Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/142

Rh and flashed, and the whole picture was peculiar and charming.

At about 6 we stopped for our fourteenth encampment, the fog shutting us out from all view except of the coast on our left. The place where we encamped was on the Kingaite side of Frobisher Bay, at the base of a long straight bank of sand and shingle, from thirty-five to forty feet high, the top being a grassy slope which extended back some three hundred fathoms to the mountains. "September 1st, 1861.—A day of trials and discovery. At last I am where I have long desired to be. From my own vision, 'Frobisher's Strait' is a myth. It only exists in the minds of the civilized world—not in fact.10 "I find this side still more interesting than the other. Here, at the west extreme, are far more extensive plains of grassy land than elsewhere. Koojesse has this moment passed to my hands what I think will prove to be rare geological specimens—fossils."

But let me give the day's occurrences in a methodical form; for I wrote the above, and much more, in my diary while sitting on the rocks that are at the head of Frobisher Bay, after several hours' severe labour. The morning commenced thick and foggy, with occasional glimpses of finer weather. I ascended to the plain in the rear of the fourteenth encampment, at the top of the sand and shingle bank, and saw much vegetation, with numerous signs of reindeer in the neighbourhood. Then I examined wherever I could; but my view was very limited, as numerous islands bounded the vision toward the bay. At low water frequent shoals are exposed, and even to navigate our boats thus far we had been obliged to wait for the tide at half flood. When I desired to get under way, I found that Koojesse, without saying one word to me about it, had gone out on the mountain tuktoo hunting. Kooperneung had also taken Miner's kia, and had set out in advance after seals. Thus was I perpetually annoyed by the freaks and vagaries of this free