412 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



CHAPTEE XXV. 



Departure from Greenwood Land. — Numerous Rocks. — Furious Tides. — Narrow 

 Escape. — Preservation Island. — Beginning of Winter. — Ice forming. — Author's 

 Illness. — Visits the principal Islands at Head of the Bay. — Koojesse a skillful 

 Boatman. — Another critical Position. — Nearly wrecked. — Saved by the rising 

 Tide. — Departure homeward. — The Kingaite Coast. — Boisterous Weather. — De- 

 tained on a rugged Island. — Renew the Voyage. — Difficulties with the Innuit 

 Crew. — Freedom and Independence. — Land, and make eighteenth Encampment. 



My desire was to have continued here much longer, and thor- 

 oughly to have examined the vicinity of the natural " Gateway" 

 already mentioned ; but my companions were urgent to go, and I 

 was obliged to yield. Accordingly, on the morning of Septem- 

 ber 6th, 1861, our tupics were struck, and we set out on the return 

 journey. 



It was 9 37 A.M. when we left our fifteenth encampment, and 

 at ten o'clock we landed Koojesse and Koodloo on the opposite 

 side of the estuary. They were desirous of going on another 

 tuktoo hunt across the mountains, and were to rejoin us at the 

 place where our thirteenth encampment had been made, the point 

 to which we were now bound. There were thus left in the boat 

 with me only the three women of my crew, and I was not free 

 from anxiety till we had passed a point of land which I called the 

 " Little Peak," and which was by the water's edge, surrounded 

 by dangerous shoals. Then I supposed we had got over the crit- 

 ical portion of our way. 



When abreast of the fourteenth encampment, and near a small 

 island about one mile from that station, I found we were being 

 carried along by the ebbing tide at a rapid rate, but I then appre- 

 hended no danger. Suzhi, who was experienced in boating, joy- 

 ously called my attention to the swiftness of our progress, saying, 

 with a sweeping motion of her hand, "pe-e-ulcef" (good). But 

 soon this feeling of pleasure was destroyed. It was not five min- 

 utes after Suzhi's exclamation when we were all struggling for 

 dear life. 



The island we were approaching was small, and it seemed to us 

 that it mattered little on which side of it we should pass. On 



* 



