The bones were
prepared for burial, and the relics gathered together in a pile, from
which to select a few to take away with us. The prow and stern-post of
the boat were in good condition, and a few clinkered boards still hung
together, which measured twenty-eight feet and six inches to where they
were broken off at each end, showing it to have been a very large boat.
We spent several hours here, gathering together the various articles,
in a thick fog and strong north-west wind that came down across the
heavy ice-fields of Victoria Strait and Melville Sound, and was
intensely cold. We then went to the next point south of us at eleven
o'clock, and for four long weary hours walked up and down waiting for
the sled to come up, while new ice was rapidly forming in the margin of
the salt water as the tide went down. When Toolooah at last arrived, we
found he had been compelled to abandon the stoves and firewood as it
was impossible to handle so heavy a sled during the present wretched
condition of the ice. It was after four o'clock when we got to bed, our
blankets and sleeping bags all wet, as it was impossible to keep them
out of the water that everywhere covers the ice.
The next day we remained in camp to bury the remains found at the boat
place, and during the evening I went hunting with Toolooah, who killed
two fine bucks.
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