Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/438

414 man then generally catches a great number, while the others only get a few, as the Seals, when at the point of choking, have recourse to a few holes without leaving them. Bears they kill by spearing them, after having brought them to bay by the dogs. They capture Foxes in traps of four different descriptions. For Hares they use nets made of seal-skin thongs. For birds they also use an implement like a catcher."*

Our stay at Port Foulke having been limited to twenty-four hours, we had just sufficient length of time at our disposal to observe what an interesting locality it would prove for further investigations, and though, like the rest of my companions, most anxious to push on, yet we all regretted that our visit was neces- sarily so short. It may be as well to point out here that Natural History and physical investigations occupied a secondary place in the programme of the Expedition, its main object, as set forth in the sailing orders, being "to attain the highest northern latitude, and if possible to reach the North Pole;" consequently every other consideration had lo be subordinated to this express command. The opportunities of landing during the passage were confined to those few occasions when the ships were embayed in the ice near the shore. When the ice opened and the dredge or trawl might have been lowered with advantage, that was the very time to press forward, and every energy had to be devoted to the furtherance of that end. Sometimes a combination of circumstances stopped our vessels in places where they were surrounded by water; such opportunities were never missed, and though usually on these occasions all were weary, cold and exhausted, yet the extra toil and labour involved in the lowering and hauling up of the dredge were voluntarily and cheerfully undergone. In reviewing the scientific results of an Arctic voyage, the almost insuperable obstacles that beset an inquirer should be realized, and it is only right, for the sake of those who may go to those regions in the future, that the difficulties which must be encountered should not be glossed over by those who have experienced them.

Captain Nares having decided to attempt the passage of Smith Sound by hugging the western or American side of the channel, our vessels crossed over the following morning to Cape Isabella, where despatches were landed and a cairn erected. The formation of that Cape is red and white granite, which at a short distance might very well have been taken for alternating strata of red and

'Geographical Magazine,' Feb. 1878.