OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
203 
partment forming a recess, projecting outwards, which had probably been 1820. 
their store-room ; and at a few feet distant from one of the huts was a 
smaller circle of stones, which had composed the fire-place, the mark of 
fire being still perceptible upon them. The huts which we had seen upon 
Byam Martin Island, as well as those which we had visited on the coast of 
Greenland in 1818, had each one of these small circles attached to them ; there 
was also a separate pile of stones at a little distance from the huts, on which 
the ptarmigan had lately taken up their abode, and which was probably 
another fire-place. If the Esquimaux derive any part of their subsistence 
from the land, and are under the necessity of coming to this high latitude in 
quest of it, they will, perhaps, no where find better fare for a month or six 
weeks than in this neighbourhood, for I have no doubt that, in the months of 
July and August, the game is here in great plenty. It is scarcely possible, 
however, upon the whole, that these people could long subsist on any part of 
Melville Island, the summer season being much too short to allow them to lay in 
a sufficient stock of provisions for a long and severe winter. It was remarked 
by Captain Sabine and Mr. Fisher, who had both landed on Byam Martin 
Island, that the huts we had now discovered appeared to be more recently 
deserted than the others. 
The day was fine and clear, with a moderate wind from the westward till 
four P.M., when it died away, and was shortly after succeeded by a breeze 
from the southward, with a fall of snow. When we were setting off to the 
southward, a herd of five deer came towards the tents, but we did not 
succeed in killing any of them. We now travelled due south with the inten- 
tion of getting sight of the Table-hills, and returning by that route to the 
ships, as there appeared to be nothing more within our reach of sufficient 
interest to detain us any longer from them. At eight P.M., finding that the 
people’s clothes were becoming wet through by the sleet which fell, we 
halted and pitched the tents, the wind having freshened up to a strong 
breeze from S.E.b.S., and the night being very inclement. There was here 
a great deal of clay mixed with the soil, and the sandstone began to be 
almost entirely of a greenish colour. 
Early in the morning of the 14th, the wind veered to the westward, and Wed. 14. 
the weather became gradually more clear; we therefore continued our 
journey to the southward, and having passed over several ridges of high 
ground lying across our track, and crossed some ravines lying in a N.E, and 
S.W. direction, we came in sight of the Table-hills bearing S.E. of us, and 
2 D 2 
