He had seen traces of white men near Cape Jane Franklin and along the
coast of Cape Felix. This inlet, spoken of by Toolooah, seemed of
sufficient importance to deserve surveying, and Lieutenant Schwatka
decided to include it in the search of the Ookjoolik country.
The sun exerted sufficient power during the middle of the day to bring
our igloo down; but we had finished our interviewing and were ready to
visit the cove where the boat and skeletons had been found. One light
sled, with plenty of dogs, took us over, with Seeuteetuar and Toolooah
as guides, and our Toolooah as driver. We found the place about three
miles from camp, and, though the ground was nearly all covered with
snow, and nothing whatever distinguished it from the coast on either
side, we could not but be impressed by the mournful interest with which
the sad fate of the lost explorers invested it. To our minds there
seemed little doubt but that this was the farthest point in the
direction of Hudson's Bay that any of them had reached. The party was
a small one, and had, probably, been sifted down to the few hardiest
men, whose anticipation of rescue from the horrible death that awaited
them had not faltered under all their terrible sufferings while they
had the continent in view. It probably seemed that if they could only
reach the mainland they would be comparatively safe.
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