326 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



SCALING AN ICE COLLAR IN BEAR SOUND. 



We approached to within three miles of Sylvia Island, the same 

 on which I and my Innuit companions had encamped on our late 

 journey to the " dreaded land," and I could not but view it in a 

 most friendly way when I remembered how its warm, dry rocks 

 gave us a good bed and protection from the storms. 



Our excursion lasted some hours, and we returned to the tu- 

 pics, both boats well laden with eggs. The total acquisition of 

 our two boats' crews was one hundred dozen eggs and five ducks. 

 An eider-duck egg is nearly twice the size of a hen's. 



At this time Captain B was absent with two boats a short 



distance up the bay "prospecting" for whales. He returned on 

 the 28th of June, during a fierce storm of wind and rain, and he 

 informed me that the trip back was made under most unfavorable 

 circumstances. The previous night had been passed on an island 

 above Evictoon, the only shelter obtained from the storm being 

 that which their boats' sails afforded when put up as a tent. His 

 own crew suffered greatly from the cold; but the Innuits with 

 him, not finding sufficient room inside the tent, went out and lay 

 down under the lee of some projecting rocks! They rested and slept 

 well, while the white men could hardly keep themselves, as they 

 said, from being frozen. 



