182 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANAD 
the skeleton of an immense whale, but unfortunately 
not the part that is of commercial value. This doubt- 
less had been carried away by the Eskimos or by some 
whaling crew. 
During the following day the weather continued fair, 
and feeling that nature was favoring us we made good 
use of our time. As we followed the coast in a south- 
westerly direction the outline of Marble Island could 
be seen against the southern sky; while to the north 
extended the bold, dark coast-line of rock, unbroken 
in appearance excepting where here and there lay great. 
banks of snow. 
About noon we discovered, on landing, what must. 
very recently have been a large Eskimo encampment. 
Several kometics (sleds) and other articles were found. 
The wreck of a large whale-boat lay on the shore, 
and several dogs were seen lurking about. This camp- 
ing-place was the summer home of the Eskimos we had 
met sailing up Chesterfield Inlet, and from a sanitary 
point of view was no credit to them, for filth and putre- 
faction everywhere abounded. 7 
The rocks of this locality were of an interesting’ 
character, being dark green hornblendic schists of the 
Huronian formation. 
Following these two days of exceptionally fair weather 
we enjoyed still another, and were permitted to tra- 
verse the mouth of Rankin Inlet, which would have 
required two or three days to coast had the weather 
been anything but calm. During these three days we 
had made a distance of just one hundred miles, which, 
upon such an exposed coast, we considered good progress. 
Though we saw little game we still had some dried 
