416 THE ZOOLOGIS'Y. 
chiefly yellow sandstones; many of these blocks lay at an altitude 
of 2000 feet. 
Despite the unattractive appearance of Payer Harbour, traces of 
Eskimo were found on its shores, in the shape of seven circles 
of stones that had been employed in fastening down the edges of 
the skin-tents which are used by that people as summer abodes. 
In their vicinity we picked up a few lichen-covered bones of 
animals, including a tooth of Rangifer tarandus, bones of a seal, 
and the jaw of a fox. At another spot we discovered the greater 
part of a sledge, the runners of which had been composed of wood 
and bone, and the cross-pieces of Narwhals’ tusks, but so ancient 
that the exposed surfaces were exfoliated, and so brittle that they 
barely withstood transport to the ship. A harpoon tipped with a 
piece of ordinary hoop-iron was found at another camping spot, 
but the freshness of the traces showed that they belonged to a 
comparatively recent date. At the time we were somewhat puzzled 
to account for the presence of iron in the spear-head, which pointed 
to some intercourse with Europeans; but since reading the official 
account of the ‘ Polaris’ Expedition,* it is quite clear that com- 
munication is kept up between the natives on both sides of the 
straits, and no doubt iron from Port Foulke has thus found its way 
to the inhabitants of Ellesmere land. Nothing certain is known 
about these people inhabiting Ellesmere Land and North Lincoln, 
and they still remain an interesting subject for the researches of 
Arctic explorers in the future.t 
On Brevoort Island there was a breeding-place of Larus glaucus, 
which we visited. The young birds were in much the same state 
of plumage as those we found on the Cary Islands; they were 
nesting on ledges not more than twenty feet above the water and 
quite accessible. During the disturbance made by our intrusion 
on the breeding-haunt of the Glaucous Gulls, four Ivory Gulls, 
very likely nesting in the neighbourhood, made their appearance. 
One of these, a male, was secured; its iris was dark hair-brown, 
* ‘Narrative of the Polaris Expedition,’ Washington, 1876, p. 451. 
+ I am indebted to Prof. Dickie, of Aberdeen, for some most interesting sketches 
of objects of Eskimo handiwork which were discovered by Dr. Philpotts in 1865, 
when excavating in an old “igloo” on Banks Island, near Cape Hosburgh. They 
consist of rude models of Eskimo women, Hider Ducks, and other objects carved in 
ivory, and a stone harpoon-head drilled to receive fastenings. Cape Hosburgh is 
situated near to the south entrance of Jones Sound. An examination of that channel 
would, I have no doubt, yield valuable results. 
