156 AECTIC SUMMEE ABODES. Chap. IX. 



generally dipping at an angle of 35° to the 

 west. 



Early on tlie 1st of August I set out for tlie 

 native village witli Hobson, Petersen, two 

 men, and the two natives from Button Point. 

 Eight miles of wet and weary ice-travelling, 

 which occupied as many hours, terminated our 

 journey ; the surface of the ice was everywhere 

 deeply channelled, and abundantly flooded by 

 the summer's thaw : we were almost constantly 

 launching our small boat over the slippery 

 ridges which separated pools or channellings 

 through which it was generally necessary to 

 wade. 



After toiling round the base of a precipice, 

 we came rather suddenly in view of a small 

 semicircular bay ; the cliffs on either side were 

 800 or 900 feet high, remarkably forbidding 

 and desolate ; the mouth of a valley or wide 

 mountain gorge opens out into its head. Here, 

 in the depth of the bay, upon a low flat strip of 

 land, stood seven tents, — the summer village of 

 Kaparok-to-lik. I never saw a locality more 

 characteristic of the Esquimaux than that which 

 they have here selected for their abode ; — it is 

 wildly picturesque in the true Arctic appRca- 

 tion of the term. 



