EXPLORATION RESUMED. 409 



* 



mence making two sledges for the spring journeys. The only wood available 

 for this purpose was the timber lining of the boats ; for nothing more im- 

 portant grew on the desert slopes around Repulse Bay than a low and 

 scanty kind of heather, and here and there some moss. Five deer were 

 seen going north on the 21st February ; but they were still very wary and 

 kept well out of gun-shot. Before the close of the month a brace of 

 ptarmigan were shot, and several wolves had been destroyed at Ouligbuck's 

 set gun. Two were wounded on the night of the 27th, one of which was 

 caught before breakfast on the following day. " I went with Ouligbuck 

 after the other," says Eae, "in the forenoon, and got sight of him about three 

 miles from the house. Although his shoulder was fractured, he gave us a 

 long race before we ran him down, but at last we saw that he had begun to 

 eat snow, a sure sign that he was getting fagged. When I came up with 

 him, so tired was he that I was obliged to drive him on with the butt of my 

 gun in order to get him nearer home before knocking him on the head. At 

 last we were unable to make him move on by any means we could employ. 

 Ferocity and cowardice, often if not always, go together. How different 

 was the behaviour of this savage brute from that of the usually timid deer 

 under similar circumstances. The wolf crouched down and would not even 

 look at us, pull him about and use him as we might ; whereas I never saw 

 a deer that did not attempt to defend itself when brought to bay, however 

 severely wounded it might be." 



The first deer was shot on the 11th March, and the latter part of this 

 month was spent in making preparations for the journey over the ice and 

 snow to the shores of Akkoolee or Committee Bay. On the 3d April the 

 thermometer rose above zero for the first time since the 12th December. 

 After the beginning of April, the aurora, which had been frequently visible 

 during the winter, was seldom seen. With respect to this singular pheno- 

 menon, Dr Eae states that though both Eskimos and Indians, as well as the 

 Orkneymen and others employed in the service of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, assert that it produces an audible rustling noise, he himself had never 

 heard any such so\md. 



On the 5th April Dr Eae, together with four of his men and an Eskimo 

 ally named Ivitchuk, whom he had enlisted as guide, started on his second 

 journey across Eae Isthmus. The luggage and provisions — consisting mainly 

 of pemmican, reindeer tongues, and flour — ^were stowed on two sledges, 

 each drawn by four dogs. The travellers set out at dawn, and were wel- 

 comed upon the frozen desert with a gale of snow-laden wind. At eight A.M., 

 however, the sky cleared, the day became fine, and the sun " shone forth with 

 great brightness, surrounded by a halo of the most brilliant colours, with four 

 parhelia that rivalled the sun himself" At the close of a long day's work they 

 stopped at Christie Lake, built their snow house, and got into their blankets 

 8 3f 



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