452 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



This was no small undertaking. Frobisher's Bay 

 is an exceedingly dangerous body of water to navi- 

 gate. Everywhere are hidden reefs and narrow pas- 

 sages all uncharted. To add to this there is a rise 

 and fall of tide of from forty to forty-five feet, which 

 leaves many rocks exposed at low water; while at 

 the entrance of the Bay it runs at ebb and flow at a 

 rate of about eight miles an hour. 



Our little vessel could never stem this, at its out- 

 ward flow, and we therefore made ready to pass 

 through the straits at the entrance when tide was at 

 half flood. We were but three-quarters through the 

 strait when a heavy head wind sprang up, and forced 

 us to seek anchorage in a small harbor some five miles 

 from the entrance. Grant then expressed himself 

 as believing it unsafe to make another attempt. 



Captain Bartlett and I talked the situation over. 

 We could not leave until every effort to rescue the 

 unfortunate man had been made. At the same time 

 the season was late, we were in practically the posi- 

 tion the Snowdrop was caught in just a year before, 

 and we were running great risks. Ice was liable to 

 hem us in at any moment. It was decided finally to 

 dispatch Grant and six of his men in our power-boat 

 to make the search, and this plan was carried into 

 execution the following day, September fifteenth. 



When the party returned on the afternoon of the 

 seventeenth Grant reported that they had made a 

 complete search, but all the Eskimos had apparently 

 left the bay, and no trace of the missing man could 

 be found. Nothing more seemed possible, and very 



