244 
RESOURCE S. 
appliances of tlie chase, who were fattening on the 
most wholesome diet of the region, only forty miles 
from our anchorage, while I was denouncing its 
scarcity. 
“For Franklin, every thing depends upon locality: 
but, from what I can see of Arctic exploration thus 
far, it would be hard to find a circle of fifty miles’ 
diameter entirely destitute of animal resources. The 
most solid winter-ice is open here and there in pools 
and patches worn by currents and tides. Such were 
the open spaces that Parry found in Wellington Chan¬ 
nel; such are the stream-holes (stromhols) of the 
Greenland coast, the polynia of the Russians; and 
such we have ourselves found in the most rigorous 
cold of all. 
“ To these spots, the seal, walrus, and the early 
birds crowd in numbers. One which kept open, as 
we find from the Esquimaux, at Littleton Island, 
only forty miles from us, sustained three families last 
winter until the opening of the north water. Now, 
if we have been entirely supported for the past three 
weeks by the hunting of a single man,—seal-meat 
alone being plentiful enough to subsist us till we 
turn homeward,—certainly a party of tolerably skilful 
hunters might lay up an abundant stock for the win¬ 
ter. As it is, we are making caches of meat under 
the snow, to prevent its spoiling on our hands, in the 
very spot which a few days ago I described as a Sa¬ 
hara. And, indeed, it was so for nine whole months, 
when this flood of animal life hurst upon us like foun- 
