Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/179

160 examination here, I looked elsewhere over the island. Relics of Innuits were in all directions, but especially on the eastern slope; and some small pieces of drift-wood, overgrown with grass, were met with and secured. After going to the camp for a seal-spear, I succeeded—by dint of great exertion and perseverance, digging through the frozen ground—in obtaining several good specimens of the coal interlocked with moss, grass, and shrubs. The weather was not propitious on the morning of September 25th, but the Innuits were anxious to get away, and I had to submit. While the boat was being prepared, I went to the highest part of the island and took some bearings by compass, and carried with me, on my return to the boat, more coal and other relics to take home. Miner and his crew were not ready, owing to some of their dogs being missing; but I hurried off, hoping to induce my companions to stop once more at Kodlunarn on the way. This I was fortunately able to do. I concluded an arrangement with them to stay there for a short time, for which favour I had to give to Koojesse five boxes of percussion caps, Koodloo two, and Charley two. I could not leave this locality without, if possible, making another examination of the "White Man's Island." Moreover, I wanted additional relics from the stone house; and, also, to take some measurements and bearings. Accordingly, after leaving Niountelik, our course was taken direct to Kodlunarn Island, where we landed at the same place as before, and I at once began to examine this interesting locality. I made a very close and minute inspection, taking measurements of distances, so as to be quite sure of the data from which my deductions could be drawn. Rough outline sketches were also made on the spot, and everything was done to insure correctness in my notes and observations. The plan of the island, which is incorporated in the chart accompanying this work, will better serve to convey the general facts to the reader than the most laboured description with the pen.

The result of this, my second examination of Kodlunarn,