494 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



When within three cables' distance of where he was still seated 

 beside the seal-hole, having been there since the previous morn- 

 ing, he signified to us not to approach nearer, lest we should 

 frighten the seal, as it had come up and given a puff. We then 

 returned to the igloo and remained for another night. On the 

 morning of March 4th Ebierbing had not returned, and I went 

 once more to look for him, but soon discovered him approaching. 

 He had been two and a half days and two nights at that seal-hole, 

 patiently sitting over it without food or drink! and he had not 

 caught the seal either. On returning to the igloo some soup and 

 other food was given him, and he then expressed a determination 

 to go and try again. 



On the evening of March 5th I was again at the ship, Ebier- 

 bing, his wife, and infant having accompanied me. I left a sup- 

 ply of my pemmican for Koodloo and his family, until Ebierbing 

 should return with the dogs and sledge for them. 



The last half of the month of March I was chiefly occupied 

 with preparations for the sledge journey which I proposed making 

 up Frobisher Bay, and to which I have before referred. I con- 

 clude this chapter with an extract from my diary of January 8th, 

 concerning a subject which was always present with me, and to a 

 consideration of which I gave many thoughtful hours : 



" This P.M. I have called on my Innuit friends Ebierbing and 

 Tookoolito. They are going to accompany me to the United 

 States. I take them with the object of having them as interpret- 

 ers on my still proposed voyage to King William's Land and 

 Boothia Felix. Among the Innuits who spend their lives in the 

 vicinity of the places named, there exists the history of Sir John 

 Franklin's expedition from about the time the Erebus and Terror 

 became beset in the ice, near King William's Land, to its final dis- 

 persion, and of all events connected therewith. I repeat : the his- 

 tory of Sir John Franklin's expedition exists among the Innuits 

 now living on and in the vicinity of King William's Land, Mon- 

 treal Island, and Boothia Felix Peninsula. I am almost positive 

 that if I can be so blessed by the Power that overrules all things 

 as to make a successful passage to the field of my desired opera- 

 tions, I can, after a time, accomplish such a work as shall make it 

 a matter of astonishment to the civilized world that the same has 

 not been done before." 



