CHAPER IX. 



Prince of Wales Sound. 



interesting interview with an eskimo — the marriage of a 

 native beauty — trading with the huskies — the romance 

 of love-making — how a brave wins a bride in the far 



NORTH. 



* * The princess answered, pointing to 

 The monster king of Arctic seas : "To him 

 "Who brings, unaided but by lance and nerve, 

 " The soft white pelt of that huge bear 

 " I'll give my hand, and grant my father's crown." 



HE distance across the Strait from North Bluff to Prince of 



\|p Wales Sound, on the south-main coast, is between sixty 



and seventy miles. We left the first in the afternoon, and 



*^F would have reached the latter early the next morning 

 but for the field ice which we encountered soon after daylight. 

 Fortunately it was not very heavy, and the ship steamed through 

 it for some fifteen miles, and at one o'clock the anchor was cast in 

 a pretty little harbour, or cove, on the north-west side of the en- 

 trance to Prince of Wales Sound. It was on a Sunday. A large 

 party were soon on shore examining the character of the place. 



The coast was found less rugged than at Ashe's Inlet. The 

 general formation was the same, but the hills were not so high 

 nor steep. The surface was sloping, and to a considerable extent 

 covered with bog and short grass, with here and there specimens 

 of flowering plants. As at all the places we visited, there was an 

 abundance of pure fresh water in small rivulets, springs, little lakes 

 nestled among the rocks, and in large ponds in the valleys. 



The sound of the Neptune's whistle brought some twenty or 

 thirty Eskimos — men, women and children — from the interior to the 



