Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/26

Rh side of the cape, we thence saw that we might have better travelling by rounding it and reaching the other side. Accordingly, we returned to the sledge and refreshed ourselves with a feast of raw seal.

The wind greatly increasing in violence made travelling still more arduous, but we were determined to persevere, and so we rounded the cape, but with great difficulty, owing to hummocky ice and deep, soft snow. Cape Daly is the termination of a neck of land distinguished by a remarkable gap in its ridge. Resuming our proper course, we hurried forward toward another cape—Cape Hayes —the most northerly point of Hudson's Island. There we again prospected, and found it would be impossible to proceed farther with the sledge on account of the hummocky ice in our way. Hall's Island at this time was less than two miles distant; but to reach it by our present course, on the northern side of Hudson's Island, was an utter impossibility, in consequence of the indescribably rugged ice with which M'Clintock Channel was firmly packed. While examining Cape Hayes we came to circles of stones, evidently placed there many years ago by the Innuits that formerly inhabited this now forsaken land; but beyond this, nothing worthy of note was to be seen. We therefore returned to the sledge, and thence back about a quarter of a mile to a bight flanked by high mountains. While Koodloo and Ebierbing were here erecting a tent, I ascended one of these mountains, and thence discovered to the