1875 INSECTS. 71 



mosquitoes being particularly annoying. Two species 

 of butterflies, a Colias and an Argynnis, two kinds of 

 moths and a humble-bee (Bombus), were captured. 

 The shores of the coast where we landed were studded 

 with ancient Eskimo dwellings, numerous caches, and 

 marks of summer tents. The bones of a large whale, 

 no doubt Balasna mysticetas, in pieces over five feet 

 long and a foot broad, had been used as rafters to 

 one of the igloos or dwelling-places. Numerous 

 bones of the musk-ox, seal, walrus, and narwhal were 

 found. 



I regret extremely that our short stay prevented 

 our ascertaining whether Hayes Sound is a channel 

 leading to a western sea. The flood-tide certainly 

 ran to the westward inshore ; but Lieutenant Parr, 

 a very careful observer, reports that on two occasions 

 when the ship was stationary and he in charge of the 

 deck, he observed the ice in the offing setting to the 

 eastward with the flood-tide. This may have been 

 occasioned by partial winds or an eddy tidal current. 

 Although we saw no seals in the sound, yet the nume- 

 rous remains scattered about the old Eskimo dwellings 

 show that they have been obtained in large numbers in 

 this locality, and this is seldom the case in an inclosed 

 bay, where the water is more ready to freeze than in 

 an open channel. Certainly a large colony of Eskimo 

 frequented the neighbourhood at one time, and we 

 may conclude that they travelled from the southward. 

 It remains to be ascertained whether the route was 

 along the glacier-lined shore on the western side of 

 Baffin's Bay, or by a more protected inlet to the west- 

 ward of Ellesmere Land. 



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