* 



FIE ST VISIT TO FROBISHER BAY. 



117 



CHAPTER VI. 



First Visit to Frobisher Bay. — " Meta Incognita." — Fossils. — Koo-jesse and his 

 Family. — Old Artarkparu. — The beautiful Kok-er-zhun. — Skinning Ducks. — Es- 

 quimaux Food. — Native Mode of Sleeping. — Innuit Head-ornaments. — Return 

 to the Ship. — Excursion on Shore. — White Man's Grave. — Esquimaux Grave. — 

 Chart made by Koojesse. — Innuit Skill in Geography. — Aurora Borealis. — Vis- 

 ited by Numbers of the Natives. — Skill of the Women at Work. — Trial of the Ex- 

 pedition Boat. — Journey on Land. — Annawa. — Ancient Dwellings of the Innuits. 

 —A Mountain Pass.— Old Mother Pe-ta-to.— Puto and the White Child.— Whale 

 captured. — An exciting Scene. — Great Feast for the Natives. — Author's first 

 Trial at raw Whale-meat. — Custom and Education alone prevents the Enjoy- 

 ment of raw Food. — Discovery of a Frobisher Relic. 



It was half past four o'clock, August 21st, when we dropped 

 anchor in this beautiful inlet, which I name after Richard H. 

 Chapell, of New London, Connecticut. We then had a hurried 

 tea, and immediately afterward took a boat and went on shore. 

 Our party consisted of the captain, Mates Gardiner and Lamb, 

 Morgan and Bailey, besides myself. Four Esquimaux — two of 

 them being Ugarng and his wife Kun-ni-u — also accompanied us. 



On getting ashore we found that the neck of land dividing the 

 waters just left from those of Frobisher "Straits" was less than 

 a mile in breadth, and so low that, except in one part where a 

 ridge of rocks occurred, it could not be more than a few feet above 

 the sea, and possibly covered at high tides. Portions of this 

 isthmus were sandy, and the rest full of stones, rocks, and several 

 specimens of shale, many of which I eagerly collected. On one 

 plat of sand we observed some foot-tracks, which Ugarng stated 

 to be of reindeer, though such an opinion seemed to me ridiculous 

 from the appearance before us, and so the event proved on the 

 following day, when we encountered some Esquimaux who had 

 been here. 



On arriving at the ridge of rocks, which I call "Morgan's Hill," 

 and which overlooked the whole locality around, I paused a mo- 

 ment to gaze upon the scene before my eye. There, facing me, 

 was the celebrated " Strait" — so called — of Frobisher, and beyond 

 it in the distance Meta Incognita* — thus named by Queen Eliza- 



* " Meta Incognita 1 '' embraced both sides of "Frobisher Straits," and, in fact, 

 was meant to include the whole of his discoveries. 



