314 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



^1822.^ a t the time we took to be an ermine ; but which on subsequent recollection 

 of its colour, furry coat, and brushy tail, I believe to have been a squirrel 

 of some kind, though we have not on any other occasion met with this 

 animal. 



Tues. 20. It rained hard on the morning of the 20th till seven A.M., when we re- 

 ascended the hill to determine our best route to the ships according to the 

 position of the ice, and also with the intention of lighting a large smoky fire 

 to give intimation of our return, which signal I had agreed on with Captain 

 Lyon. In the latter attempt we failed, the anclromeda being too wet even to 

 produce smoke enough for our purpose. We therefore set out upon the ice 

 at half-past nine with the intention of making a hard push to get on board 

 without halting. With this view we kept well into the bay, in order to avoid 

 the detached ice near the islands, but were once obliged to go on shore on 

 account of a broad crack that had lately been made in the floe. We could 

 at this time scarcely discover the ships from the ice ; but having the island 

 of Neerlo-natko as a guide, we continued to push on, hoping to reach them in 

 two or three hours. At thirty minutes after three P.M. however, being sur- 

 prised to find them still six or seven miles distant, we halted to dine, and to 

 let one of our party, who was seized with a shivering in consequence of twice 

 falling into the water, shift his clothes ; after which we again set forward. 

 At half-past five we came to a quantity of " hummocky" ice that lay off the 

 island, and finding here a broad lane of water obstructing our progress, the 

 idea first occurred to us that the ships must be adrift, the whole of the ice 

 outside of us having been lately broken up and detached from the floe on 

 which we stood. By means of ferrying upon one piece as a boat to the 

 other, we at length got across the lane of water and found the ice in sepa- 

 rate masses, but more closely packed on the other side. The plank being 

 now no longer serviceable, while it occasioned us much detention in carrying, 

 we fixed it in an upright position on a large floe-piece, and in a few minutes 

 after a gun from the Hecla, accompanied by the appointed signal that a boat 

 was coming, assured us of our being discovered by the ships. At nine P.M. 

 when some of our party were nearly exhausted with incessant jumping and 

 wading, Lieutenant Hoppner met us in one of the boats, and we arrived on 

 board at ten o'clock, after twelve hours' laborious journey. 



On almost all the shores both of the main-land and islands that we visited, 

 some traces of the Esquimaux were found ; but they were less numerous 

 than in any other places on which we had hitherto landed. This circum- 



