The
skeletons were always incomplete. Sometimes nothing but a skull could
be found in the vicinity of a grave, and, again, often the skull would
be missing. At one place we could distinguish four right femurs, and
could therefore be positive that at least four perished here. This was
at the boat place marked on Erebus Bay.
A number of natives whom we interviewed in the Netchillik country
asserted most positively that there were two boat places in Erebus Bay,
about a quarter of a mile apart; and Captain C. F. Hall obtained the
same information while at Shepherd's Bay, in 1869. We therefore made a
most careful search for another, after finding the first wreck of a
boat at that portion of the coast, but without success. It seemed to us
quite important to establish so interesting a fact, but nevertheless
the effort was fruitless. We obtained from the natives wooden
implements which were made from fragments of each boat, but the wood
from one must have been entirely removed previous to our visit. Whether
or not this is the same boat seen by McClintock is a matter that can be
ascertained, for we have brought home the prow containing the
inscription spoken of by him. He, however, saw portions of but two
skeletons, while the collection of bones buried by us here were
distinctly of four persons.
North of Collinsen Inlet we found but one grave--that of Lieutenant
Irving.
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