INVENTORY. 
279 
a man. Tom Hickey found a turf, something like his 
native peat, which we thought might help to boil our 
kettle; and Avith the aid of this our fuel-account stood 
thus:— 
Turf, for two boilings a day. 7 days. 
Two sledge-runners. 6 “ 
Spare oars, sledges, and an empty cask. 4 l - 
Seventeen days in all; not counting, however, the Red 
Boat, Avhich tvould add something, and our emptied 
provision-bags, Avhich might carry on the estimate to 
about three weeks. 
The return of the party from Imalik gave us no 
reason to hesitate. The Esquimaux had not been 
there for several years. There Avere no birds in the 
neighborhood. 
I climbed the rocks a second time Avith Mr. McGary, 
and took a careful survey of the ice with my glass. 
The “fast,” as the Avhalers call the immovable shore- 
ice, could be seen in a nearly unbroken SAA’eep, pass¬ 
ing by Bushnell’s Island, and joining the coast not far 
from Avberc I stood. The outside floes Avere large, and 
had evidently been not long broken; but it cheered 
my heart to see that there was one Avell-defined lead 
which folloAved the main floe until it lost itself to 
seaward. 
I called my officers together, explained to them the 
motives which governed me, and prepared to re-embark. 
The boats Avere hauled up, examined carefully, and, as 
far as our means permitted, repaired. The Red Eric 
was stripped of her outfit and cargo, to be broken up 
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