558 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



CHAPTER XXXYI. 



Revisit Victoria Bay. — Packed Ice setting in the Sound. — Detention and difficult Es- 

 cape. — Return to the Whaling Depot. — Joyous News from the Ship. — All Hands 

 summoned on Board. — Great Excitement. — Adieu to Bear Sound, Lupton Chan- 

 nel, and French Head. — Arrival on Board. — The Ship free from Ice. — Prepar- 

 ations for Sailing. — Visit to Ebierbing and Tookoolito. — Their readiness to go 

 to America. — August 9th, 1862, the George Henry lifts Anchor, and gets under 

 way for Home. — Friendly Adieux to the Natives. — Once more at Sea. — First Sign 

 of Civilization for twenty Months. — Newfoundland. — Pilot comes on Board. — 

 First News of the War. — Kindly Reception at St. John's. — Arrival at New Lon- 

 don. — Conclusion. 



I will here give a few brief extracts from my journal, written 

 while stopping at Cape True, commencing with 



" Thursday, July 31st, 1862. One year ago to-day the George 

 Henry broke out of her ice-prison. This morning, Mates Eogers, 

 Gardiner, and Lamb, with their three boats and crews, went out 

 in the bay — Frobisher Bay — after walrus. A short time after 

 they left a thick fog set in, and the tide carried them up opposite 

 Countess of "Warwick's Sound before they were aware of it. Aft- 

 er the lighting up of the fog a little, they fell in with a shoal of 

 walrus, of which they harpooned three large ones. This walrus 

 party returned at 3 P.M. with three tons of fresh meat. There is 

 no place in the world where a " living" is obtained with less work 

 than here. These three walruses added make the whole number 

 forty that have been taken since the George Henry's company first 

 came here this season, not including some two or three young 

 ones. 



" Friday, August 1st. And still, as we learn, the George Henry is 

 fast in the ice. Anxious are all of us to depart for the States, 

 but King Ice will not yet let us go. A good 1 nor'wester' would 

 drive away the pack which presses so closely and so unrelenting- 

 ly the west side of Davis's Strait, and allow the ice which holds 

 dominion over the George Henry's pathway to the sea to give 

 way. It may be the pack will keep us here another year ; but I 

 hope not. I trust in two weeks more we shall be on our way 

 home, there to prepare for the voyage I have so much at heart. 

 God grant an early deliverance from our ice foe. 



" August 2d. This afternoon, learning that the Innuits here were 



