CHAPTER XVIII.

Journey to the Unknown, or "Dreaded Land."—Slender Outfit.—Abundance of Seal-meat soon taken. — Bad Weather. — Sylvia Island. - Lupton Channel. — Jones's Tower.—A Butterfly.—Tupic Encampment.—Magnificent Iceberg.— Dine on raw Seal.—New Land.—Remarkable Gap.—Cape Daly.—Hummocky Ice.—Ancient Piles of Stones.—Discover a new Channel.—Dr. Kane's Channel. —Immense number of Seals.—Great Slaughter.—Koodloo still fears the "Dreaded Land."—Charming a Seal.—Abundance of Animal Life.—Arrive at the extreme Land.—Ascend a high Mountain.—Ancient Monuments.—Extensive View.— Davis's Straits.—Frobisher Bay. -Meta Incognita.—Resolution Island, and high Land to the North.—Sudden appearance of a Steam-ship.—Disappointment.— Mount Warwick.—A Bear-hunt.—North Foreland.—Return Journey.—Mode of making Traces and Walrus Lines.—Note-book Lost.—Its Recovery.—Heavy Snow-storm.—Encamp on a large Island.—Ancient Dwellings of Innuits.—Rapid Journey back to the Ship.—Dangerous Traveling.—Ice breaking up.—Safe arrival on Board.—Means of sustaining Life in these Regions.

On Wednesday, the 5th day of June, 1861, a day or two after the departure of the Sekoselar Innuits, I prepared myself for another trip, intending this time to visit what the Innuits term the "Dreaded Land," which comprises all the islands eastward of Bear's Sound and Lupton Channel, between Frobisher Bay and Field Bay. As was necessary, I left on board the ship some instructions how to find me and my companions in case the ice, which was becoming very precarious, should break up, and leave us on some of the islands unable to get away. My intention was to fall back upon the land should the ice break up, and then, if we had to be sought, it would be necessary to look for us somewhere between Hall's Island and Bear Sound.*

On the 5th of June, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, in company with Ebierbing and Koodloo, I left Rescue Harbor, and set out for the "Dreaded Land." Our sledge was drawn by six dogs, just half the number that such a journey required. Our progress was slow; for, besides the want of a sufficient team, we saw many seals, the ice being dotted over with them, and the In

* Hall's Island, lat. 62° 33′ N., long. 64° 00′ W., and Bear Sound, lat. 62° 31′ N., long. 64° 50′ W., were so named by Frobisher; the former after Christopher Hall, master of the Gabriel, of the expedition of 1576; the latter after James Bear, master of the Michael, one of the expedition ships of 1577.

DILLON MOUNTAIN.—LOK'S LAND.—LUPTON CHANNEL. 299 nuits consumed much time in making their peculiar cautious approaches (elsewhere described), which are always necessary in order to take these animals. Koodloo is a good sealer. Having selected his game, he succeeded in crawling up to within thirteen fathoms of the seal, and shot him in the head. In five minutes we who were on the sledge arrived at the spot where our prize lay by his hole, when a general dog-fight took place.

The weight of fresh meat thus obtained being no less than 200 pounds, we found ourselves in the predicament of the man who bought the elephant. What should we do with our seal? Finally, we fastened it behind the sledge, dragged it to a convenient place, and cut it up; took with us a part of the meat and blubber for present use, and deposited the remainder en cache—that is, we buried it under snow by the side of a hummock, and tarried a while to have a raw seal-feast.

In the evening, after our repast, we resumed our journey, proceeding at first in the direction of Dillon Mountain,* at the east end of "Lok's Land," but changed our course at ten o'clock on account of hummocks, and now proceeded due south toward Lupton Channel. Some time after midnight we made our first encampment on the ice, and lay down to repose upon a couch of

snow.

At 10 30 A.M. of June 6th we resumed our journey, and soon after observed a seal upon the ice; but, as we were to windward, it scented us, and down it went. We were still among hummocks, and enveloped in fog. Before noon the fog lifted, and we found ourselves in sight of land near Lupton Channel. We stopped a while opposite the entrance to this channel for a seal which

* This prominent and peaked mountain I have named in honor of a warm friend of arctic explorations, J. D. Dillon, of London, England. It is in lat. 62° 32' N., and long. 64° 12' W.

† The land which I think I have identified as the one so named by Frobisher in honor of Michael Lok, one of the earliest, warmest, and most liberal supporters of his (Frobisher's) expeditions of 1576, '7, and '8.

