OBSERVATIONS ON SHORE. 187 
some other still more striking evidences of recent 
inhabitation were found. These consisted of two 
cavities, inclosed by stones, on the edge of a bank, 
that had been employed as fire-places, and in which 
were the remains of the fuel that had been used 
in them, consisting of charred drift wood, with half- 
burnt moss, and a quantity of ashes. The latter, 
being of so light a nature as to be liable to be 
carried away by the melting of snow about them, 
impressed me with the opinion, that they had not 
been here during the preceding winter, but that 
the persons who used these simple contrivances 
for fire-places, must have been on the spot even 
in the present summer. As there were no per¬ 
manent residences to be found, this place appear¬ 
ed to have been either resorted to as a summer 
fishing-station by some of the natives, or touched 
at, in their excursions along the coast. In addi¬ 
tion to these evidences of the present existence of 
inhabitants, we met with several pieces of bone 
and wood, which had undergone artificial fabrica¬ 
tion ; and also the head of an arrow or small dart, 
rather neatly made of bone, armed with a small 
piece of iron. It is difficult to say whether this 
iron was native, or whether it was carried on shore 
in the timbers of some wreck. The manufacture 
was a good deal similar to that of the iron imple¬ 
ments of the Arctic Highlanders, discovered by 
