In fact, one of those
we had interviewed mentioned having cached just such articles somewhere
along the coast, and had afterward forgotten the place. This is worthy
of consideration, as indicating that our search was sufficiently
comprehensive to have discovered anything that had been cached away by
the crews of the ships between Cape Felix and Collinson Inlet within
five or six miles of the coast.
The following day Lieutenant Schwatka and I took Toolooah with us
inland, and sent Frank and Henry down the coast toward Victory Point.
From the top of a high hill, about six miles south-east from camp, we
had an uninterrupted view for many miles in every direction, and swept
the entire field with a spy-glass--but saw nothing like a cache or
cairn. It was all a barren waste, with many ponds and lakes, some still
covered with ice, and others, being more shallow, were entirely clear,
as was the case with most of those near the coast. A few patches of
snow could be seen here and there on the hill-sides. We had to cross
one deep snowbank before reaching the crest of the hill, and upon our
descent came upon a depression in the snow, which Toolooah recognized
as a bear's igloo. A few patches of white wool near the entrance
confirmed his opinion. I crawled in as far as I could, to see in what
sort of a house the polar bear hibernated, and found it very much in
size and shape like those of the Inuits.
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