INNUIT HONESTY. 



439 



a fresh breeze from certain directions, causes a dangerous sea for 

 boats running between Countess of Warwick's Sound and Bear 

 Sound, a fact we proved by personal experience. On arriving at 

 the old whaling depot, Cape True, I landed and went to Flagstaff 

 Hill. There was still enough remaining to show where the ship's 

 company had lived so long : the tattered remnants of a flag, some 

 boards, a dismantled table, an old cooking -stove, with broken- 

 down walls around it, oil-casks covered with sods, some rope and 

 ice-gear, with the usual indications of Innuit tent life, met my 

 view ; but it was solitary as compared with the life and anima- 

 tion displayed when I was there only a few months before. Slow- 

 ly I turned my steps away from this place, where I had spent so 

 many happy hours ; and I could not help saying to myself, " Shall 

 I ever again behold it ? God only knows !" 



We stopped at Cape True nearly an hour, and then pursued 

 our way through Bear Sound. On arriving at the next place of 

 encampment, the last before reaching the harbor where I had left 

 the ship, the Innuits informed me that it was called Shar-toe-wik- 

 toe, from a natural breakwater of thin or plate stone, the native 

 word meaning " thin flat stone." It is on a tongue of land near- 

 ly surrounded by water, on the west side of Lupton Channel, 

 within a mile of Field Bay, and has a beautiful little boat-harbor. 

 A few moments after landing, some of the Innuits found the re- 

 mains of recent encampments of their people. On examination, 

 we discovered that several tupics had been there, and it was con- 

 cluded that Annawa, Artarkparu, and other families had made 

 this their resting-place on the way from where we had met them 

 up Frobisher Bay to Field Bay. At this place I found some de- 

 posits of seal and walrus, evidently freshly made by the party 

 preceding us ; and here I noticed an instance of honesty and 

 good faith which deserves mention : 



These deposits were beneath piles of stone, with a stick run- 

 ning up obliquely from each, so that if the ground shoA be cov- 

 ered with snow, the place might be easily found. Tne Innuits 

 with me noticed all this, and saw the meat thus deposited, yet not 

 one would touch a morsel of it. They knew it belonged to others, 

 and therefore it was sacred in their eyes, unless in case of actual 

 extremity. 



From the present (27th and last) encampment our first one on 

 the outward trip was not far distant — about a mile off — and on the 

 opposite side of the channel was Lok's Land, the " dreaded land." 



