LIFE-BOAT DEPOT. 
49 
We knew this bay familiarly afterward, as the re¬ 
sidence of a body of Esquimaux with whom we had 
many associations; but we little dreamt then that it 
would bear the name of a gallant friend, who found 
there the first traces of our escape. A small cluster of 
rocks, hidden at times by the sea, gave evidence of the 
violent tidal action about them. 
“As we neared the west end of Littleton Island, 
after breakfast this morning, I ascended to the crow’s- 
nest, and saw to my sorrow the ominous blink of ice 
ahead. (9> The wind has been freshening for a couple of 
days from the northward, and if it continues it will 
bring down the floes on us. 
“ My mind has been made up from the first that we 
are to force our way to the north as far as the elements 
will let us; and I feel the importance therefore of 
securing a place of retreat, that in case of disaster we 
may not be altogether at large. Besides, we have now 
reached one of the points, at which, if any one is to 
follow us, he might look for some trace to guide him.” 
I determined to leave a cairn on Littleton Island, 
and to deposit a boat with a supply of stores in some 
convenient place near it. One of our whale-boats had 
been crushed in Melville Bay, and Francis’s metallic 
life-boat was the only one I could spare. Its length 
did not exceed twenty feet, and our crew of twenty 
could hardly stow themselves in it with even a few 
days’ rations; but it was air-chambered and buoyant. 
Selecting from our stock of provisions and field 
equipage such portions as we might by good luck be 
Vox.. I.—4 
