In reviewing the testimony of the foregoing witnesses it appears
confirmatory of the opinion that the skeletons found at this place were
the remains of some of the party who were seen by Ahlangyah and her
friends on Washington Bay. She said that "Toolooah," "Agloocar," and
"Doktook" wore spectacles, and spectacles were found at the boat place.
Gold watches being found, there is also an evidence that there were
officers in the party. It is probable that the five men who had a tent
on shore near the Inuit "tupics" were all officers. It is also a
very natural deduction that the books that were found in a sealed or
locked tin case, which had to be broken open by the natives, were the
more important records of the expedition, and in charge of the chief
surviving officers, as it is not probable that men who were reduced to
the extremity that these were, and having to drag everything by hand,
would burden themselves with general reading matter. The boat, judging
from the relics that we found, was a very heavy one, and copper
bottomed; for most of the kettles that we saw in use among the
Netchilliks were made of sheet copper that they said came from this and
the other boats in Erebus Bay. But the boat was an absolute necessity
and could not be abandoned. There is no doubt, however, that everything
superfluous had been dropped from time to time, until nothing remained
that could possibly be dispensed with, and such books as they had,
besides the Nautical Almanac and Ephemeris, if indeed under the
circumstances they would even carry them, were probably the most
important records of the expedition.
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