188 AKTICOSTI. 



dently been occupied by women, for there was a lady's travel- 

 ing trunk inside and some remnants of female apparel. 

 There were abundant traces here of a fearful wreck and hor- 

 rible suffering. The victims had certainly been reduced to 

 the necessity of eating human flesh, and one at least had died ; 

 but where were the rest ? There were no clues to be found 

 anywhere no diary, no memorandum nothing but a simple 

 tally-stick, upon which had been scored the days of the 

 month of February. This was something. One p^son had 

 at least survived until March, provided all were dead now. 

 The sealers commenced a search. At last they discovered 

 in Fox Bay the wreck of the steamer " Granicus" She 

 had evidently been cut in two by the ice and run ashore. 

 Here was the key of the whole horrible problem. The 

 "Granicus" had been reported missing since the 1st of 

 November, at w T hich time she was due. It was about that 

 time, then, that the wreck occurred. Her crew and passengers 

 were all originally saved, and constructed the camp now 

 standing. For four long months November, December, 

 January, February had they endured the rigors of a Cana- 

 dian winter upon that desolate, uninhabited island. No use 

 to look for relief at that time of the year. Landward, sea- 

 ward,, nothing but ice-floes and pack-ice drifting. 



Without guns, or else ammunition exhausted, there were 

 no means of obtaining provisions, even though game was 

 abundant. And so, one by one, the ill-fated castaways per- 

 ished miserably; and when the survivors had become too 

 weak or indifferent to guard their bodies, they were dragged 

 off into the woods by wild beasts and devoured. Poor pick- 

 ings they must have had from these shriveled and emaciated 

 corpses! And the lady (it was afterwards ascertained from 

 the ship's passenger list that there was but one lady aboard), 

 was carefully protected to the last barricaded in her tent 

 against the attacks of famished wild animals that scented the 

 unnatural food. And when the last of the unfortunates, save 

 one, had eked out their miserable existence upon the lean 



