The Wonders of Nachvak. 53 



"buildings — a very small residence and two small storehouses. These 

 are located on a little piece of land at the water's edge covered with 

 bog and grass, nestled at the base of a range of hills of solid, barren 

 gneiss. The harbour is at an abrupt bend of the inlet, where the 

 •deep water approaches close to the rocky shore. It is a safe and 

 pleasant anchorage. 



The post is conducted by Mr. Ford, brother to the Mr. Ford who 

 conducted us from Ford's Harbour to Nam. He has a wife and 

 two children and two or three servants, and about twenty miserable- 

 looking, snarling dogs. There are a few Eskimos scattered in the 

 neighbourhood, but hardly to the extent to merit the title of a 

 population. The place is excessively lonely, barren and unfruitful 

 in every respect, except that the bay is alive with cod and trout, as 

 are all the inlets of the Labrador. Game is also plentiful. 



At this place, lat. 59° 4' N., long. 63° 51' 30" W., the ice does 

 not form in the harbour until the middle of November, and fre- 

 quently not until the first of January, and it always goes out by 

 the middle or 20th of June. This is in accordance with Mr. Ford's 

 record of seven years. 



With his dogs and skin-covered koamatik, Mr. Ford makes 

 winter trips for two or three hundred miles along the coast, gather- 

 ing furs from the natives. We had the dogs harnessed to this 

 curious sledge, and obtained photographs of the buildings with this 

 outfit in the foreground. Lieut. Gordon obtained only a very few 

 furs here, but was repaid for the trouble of going by securing the 

 services of Mr. James Lane, an Eskimo half-breed, as interpreter. 

 He proved to be of great service in Hudson Strait, and was a 

 valuable acquisition to the Expedition. 



I may as well break the thread of the narrative at this point, 

 for a few moments, to state that observing station No. 2, which we 

 were unable to place on Resolution Island for reasons that will be 

 given further on, was located on the north side of Nachvak Bay, 

 about five miles from the entrance, at a place called Rumford's 

 Cove. This station was placed in charge of Mr. William Skynner, 

 of Toronto, with Messrs. Rainsford and Jordan, as station-men. It 

 was decided to call Mr. Skynner's location " Skynner's Cove." 



