Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/52

Rh tide had fallen some twenty-four feet it was no slight task to surmount them. We managed it in some cases by extending two of our long oars from the boat to the top, thus forming a substitute for a ladder. Many of the islands in Bear Sound were locked together by natural ice-bridges, several of these being arched in a most remarkable manner.

SCALING AN ICE COLLAR IN BEAR SOUND. We approached to within three miles of Sylvia Island, the same on which I and my Innuit companions had encamped on our late journey to the "dreaded land," and I could not but view it in a most friendly way when I remembered how its warm, dry rocks gave us a good bed and protection from the storms.

Our excursion lasted some hours, and we returned to the tupics, both boats well laden with eggs. The total acquisition of our two boats' crews was one hundred dozen eggs, and five ducks. An eider-duck egg is nearly twice the size of a hen's.