SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 423 



CHAPTER XIV. 



VARIOUS JOURNEYS TO THE ESQUIMAUX STATIONS ILLNESS AND DECEASE OF MR. 



ALEXANDER ELDER PREPARATIONS FOR THE HECLA'S RETLTIN TO ENGLAND 



REMARKABLE HALOS, ^"C. SHOOTING PARTIES STATIONED AT ARLAGNUK JOUR- 

 NEYS TO QUILLIAM CREEK ARRIVAL OF ESQUIMAUX FROM THE NORTHWARD 



ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY TO THE WESTWARD FOR THE PLTIPOSE OF REACHING 



THE POLAR SEA THE ESQUIMAUX REPORT TWO FISHING-SHIPS HAVING BEEN 



WRECKED — A JOURNEY PERFORMED TO COCKBURN ISLAND DISCOVERY OF 



MURRAY MAXWELL ISLET. 



Whatever hopes of an unusually mild winter misrht have been excited bv ^^^^• 

 the mean temperature of some oi the preceding months, the comparative v^-v-v./ 

 view exhibited in the foregoing table, for a longer period of each winter that 

 we had passed in these regions, did not seem to hold out at present a pro- 

 spect of any thing extraordinary. It could indeed have been scarcely anti- 

 cipated that our journals would have registered so progressive a decrease of 

 mean temperature, in proportion to the height of our latitude as that here 

 given ; and this circumstance may perhaps be considered as intimating that 

 though in small intervals of time, such as particular and corresponding 

 months, considerable differences may occur in this respect, yet that in longer 

 periods the averages will be found to coincide more nearly : — that nature, in 

 short, though ever varying in detail, still preserves her general uniformity ; 

 and that when any considerable deviation from her usual course has taken 

 place on one side, she struggles to maintain the balance by some extraordi- 

 nary compensation on the other. 



On the 1st of April Captain Lyon went out on his sledge to the distant 

 station of the Esquimaux, which he found to be situated eight or nine miles 

 to the westward of Tern Island, and consisting of five snow-huts built upon 

 the ice ; the people, who were twenty-eight in number, living almost indepen 

 dently of the open water, by catching the neilit/r in its hole in the manner 

 already described. Tliey were at this time abundantly furnished with food. 



