50 ESQUIMAUX RUINS FOUND. 
\ _ 
able to dispense with, and adding with reluctant libe¬ 
rality some blankets and a few yards of India-rubber 
cloth, we set out in search of a spot for our first depot. 
It was essential that it should be upon the mainland ; 
for the rapid tides might so wear away the ice as to 
make an island inaccessible to a foot-party; and yet it 
was desirable that, while secure against the action of 
sea and ice, it should be approachable by boats. We 
found such a place after some pretty cold rowing. It 
was off the northeast oape of Littleton, and bore 
S.S.E. from Cape Hatherton, which loomed in the dis¬ 
tance above the fog. Here we buried our life-boat 
with her little cargo. We placed along her gunwale 
the heaviest rocks we could handle, and, filling up the 
interstices with smaller stones and sods of andromeda 
and moss, poured sand and water among the layers. 
This, frozen at once into a solid mass, might be 
hard enough, we hoped, to resist the claws of the 
polar bear. 
We found to our surprise that we were not the first 
human beings who had sought a shelter in this deso¬ 
late spot. A few ruined Avails here and there showed 
that it had once been the seat of a rude settlement; 
and in the little knoll Avhich Ave cleared aAvay to cover 
in our storehouse of valuables, avc found the mortal 
remains of their fonner inhabitants. 
Nothing can be imagined more sad and homeless 
than these memorials of extinct life. Hardly a ves¬ 
tige of groAvth was traceable on the bare ice-rubbed 
rocks; and the huts resembled so much the broken 
