the entire coast are found, and 

 we rounded the point with no little difficulty and danger. 

 Twenty miles to the northwestward, the rolling hills of Her- 

 schel Island, rising five hundred feet above the sea, were plainly 

 visible. All about us were scattered the grounded floes, worn in 

 arched hollows, in which the waves beat in reverberating 

 monotony. A few yards from shore the unbroken ice of winter 

 extended beyond the limits of our view. 



Phillips Bay is partly enclosed by a narrow sandspit upon 

 which is situated the permanent Eskimo settlement of Tekara. 

 The inhabitants were then living in their summer tents. We 

 were scarcely able to reach this camp before the wind, now on 

 our bows, compelled us to land. The Eskimos asked us to 

 enter their tents, which were comparatively clean and comfort- 

 able, but smelled strongly of the rancid whale oil, or oakchoak, 

 which taints everything that an Eskimo even touches. Four or 

 five recently-killed seals were being cared for, and fish seemed 

 to be abundant. One old man kept a constant lookout with a 

 long glass for seals. Coffee, flour and syrup from the whaling 

 vessels were used by every family. In twenty-four hours the 

 sea again fell so that we reached the mainland, where we were 

 stopped by the ice field, which was grounded inshore and in 

 places piled high upon the beach. The tent was again pitched 

 on the bar at the mouth of a mountain creek that supplied us 

 with fresh water. Every gully was full of hardened snow which 

 looked as if it would last through the summer. 



While the men slept I examined the graves on the brow of the 

 hill overlooking the camp. In one of such great age that the 

 logs were scarcely distinguishable, and the skull was disarticu- 

 lated, I found a pair of marble labrets of the usual stud-shaped 

 pattern. An omiak and two kaiak frames, kumotiks, a repeat- 

 ing rifle, bows, arrows, harpoons, ornaments, amulets, cooking 

 utensils, etc., were lying beside the graves. When I returned 

 to camp I found the two men quietly sleeping in a tarpaulin, 

 which was burning in several places; the wind had changed to 

 the westward and carried sparks from the fire upon their cover- 

 ing. They were chagrined at the predicament in which they 

 found themselves, but as long as they escaped with a whole 

 skin, "coca" — never mind. 



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