May, 1859. APPEAEANCE OP CAIENS. 281 



Doubtless the natives, when they ascertained 

 that famine and fatigue had caused many 

 of the white men " to fall down and die " 

 upon their fearful march, and heard, as they 

 might have done, of its fatal termination upon 

 the mainland, lost no time in following up 

 their traces, examining every spot where they 

 halted, every mark they put up, or stone dis- 

 placed. 



It is easy to tell whether a cairn has been 

 put up or touched within a moderate period 

 of years ; if very old, the outer stones have a 

 weathered appearance, lichens will have grown 

 upon the sheltered portions and moss in the 

 crevices; but if recently disturbed, even if a 

 single stone is turned upside down, these ap- 

 pearances are altered. If a cairn has been 

 recently built it will be evident, because the 

 stones picked up from the neighbourhood would 

 be bleached on top by the exposure of centuries, 

 whilst underneath they would be coloured by 

 the soil in which they were imbedded. To the 

 eye of the native hunter these marks of a recent 

 cairn are at once apparent ; and unless Simpson's 

 cairn (built in 1839) had been disturbed by 

 Crozier, I do not think the Esquimaux would 

 have been at the trouble of pulling it down to 



