DOWN THE MACKENZIE 



153 



summer. While inland, he had seen "fifty musk-ox skulls." 

 The oldest Eskimos say that their fathers hunted musk-ox but 

 there were no caribou then. In a large lake, south of Cape 

 Halket, which had but a single outlet to the sea, through which 

 no large fish could pass, he declared there were large shark-like 

 fish, which exceeded twenty feet in length, and that he had 

 himself seen their bones in abundance upon the beach, but had 

 never heard of this species in the sea or in any other lake. 



Near Cape Lisburne, a few miles down the coast, coal is found, 

 and in the accompanying strata, fossil "leaves, birds, tracks, 

 bones and shells are abundant." South of that point fossil 

 trees are said to be common. The country about Point Barrow 

 is a barren, gently rolling tundra, with no mountains in sight. 



We left Point Barrow on the morning of September nth and 

 steamed through loose pack ice for the next four days. We fre- 

 quently felt a shock as the vessel struck an ice floe, because of 

 the narrowness of the lead or the indifference of the officer in 

 the crow's nest, who usually gave the command "port" or 

 "starboard" in time to veer away from the ice. On the 18th 

 we were tossed and rolled by an arctic gale, which drove the 

 Count and myself to our bunks and added to the general dis- 

 content of the officers and crew. Day after day the boats had 

 been lowered, but without killing a whale. Only one had been 

 taken during the summer, to the eastward of Herschel Island. 



On the 19th Herald Island was sighted. This island is only 

 six miles long by two wide, and is one thousand feet high. 

 Twenty-five miles west of it is Wrangel Land, an island seventy- 

 five miles long by twenty-five wide, and having peaks exceed- 

 ing two thousand feet in height. These islands were discovered 

 by the English discovery ship " Herald," on the 1 7th of August, 

 1849. 1 



On the 21st and 22nd we rode out another gale. A cold, 

 which I had contracted at Herschel Island, had grown steadily 

 worse, and I had little strength left to "hang on" as the vessel 

 rolled. The next three days saw us tossed in cross seas. Snow 

 every day and frequent fogs prevented successful whaling. On 

 the 26th we ran into an immense school of whales, " Over a 

 hundred in sight!" The five boats were lowered at 7 a. m. and 



1 British Arctic Blue Book, Vol. 35, p. 9. 



