APPENDIX NO. II. 
311 
extending from Jones's to Murchison Sounds, between Clarence Head 
and Northumberland Island. To the west the ice .still invested the 
American shore, extending some twenty miles from Cape Isabella. 
Between this and Mitie Island was a solid surface, the curved shore¬ 
line occupied by an extended glacier. 
After endeavoring several times to bore, we were forced to make 
Hakluyt Island, on the Greenland side, and landed there to rest and 
renew our stock of provisions. The pack still filled the channel be¬ 
tween that island and Cape Parry; and it was only with extreme 
effort that wo were able to carry our boat over the ice. We had 
approached in this manner within ten miles of the latter point, when, 
seeing no chance of success, the winter rapidly advancing upon us, 
I reluctantly gave orders for our return to the brig. During this 
journey, which was full of exciting contingencies, we passed over the 
track of Bylot and Baffin, the explorers of 1616. 
Our preparations for the second winter were modified largely by 
controlling circumstances. The physical energies of the party had 
sensibly declined. Our resources were diminished. We had but fifty 
gallons of oil saved from our summer’s seal-hunt. We were scant of 
fuel; and our food, which now consisted only of the ordinary marine 
stores, was by no means suited to repel scurvy. Our molasses was 
reduced to forty gallons, and our dried fruits seemed to have lost their 
efficiency. 
A single apartment was bulkheaded off amidships as a dormitory 
and abiding-room for our entire party, and a moss envelope, cut with 
difficulty from the frozen cliffs, made to enclose it like a wall. A 
similar casing was placed over our deck, and a small tunnelled entry— 
the tossut of the Esquimaux — contrived to enter from below. We 
adopted as nearly as we could the habits of the natives, burning lamps 
for heat, dressing in fox-skin clothing, and relying for our daily sup¬ 
plies on the success of organized hunting-parties. 
The upper tribes of these Esquimaux had their nearest winter set¬ 
tlement at a spot distant, by dog-journey, about seventy-five miles'. 
We entered into regular communication with this rude and simple- 
minded people, combining our efforts with theirs for mutual support, 
and interchanging numerous friendly offices. Bear-meat, seal, walrus, 
fox, aud ptarmigan, were our supplies. They were eaten raw, with a 
rigorous attention to their impartial distribution. 
With the dark months, however, these supplies became very scanty. 
The exertions of our best hunters were unavailing, and my personal 
attempts to reach the Esquimaux failed less on account of the cold 
