610 Conversations tvith Innuits. rj«iy, iseo. 



ing heavily, I made my men travel on the ice, the walking being better there, 

 whilst I followed the windings of the shore, closely examining every object 

 along the beach. 



"After pasfsing several heaps of stones which had evidently covered Es- 

 kimo caches, I came to a collection larger than any I had seen, and clearly not 

 intended for the protection of property of any kind ; the stones, generalh- speak- 

 ing, were small, and had been built in the form of a pillar, but the top had fallen 

 down, as the Eskimo had' previously given me to understand was the case. Call- 

 ing my men to land, 1 sent one to trace what looked like the bed of a small river, 

 immediately west of us, whilst the other men and myself cleared away the i)ile of 

 stones in search of a document. Although no document was found, there could 

 be no doubt in my own mind and in that of my companion that its construction 

 was not that of the natives. My belief that we had arrived at the Castor and 

 Pollux Eiver was confirmed when the person who had been sent to trace the ap- 

 parent stream-bed returned with the information that it was clearly a river. 



* * * " Having spent upwards of an hour in fruitless search for a mem- 

 orandum of some kind, we began to retrace our steps," &c. 



I will follow the extract with a remark or two. Taking the story of In-nook- 

 poo-shee-jook and the i)receding extract of Eae's report into consideration, it is 

 quite certain that the monument was that of white men. 



ISTow Dease and Simpson give no account in their first report of having 

 erected any mark there — that is, at the place where their discoveries ended — to 

 wit, at Castor and Pollux Eiver ; but in the Narrative, Simpson does give the 

 account of raising a monument at the extent of their discovery, viz, Castor and 

 Pollux Eiver! They also state that they erected a monument at Cape Britannia 

 and another at Cape Herschel. To mj^ mind, it appears reasonable that Sir John 

 Frankliu'S Expedition was not idle after getting besets as it did on the 12th Sep- 

 tember, 1840, near King William's Land. As the spring of 1847 opened, it is 

 altogether likely that exploring sledge parties were started off, one at least down 

 the west side of King William's land to connect the discoveries of Sir John Eoss' 

 exi)edition with that of Dease and Simpson's, while another, quite likely, pro- 

 ceeded down the east side to connect discoveries that had been made by the same 

 expeditions. Of course. King William's Land was found to be an island, and 

 the whole coast of tlie iniiinlnnd (Boothia) from Cape Porter to Castor and Pollux 

 Eivers was most undoubtedly explored and a record of these facts made and 

 cached, in tliat particular monument referred to by Eae in 1854 and now by In- 

 nook-jtoo-shee-jook. That some pai'ty of Franklin's Ex])edition visited the east 



