62 cruise OF THE NEPTUNE 
battling with heavy floes of northern ice, had been forced nearly 
over to the Greenland coast in the endeavour to find a passage 
southward, and then had to work back to the western side in 
order to visit Cumberland gulf. Continuing in this heavy ice, 
which completely filled the gulf, we finally reached Blacklead 
island on the 31st, having passed a small Norwegian brigantine 
tightly beset in the ice about twenty miles from that place. We 
lay alongside this vessel during the night previous, and were 
boarded by her captain, who rightly had much fear for the 
safety of his small unprotected craft in the heavy pack. All 
the supplies for the coming year belonging to the mission and 
whaling stations of the gulf were aboard, and if she were 
crushed everybody living at those stations would have a hard 
time until relief reached them in the summer of 1905. We 
took on board the mail and ship's papers for the stations, and 
left her still tight in the ice. 
At Blacklead we were visited by the Rev. Mr. J. Peck and the 
agent of the whaling station, and learned from them that the 
past year had been very unprofitable to the Whalers and disas- 
trous to the natives. Owing to the quantity of broken ice that 
had been tightly jammed into the gulf throughout the summer, 
and which prevented the boats from reaching the open water, 
no whales had been captured, though a few had been seen. A 
succession of heavy easterly gales occurred during the winter, 
causing a heavy swell, which from time to time broke up the 
solid ice of the bay and prevented the natives from going as 
usual to the edge of the open water on their winter chase after 
seals and walrus; many, consequently, were in a chronic state 
of starvation during the winter. The same cause prevented 
relief reaching them from the stations, dog-travelling being 
impossible. Late in the autumn a heavy gale, in conjunction 
with an extra high tide, swept away several tents and other 
belongings of the natives who were camped on the lower part 
of the island, the tide rising twenty feet above the ordinary 
