238 
THE LIFE-BOAT CACHE. 
Stephenson was caught as he sank by one of the sledge- 
runners, and Morton, while in the very act of drifting 
under the ice, was seized by the hair of the head by 
Mr. Bonsall and saved. 
We were now close upon Life-boat Cove, where 
nearly two years before we had made provision for 
just such a contingency as that which was now before 
us. Buried under the frozen soil, our stores had escaped 
even the keen scrutiny of our savage allies, and we 
now turned to them as essential to our relief. Mr. 
McGary was sent to the cache, with orders to bring 
every thing except the salt beef. This had been so 
long a poison to us, that, tainted as we were by scurvy, 
I was afraid to bring it among those who might be 
tempted to indulge in it. 
On the 12th the boats and sledges came to a halt in 
the narrow passage between the islands opposite Cape 
Misery, the scene of our late snow-storm. All our 
cargo had been gathered together at this spot, and the 
rocks were covered with our stores. Out of the four¬ 
teen hundred pounds not an ounce had been sacrificed. 
Every thing was cased in its water-proof covering, and 
as dry and perfect as when it had left the brig. 
The Littleton Island of Captain Inglefield is one of 
a group of four slciers which flank the northeast head¬ 
land of Hartstene Bay. They are of the bottom-series, 
coarse gneisses and mica schists. When here before, 
at this time of the year, they were surrounded by 
water, and the eider-ducks were breeding on their 
slopes. Now, as if to illustrate the difference of the 
