North Bluff— Ashe's Inlet. 73 



two deer, and you may be sure they were served on the Neptune 

 for breakfast the next morning. 



Captain Spicer's trading station is located about thirty miles 

 west of Ashe's Inlet, on the north-main coast of the Strait. The 

 Captain is an old whaler, an enterprising Connecticut Yankee, who 

 has maintained a profitable trade with the Eskimos for several 

 years. He has the only tradiDg post on the Strait. We made an 

 attempt to visit his establishment but could not accomplish the 

 desire. 



The darkness of the stormy night was upon us, and, with our 

 native visitors, by means of the Expedition interpreter, we settled 

 down to obtaining some information about that section of the won- 

 derful north. They first entertained us with the story of a shipwreck. 



" They say," says Mr. Lane, our interpreter, " that only a short 

 time ago — they don't say quite how long — most likely a month or 

 more, how that a schooner (a yankee vessel), they think it's a yankee 

 vessel, got stuck in the field-ice off here, in the Strait ; she drifted up 

 and down the shore about five miles off, they thinks, most likely it 

 was five miles, for days and days, with the heavy winds and tides. 

 Finally, they says how the crew got out of the vessel and made a 

 camp out of the sail (most likely the sail from the schooner) and 

 camped on the ice-pans, not a great ways from the vessel. Then 

 they says how most likely they got provisions and coals from the 

 ship and built a fire on the ice, and cooked most likely salt pork. 

 Then they says how most likely the Eskimos gathered on the shore 

 and watched the sufferers, for most likely, they says, the sailors 

 suffered from the cold. Then they tells me how the schooner got 

 nipped in the ice and went down, most likely in a hundred fathoms 

 of water. Then they tells me how the men drifted about on the ice- 

 pan for days. Then they says how they finally lost sight of them, 

 but they says most likely there was a favourable wind and they 

 were driven towards the shore and escaped to the land, and most 

 likely went to sailor Spicer's." 



Such was the story of the shipwreck, and upon close enquiry we 

 found that their account was probably truthful, although they could 

 not be certain of the escape of the crew. 



