Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/149

128 also visited the land referred to, and each of them declared that there was no other water communication to what we call Fox's Channel except through the Hudson's Straits. This I was very desirous of knowing more about; and at my request Koojesse finished drawing his chart of the coasts, bays, and islands from Northumberland Inlet to Resolution Island, and both sides of the so-called Frobisher Strait to its head. The original of this chart is now in my possession, and it has always astonished me for its remarkable skill and general accuracy of detail. A fac-simile of most of it is shown on the previous page, reduced to one-twelfth of its original size.

The charts that I possessed of this locality were such as our geographers at that time believed to be correct, and I pointed out to Koojesse the places about which I desired information. I showed him the route I proposed taking when I got up to about longitude 72°, in what I had supposed to be Frobisher Strait, but he and the others stopped me by saying, "Argi! argi!" (No! no!) They then took hold of my hand, moving it around till it connected with "Meta Incognita;" then following south-easterly the north coast of this land till arriving at the channel leading into Hudson's Strait, about longitude 66° W., and, turning round, went thence up Hudson's Strait continuously on to "King's Cape." Of course the names which we place upon our charts are unknown to the Esquimaux, and, consequently, I have endeavoured in this work, where possible, to give both together.

The knowledge that the Esquimaux possess of the geography of their country is truly wonderful. There is not a part of the coast but what they can well delineate, when once it has been visited by them, or information concerning it obtained from others. Their memory is remarkably good, and their intellectual powers, in all relating to their native land, its inhabitants, its coasts, and interior parts, is of a surprisingly high order. In what they related to me concerning Frobisher Strait there could be no doubt, and at once I felt convinced that no passage existed in that direction. However, this I determined to personally examine at the earliest