Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/149

130 evening is pleasant. I pray Gud to bless me with restored health. "This evening, at high tide, I and Koojesse were going to take the boat and ferry the river, that I might visit the remarkable phenomenon of these regions—the Sand Mount; but I have sent for him to come to my tupic, saying I could not go—was not able, indeed.

"The snow that fell last night, and which whitened the mountains of Kingaite this morning, has disappeared during the day. "Friday, September 6th.—Another terrible night of struggle with pains. When shall I be well again? The fine weather of to-day has been of some benefit. God be praised. "This morning, at an early hour, I was up. I might as well have been up all night; for, though down on a soft tuktoo bed, and dry, yet I could get no sweet sleep.

"When the tide was up sufficient to set the boat afloat, I got Koojesse and Koodloo to ferry me across the river, that I might visit the peculiar sight which had been constantly staring me in my face during my five days' stop at the fifteenth encampment. I visited that phenomenon; I mounted it, and went around it also. It is a mount of marine fossils in limestone, half a mile long, and over a hundred feet high. It presents something of the appearance given in the engraving opposite, the long line of Kingaite mountains behind stretching away to the Gateway north-west. ..."The débris of the fossils begins at or near the top of the mount, falling at such an angle as broken stone from a mountain always makes—an inclination of about 40°. Above the talus, or heap of broken stones, is a mass of fossils in limestone, strata-like. A smaller mount of the same character is close by, but all in débris. It seems to have been divided from the main by the rushing down of waters from the mountains behind. A small stream comes down the mountains, passes along, and finally makes its way out