OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



431 



canoes together, to give the requisite stability. Some long-tailed ducks ^ 2 <*. 



were noticed by the Esquimaux on the 21st, at which time some silvery gulls * — 



"Wed 2 1 



were more frequently seen than before, but they were not numerous. On the 



22d the Esquimaux observed, for the first time this season, the tracks of two Thur.22* 



deer ; and the snow-buntings, which are usually some of the earliest visitants 



to these reigions in the spring, began now to appear in flocks ; but it was 



seldom that a stray bird of any kind was to be seen in the neighbourhood of 



the ships. 



On the 26th, Captain Lyon went out on his sledge to Arlagnuk, and sue- Mon. 26. 

 ceeded in killing fourteen pair of king-ducks, a part of which only the 

 Esquimaux, who picked them up in their canoes, thought proper to return, 

 secreting the rest for their own use. Finding that nothing but a boat was 

 wanting to ensure us a supply of ducks from time to time, we now sent a 

 party with an officer, and our small boats from each ship, these being carried 

 on sledges to Arlagnuk, where our shooting-parties were established close to 

 the open water, which extended from thence to the south-eastward, as far as 

 the eye could reach. 



Favourable as the first part of the month of May had appeared with June, 

 respect to temperature, its close was by no means equally promising, and on Sun ' ir 

 the 1st of June, at two A.M., the thermometer stood at +8°. This unusually 

 low temperature, much exceeding in severity any thing we had experienced 

 at Melville Island at the same season, rendered it necessary to defer for a 

 time a journey which it was proposed that Captain Lyon should undertake, 

 across the land to the westward at the head of Quilliam Creek, and thence, 

 by means of the ice, along the shores of the Polar Sea, in the direction to- 

 wards Akkoolee. The object of this journey, like that of most of the others 

 which had been performed in various directions, was to acquire all the infor- 

 mation within our reach, of those parts of the continental coast to which the 

 ships were denied access ; and it was hoped that at the coming season some 

 judgment might be formed of the probable state of the ice along that shore 

 in the summer, by which the future movements of the Fury might be influ- 

 enced. Captain Lyon was to be accompanied by two men, and a complete 

 supply of every kind for a month's travelling was to be drawn on a sledge 

 by ten excellent dogs, which he had taken great pains to procure and 

 train for such occasions. As I was desirous of ascertaining beyond any 

 doubt the identity of the Khemig, to Avhich I had sailed in the autumn, with 

 that seen by Captain Lyon On his journey with the Esquimaux, I determined 



