148 



EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



two clinker-built boats of twenty-four foot keel. In 1850 Lieu- 

 tenant Pullen passed the island on the 22nd of August and 

 entered the river on the 27th. 



We had reached the island just in time. The two heaviest 

 steamers had been "bucking" the ice during the preceding day 

 and had nearly reached the point of the bar enclosing the 

 harbor. Toward the northeast the sea was open, and a whale- 

 boat had been sent to the mouth of the Mackenzie to meet the 

 Count, but had been turned back by the ice encountered there. 

 During the night of the loth a second and successful attempt 

 was made to escape from the imprisoning floes. Each captain 

 took his place in the crow's nest at the foremast head, whence 

 the whole field of ice could be seen. The " Balaena " and 

 " Narwhal " were the heaviest vessels, and consequently the 

 most successful in their attacks upon the ice which was tightly 

 held at the extremity of the sandspit. I was on board one of 

 the vessels as she worked her way around. The ice was broken 

 by the weight of the vessels and not by the shock. The bow 

 would rise until the ice could no longer sustain the weight, 

 when it settled and the vessel would back off for another blow. 

 By 2 a. m. on the nth, the last vessel was anchored outside 

 and the crews sent to bring off the whaleboats, which had been 

 lying on the beach. An hour later the last steamer had disap- 

 peared in the fogs toward the eastward. They were on their 

 way to the whaling grounds between Richard's Island and Cape 

 Bathurst, where, during the preceding summer, they had made 

 the greatest catch in the history of Arctic whaling, the " Nar- 

 whal" having taken sixty-four bowhead whales, the "Balaena" 

 sixty-two, and the others from nine to forty each. The sea 

 had been unusually open during the summer of 1893; one of 

 the vessels had followed the coast of Banks' Land for some 

 distance to the northward without encountering ice. 



A few buildings have been erected on the sandspit which 

 encloses Pauline Harbor, in which to store whalebone and sup- 

 plies. Three men were left to guard this property from fire, 

 the natives who remained about the place being quite indiffer- 

 ent to the fact that their camp fires were built within a few feet 

 of half a million dollars worth of whalebone. 



The officer in charge of the station, Captain E. C. Murray, 

 went on board the " Balaena" for the summer, so that the men 



