OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
61 
make the necessary observations, and to examine the natural productions 1819. 
of the shore. Our latitude at noon was 75° 03' 12", long. 103° 44' 37", and 
the depth of water forty fathoms. A thick fog came on in the afternoon, soon 
after the boat had landed, which made me apprehensive that she would not 
easily find her way back to the ship. We continued to stand off-and-on by 
the lead, which seems a very safe guide on this coast, firing guns frequently 
till five P.M., when we were not sorry to hear our signals answered by 
musquets from the boat. The gentlemen reported, on their return, that they 
had landed on a sandy beach, near the east point of the island, which they 
found to be more productive, and altogether more interesting than any other 
part of the shores of the Polar regions which we had yet visited. The remains 
of Esquimaux habitations were found in four different places. Six of these, 
which Captain Sabine had an opportunity of examining, and which are 
situated on a level sandy bank, at the side of a small ravine near the sea, 
are described by him as consisting of stones rudely placed in a circular, or 
rather an elliptical, form. They were from seven to ten feet in diameter ; the 
broad, flat sides of the stones standing vertically, and the whole structure, if 
such it may be called, being exactly similar to that of the summer huts of 
the Esquimaux, which we had seen at Hare Island, the preceding year. 
Attached to each of them was a smaller circle, generally four or five feet in 
diameter, which had probably been the fire-place. The small circles were 
placed indifferently, as to their direction from the huts to which they belonged ; 
and from the moss and sand which covered some of the lower stones, 
particularly those which composed the flooring of the huts, the whole en- 
campment appeared to have been deserted for several years. Very recent 
traces of the rein-deer and musk-ox were seen in many places ; and a 
head of the latter, with several rein-deers’ horns, was brought on board. 
A few patches of snow remained in sheltered situations ; the ravines, however, 
which were numerous, bore the signs of recent and considerable floods, and 
their bottoms were swampy, and covered with very luxuriant moss, and other 
vegetation, the character of which differed very little from that of the land at the 
bottom of Possession Bay. The basis of the island is sandstone, of which by far 
the greater part of the mineralogical specimens brought on board consisted ; 
besides these, some rich granite and red feldspar were met with, together 
with some other substances which are described by Mr. Konig in the 
Appendix. A number of shells, of the Venus tribe, were found imbedded 
in the bottom of the ravines. A thermometer, of which the bulb was buried 
