GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



of its labors. Lieutenant F. Schwatka, of the 

 United States Army, was the leader of the ex- 

 jdition. Schwatka chose to land at Camp 

 )aly, north of Chesterfield Inlet, and opposite 

 ipot Island on Hudson Bay, finding Esquimaux 

 lere, rather than run the risk of not finding 

 lem at Repulse Bay. The party consisted of 

 hree white men besides the leader Colonel 

 H. Gilder, Harry Klutschak, and Frank 

 [elms, and the Esquimau, Joseph Ebberbing, 

 lied Esquimau Joe, for long years the faith- 

 il companion of Captain Hall, who acted as 

 iterpreter. Lieutenant Schwatka, convinced 

 of the impossibility of conveying the usual 

 stores in the sledge-journey of thousands of 

 miles which was before them, determined to 

 adopt the sensible but novel method in Arctic 

 exploration of becoming inured to the life of 

 the Esquimaux, of acquiring their habits, and 

 learning the arts by which they are enabled to 

 wring their scanty means of subsistence from 

 the chary hand of Nature. Such an existence 

 would be impossible to the natives of kindlier 

 climes without the discipline of a period of 

 habitnation and acclimatization. The winter 

 passed at Camp Daly was turned to account in 

 acquiring experience in sledging and in becom- 

 ing hardened and accustomed to the Esqui- 

 mau life and ways. Information was studious- 

 ly sought as to the best route to King William 

 Land, and scientific observations were taken. 

 Astronomical determinations showed that the 

 west shore of Hudson Bay in this region is set 

 down on the maps nearly two degrees too far to 

 the west. The Esquimaux among whom they 

 found themselves denied all knowledge of relics 

 or buried documents. On April 1st Schwatka 

 and his comrades set out on their way to King 

 William Land, accompanied by thirteen Inuit 

 and Netchillik men, women, and children. In 

 three sledges, drawn by forty-two dogs, were 

 wares for barter and provisions for three 

 months, to be preserved for the case of neces- 

 sity. They were to depend entirely on the 

 chase for their daily food ; and with their long- 

 range rifles they killed an abundance of rein- 

 deer, whose flesh they were often obliged to 

 eat raw. Every evening iglus, or snow-huts, 

 were thrown up, in which they comfortably 

 passed the nights. They guided their course 

 directly for their destination over a route before 

 untrodden by whites or by Esquimaux, seeking 

 a path where possible in the frozen streams, 

 thus taking advantage of the Connery and Lor- 

 illard Rivers, leaving the latter to cross the 

 Hazard Hills, beyond which they traversed an 

 undulating country, sometimes unhitching the 

 dogs and gliding down the northern slopes by 

 the force of gravitation. On April 21st they 

 found that they were in latitude 65 45', hav- 

 ing crossed the bed of the Wager River with- 

 out knowing it. Schwatka thinks that this 

 estuary dries out in late summer after the melt- 

 ed snows have flowed down, leaving only a 

 chain of isolated lakes. The route to the north- 

 westward from this point, through a hilly coun- 



try, became difficult, the land being nearly 

 stripped of snow; until, May 9th, they de- 

 scended a range of hills into a stream flowing 

 northward, which they named Hayes River, 

 and followed it 110 to 120 miles to its mouth 

 in Cockburn Bay. On this river, May 15th, 

 the travelers fell in with Esquimaux, a remnant 

 of the Ukjuliks, who had been expelled from 

 the western shores of Adelaide Peninsula and 

 King William Land, and nearly exterminated 

 by the Netchilliks. The chief had seen white 

 men in his youth who had come down Back 

 River in a boat, and had found a ship in the 

 ice off the west coast of Adelaide Peninsula 

 twenty-five or thirty years ago. There was a 

 single corpse on board, and knives, spoons, and 

 utensils were taken out by the Esquimaux by 

 making a hole in the side, in consequence of 

 which the vessel, which must have been the 

 Erebus or the Terror, sank the next summer 

 with the books and other things which were 

 not removed. He had heard of other white 

 men being seen by Esquimaux, and of cairns 

 being opened and despoiled. Taking several of 

 these Esquimaux into their company, they de- 

 scended the river and crossed land until they 

 reached Elliot Bay, arrived at their goal, en- 

 tering the region tracked hither and thither 

 by the fated followers of the most hopefully 

 conceived and most disastrous of Arctic expedi- 

 tions, who marked the path of their blind wan- 

 derings with the corpses of their dead. On 

 May 22d a cairn reported to have been made 

 on Montreal Island was sought for unsuccess- 

 fully. On Adelaide Peninsula, by Barrow In- 

 let, they came across a large band of Netchil- 

 liks, several of whom recollected the Franklin 

 party. Near their camp was the spot where, 

 probably, the last survivors perished. The Es- 

 quimaux had here found skeletons of several 

 people under a boat, and appropriated their 

 effects, giving the books and watches to their 

 children to play with. Meeting an old woman, 

 who had been in the camp of the unfortunate 

 explorers at Washington Bay, Schwatka deter- 

 mined to hasten on to King William Land before 

 the ice broke. On the way he obtained some 

 relics, and heard of another treasure of books 

 and papers having been destroyed by Esquimaux 

 children. The Esquimaux told a grisly tale of 

 finding skeletons with sawed bones, indicating 

 that cannibalism, the last, desperate relief for 

 the maddening pangs of hunger, had been re- 

 sorted to by some of the sufferers. They 

 crossed Simpson Strait with a large following 

 of natives, attracted by the promise of rewards, 

 but left Esquimau Joe and all but a single fam- 

 ily of Esquimaux at Cape Herschel, June 21st. 

 They were surprised at reaching Erebus Bay 

 two days later. Cape Herschel was afterward 

 found to be eighteen or twenty miles farther 

 west than the position marked on the Admiralty 

 charts. The snow became too soft to bear the 

 sledges, and the ice was covered with water; 

 but in a few days the snow had nearly melted on 

 the land, while a path was found for the sledges 



