348 Survey of the Northwest Coast. lAprii, ises. 



the most disappointed one of the party, for he expressed honest fears 

 that lie would be thought to have told a falsehood." Yet his charac- 

 ter for entire truthfulness had been and still remained unquestioned ; 

 Hall saA's he had previously ''sharply-tested this man." He left the 

 spot with the assurance that his search for the evidence of white 

 men's having- lived a struggling life in those regions had not been in 

 vain, for they had found a monument and tenting-place made by 



WHITE MEN. 



From astronomical observations and compass-bearings he now 

 determined the coast-line between Cape Englefield the most western 

 point of the Strait sighted by Parry, and Cape Crozier the most 

 northern reached by Rae in 1847; by which survey he may be justly 

 said to have filled up this broken line of the Admiralty chart for the 

 northwestern part of Melville Peninsula at and below the western outlets 

 of Fury and Hecla Strait. This was, at least, a liberal compensation 

 for the disappointment keenly felt on leaving the spot without rec- 

 ords or closer traces of white men. 



Just before again reaching their igloo, Koo-loo-d's sharp eyes spied 

 a hole in it, and as the tracks of a wolverine had been already seen, 

 alarm was taken for the safety of their provisions On coming nearer, 

 walrus-hide, meat, and blubber w^ere seen scattered here and there on 

 tlie ice ; but on Hall's breaking open the door, he found that the ani- 

 mal had but scratched two or three little holes through the snow-plat- 

 form and dragged out the articles without carrj^ing them into its hole. 

 A delay of one day more would probably have cost the party the loss 

 of all their food. 



Not satisfied to give up the search for Franklin's men whom he 



