Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/305

284 sea was sloping at an angle of 40°, and that facing the flat of land, which it protected, about 50°. The stones were of every variety of shape, though not much worn, and weighing from one to twenty-five pounds. On this flat portion of land I perceived many signs of its having been the frequent resort of Innuits during the summer months—circles of stones for keeping down the skins which form their tents; bones of walrus and reindeer were also numerous. Here, too, I saw, to my surprise, ship's blocks, iron hoops two and a half inches wide, part of a coffee-pot, preserved meat canisters, an oaken bucket in good order, and several pieces of wood, all, as I afterward conjectured, formerly belonging to the "Traveller," an English whaling vessel, lost three years previous near "Bear Sound," about thirty miles nearer the sea. It was at this place we lunched, and had the pleasure of finding abundance of water on the rocks to quench our thirst. Here, on a point of land called by the Innuits Evictoon, was a native monument such as they usually erect on prominent places.

As we were about to resume our march, two seals were discovered in the sun near some cracked ice. Immediately the old man started off to try his rusty gun upon them, at first stumbling hurriedly over some broken ice that intervened, and then proceeding very cautiously. When within forty rods he lay down upon his front, and kneed, footed, and bellied himself along, not unlike the movements of the seals he was after. But, as in Miner's case, a moment afterward his prey, taking the alarm, rose up, and with a plunge instantly disappeared. The old man jumped up, crying aloud E-e-e-ŭk! and walked on. As we travelled forward the mountains of Kingaite loomed up in magnificent grandeur, and, on looking at them, something struck me as it had done when first viewing the place in August, 1860, that more than mere land existed there. It seemed as if a huge ice ridge ran along parallel with the coast, uniting mountain with mountain and peak with peak.