Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/388

358 top of the cairn erected there had fallen, having been built of round stones: but we only stopped to get sights for the watch, and to raise our portable canoe out of the sand; which done, we once more entered upon ground never yet trodden by civilized man. Since Point Turnagain, the only indications of man we had observed were some graves, with arrows and other implements. As for our deer and seal hunts, and other exploits of "venerie," I shall pass them over entirely, as they were now become mere matters of course, while our whole thoughts were bent upon subjects of far higher interest. The only fact in natural history worth recording was, that the large white-backed ducks, of which we had seen none eastward of the Coppermine in 1838, this season extended their range to Cape Alexander; probably because they now found what was then wanting—an edging of open water betwixt the ice and shore, which it is their delight to skim along.