THE ESKIMO OF STUPART BAY. 99 



Mr. Burwell, the officer in charge, on August 8th, and steamed 

 northward across the Straits. A little snow fell that evening. 

 August 9th. — It was blowing too hard to effect a landing on Resolu- 

 tion Island, so in the afternoon we stood off shore hoping for a fair 

 day on the morrow. The fates were, however, against us. Sunday, 

 Aug. 10th. — At early morning it was blowing a gale from the east- 

 ward, and before noon the wind chopped round and blew still harder 

 from the west, and during the remainder of the day we were lying 

 too and making no headway. On Aug. I Ith we passed through 

 many miles of loose ice, but none of it was of sufficient size to 

 seriously impede our progress. Late in the afternoon we entered a 

 small inlet in the large Upper Savage Island, where it was decided 

 to establish another station, the officer in charge being Mr. W. A. 

 Ashe, of Quebec. We had scarcely entered the inlet when an 

 Eskimo put out to us in a kyak. He told us, by means of the inter- 

 preter, that there were several families camping near by ; they had 

 shot two reindeer that day, and their headquarters were near 

 an American trading station, which we knew existed some 30 miles 

 to the westward. On the following day we were visited by about a 

 dozen of the natives, who walked off to us on the ice which had 

 closed in round us with the flood-tide. Some few of them could 

 speak a little English, and possessed a few articles of European 

 clothing. However, from what I saw of them, I should judge that, 

 morally speaking, up to that time they had not benefited by their 

 contact with the whites. Aug. 1 6th. — Early in the afternoon we 

 left Ashe Inlet in a snowstorm, and steamed slowly south.^ About 

 6 p.m. we passed an enormous berg, probably from Fox Channel ; 

 it shewed about 50 feet out of water and was fully a quarter of a 

 mile in length. At dai'k the engines were stopped, and we lay to 

 until daylight, when we again started. At about 10 o'clock we 

 entered a field of loose ice which extended almost to the coast ; many 

 walrus were seen playing about among the blocks of ice. Shortly 

 before 1 o'clock we neared a long rocky point, and Lieut. Gordon 

 proposed building my observatory on it if he could find anchorage in 

 the bay beyond. Viewed from the ship the site certainly did not 

 look inviting, but before long we were anchored in a small bay, open 

 only to the S.E., from the end of which a valley, which at places 

 looked green, extended far back into the country, bounded on either 

 side by high rocky hills. After dinner I went ashore with my men 



