74 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



was immense. Frequently I bad to dig out cracks between the 

 rocks for both fingers and toes to hold on by. I dared not look 

 around. I was unable to do any thing but go on.' At length I 

 reached a lofty peak, and to my dismay beheld another beyond it, 

 with a precipice 'between! For a moment I hung to the rock 

 upon which I stood. I closed my eyes. I gradually opened 

 them, with shaded hands. I gazed upon the awful depths be- 

 low ; then, glancing round, I saw one of Nature's grand and 

 mighty scenes. Mountains upon mountains, with great breaks 

 between, burst on my view. On one side, the lake, river, and 

 valley below, with Davis's Straits in the distance ; on the other, 

 peak upon peak, to some five hundred, towering upward to the 

 skies. Mount Cunningham, as the highest was called, was evi- 

 dently inaccessible, and to attempt it would have been foolhardy. 

 I therefore ended my journey here, erected a pile of stones, and 

 then marking my name, began the descent. 



" I found Adam Beck anxiously waiting me, and, in due course, 

 together we reached the town, where I procured a boat and got 

 safely on board, well tired, but satisfied with my journey." 



Adam informed me that his children had no food, and though 

 I had paid him well, and did for him all in my power, yet that 

 could not help him much. The next day he, his wife, two chil- 

 dren, and an infant at her back, went out in their rickety canoe to 

 try and catch fish for u poor picaninnies." 



The following is a fac-simile of Adam Beck's writing, when I 

 asked him to put down his name and date of birth, which he did, 

 adding the name of Sir John Eoss. 



There is no C in the Greenland-Esquimaux alphabet, as already 

 explained, and this accounts for its omission in the above. 



On the 16th of July we endeavored to return the many kind- 

 nesses shown us by the good people of Holsteinborg by inviting 

 them to .a ball. The lieutenant governor and lady, the school- 



