AGE OF THE EELICS. 



365 



oral history — I had acquired by great perseverance from the In- 

 nuits, that a great many years ago — many generations ago — hod- 

 lunarn oomiarkchua (white men with big ship) came into this bay 

 (Tin-nu-jok-ping-oo-se-ong) ; because of the chain that I felt was 

 now complete, that determined this to be the bay that Frobisher 

 discovered in 1576, and revisited consecutively in the years 1577 

 and 1578, and that Niountelik, the island of my visitation to-day, 

 was the identical one* on which Frobisher landed with the object 

 of establishing winter quarters for the colony of a hundred men 

 that he brought here in his last voyage, to wit, in 1578 ! 



" The account which Frobisher gave of his discovery was so 

 indefinite that the civilized world has remained in doubt for near- 

 ly three hundred years of its locality., Even to this day geogra- 

 phers know not its location. Some one has made a guess, and 

 approximated to the fact — simply approximated. In a few days 

 I trust I shall return, either confirming it to be a 1 strait,' as it is 

 called, or with the full conviction that this water is a bay, which 

 I believe it to be, from what the Innuits have told me. 



"I now resume the incidents of this day. A few minutes after 

 Koo-ou-le-arng's arrival at the coal-heap, I proceeded to investi- 

 gate more searchingly into the probable time it had been there, 

 and all other matters pertaining to it. 



" I first dug down in the centre to ascertain its depth ; found it 

 to be one foot in the thickest part, and thinning off to an edge at 

 a distance of five to ten feet from the centre. On walking around, 

 I found that the winds, mostly those from the northeast, north, and 

 northwest, had scattered the coal (chiefly small pieces) over a great 

 extent of ground. In fact, wind from the opposite points would 

 carry such coal as it could lick up into the water of ' Countess of 

 Warwick's Sound,' as Frobisher denominated the water at the 

 northwest, north, northeast, east, and southeast of Mountelik, for 

 the coal deposit is close by the bank bordering the sound. 



" To satisfy myself fully that this coal must have been where it 

 lies for a great many years, I dug around and beneath the clods 

 of thickly-matted grass — around and beneath stunted willows and 

 'crowberry' shrubs — around and beneath mosses. Wherever I 

 made these excavations I found coal. Many places overgrown 

 with grass I examined, digging down a depth of several inches, 

 and overturning sods exhibiting coal at the base, then a layer of 



* This conclusion was too hasty, as I discovered on my return from the head of 

 Frobisher Bay, when I visited Kodlunarn Island. 



