Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/316

Rh until the ice in Field Bay should break up and free the ship. They remained at Cape True to be near the walrus grounds. Our only means of subsistence consisted of such products as the country afforded. About 100 pounds of raw walrus meat was placed in the bottom of the boat, and, besides that, every man had enough of the same food, cooked, to last two days. We left the whaling dépôt at 3 of the 21st of July, and proceeded through Bear Sound and Lupton Channel to Sylvia Island, where we arrived at five o'clock. I landed and went to the summit, where I could obtain a good view, and, to my vexation, found that Field Bay was still heavily covered with ice. I had purposed making my outward trip along the north side of Lok's Land, and return coasting along its south shore, thus making a complete circuit of the island; but the presence of the ice convinced me that this could not be done by boat, and consequently I had to try the southern, or Frobisher Bay side. After spending an hour there, taking a round of angles, and doing other work in the way of confirming my survey, we therefore returned down Bear Sound, passing directly under the beetling cliffs of Matlack's Island, which is near the centre of the Sound. About meridian we were among the islands at the entrance of Bear Sound, visiting one after another for egg and duck hunting, which proved to be quite successful. A short time after we rounded Cape Chapel, and made our course nearly due east, coasting along under oars. We had not proceeded far before we were passing the mouth of a beautiful bay—Bigler Bay, as I named it—which made up some two miles into Lok's Land. Then we entered a long narrow channel—New York Press Channel —having low land on either side, that at our right being what I called Harper Brothers' Island. After several hours' hard pulling