Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/178

 CHAPTER X.

Tuesday, September 24th, 1861, a snow-storm from the north-east was upon us. This delighted me, for it made a stay of another day necessary, impatient as the Innuits were to get back to the ship. After breakfast, enveloped in my cloak, I sauntered out, determining to give Niountelik a good look. I first proceeded through snow and furious wind to the opposite side of the island, but found nothing worthy of note in my walk there. On my way back, however, by the beach east of the tupics, I found several pieces of coal in the sand, and up a gully much more, with some flint-stone. A little farther on I suddenly encountered another deposit of coal, No. 2 of Niountelik, on the bank, by a cove with a sandy beach, a short distance east of where I had found the first deposit some months before.

At this moment the Innuits came round with the boats, and landed in the cove; and the idea immediately struck me that this was the identical landing-place of Frobisher in 1578. The coal-bed was within thirty feet of high-water mark. Its depth, in the thickest part, was six inches. It was nearly overgrown with grasses, shrubs, and mosses; and some of it was washed down into the sand and shingle of the beach. The flint-stones were numerous, and of the same character as in the two other lots found. Having made a very thorough