"Lok's Land" is an island on the east side of Bear Sound and Lupton Channel, and extends easterly eighteen nautical miles; its width is twelve miles. It is called by the natives Ki-ki-tuk-ju-a, which means Long Island. The centre of "Lok's Land" is in lat. 62° 29' N., long. 64° 28' W. (See Chart.)

I have named the channel uniting the waters of Field Bay to Bear Sound after James Lupton, of Cincinnati, Ohio, one to whom the Young Men's Mercantile Association of said city owes a debt of gratitude for his great and untiring service in its behalf.

Lupton Channel (its north termination) is in lat. 62° 35' N., and long. 64° 38' W.

was discovered ahead. But seal, land, mountains, and clouds became closed in by thick fog; a snow-storm came on from the W.N.W., and it soon blew a gale.

This weather compelling us to hold over, we all left the sledge and dogs, and went a few rods on to the land, to prospect for a suitable spot for an encampment. We found one by the side of a mountain of rock. Here we broke up a beam—a part of our sledge—for fuel to prepare our coffee. We ought, for this purpose, to have taken with us more of the ooksook of the seal taken the day previous; but we expected to have captured another by that time. We saw two in the morning, but they were shy, and went down. Had it not been for the hummocks, we should have pursued our course toward Hall's Island; but it requires weather in which one can see more than five fathoms ahead to travel safely over such ice.

The land on which we here encamped is an island about a quarter of a mile long, which I have named Sylvia,* at the east side of the entrance to Lupton Channel. When on the highest part of it, about 500 feet above the sea, I drew the following sketch.

*After the daughter of Henry Grinnell. Sylvia Island is in lat. 62° 35' N.,

long. 64° 36′ W.

VIEW FROM THE TOP OF SYLVIA ISLAND.-JONES'S TOWER. 301

Here before me, looking southerly, was the open water of Lupton Channel, which, as my native attendants informed me, never freezes over, in consequence of the swiftly-running tides. Yonder, leading southeasterly around the bold front of Lok's Land, is Bear Sound; there, farther south, the low islands; and, showing darkly over these, the open water of Frobisher Bay, and away in the blue distance the huge mountains of Kingaite (Meta Incognita); while there, on the right, and on the left, and behind me, all was solid ice.

On Friday, June 7th, having slept soundly on the rock, we breakfasted on raw seal, and, with the aid of more fuel (another cross-bar) from our sledge, made some hot coffee, which indeed is a great luxury at any time to an arctic traveler. Not long after, Ebierbing started on ahead, while Koodloo struck tupic, harnessed the dogs, and packed the kummitie, and I triangulated and made observations for time, latitude, etc. With beautiful weather and a cloudless sky, Koodloo and myself left Sylvia Island, though not before half past 1 P.M., and traveled on the ice along the coast toward a noble-looking mountain not far off. The dogs flew, for they scented and sighted seals in the bay. At 3 o'clock P.M. we arrived at the base of Jones's Tower,* the mountain just alluded to.

A short time after this I began to ascend Jones's Tower, the mountain which I especially observed for the first time some months before, when entering Field Bay. When near the summit I made the following entry in my note-book:

"4 47 P.M. With my glass I see that Ebierbing has just killed a seal. Thank God for our daily bread (seal), while we study His glorious works. Thirty seals around the little bay on the ice by their holes, sunning."

At the top of the tower I took several observations, and then attempted to descend on the opposite side to that by which I had climbed up. But I found here, as I had before, that going down a precipitous mountain is much worse than going up it. I could not manage it by the new route, and therefore had to reascend in order to take the other.

From the summit of this mountain the view was extensive, yet I could not thence discern Frobisher Bay, although, as I then

* A mountain I have named after George T. Jones, superintendent of the Cincinnati branch of the American Bank Note Company. Jones's Tower is in lat. 62° 33' N., long. 64° 34′ W. (See Chart.)

thought, it was not more than from five to seven miles off. I here found a butterfly just bursting its prison walls. The wind at the time was so strong as almost to defy my power of holding on. The place looked like a huge tower rather than a mountain; and on one side of it there was, as it were, a broad highway, leading spirally to within fifty feet of the apex. From this elevation a hundred icebergs were in view. On the way down I found some skeleton bones of a whale, about 300 feet above the sea-ice; and also tufts of grass and some reindeer moss. At the base I found Koodloo and Ebierbing with more seals which they had killed, and a fire made of the small shrub* before mentioned.

In the evening we encamped here, close to Robinson's Bay,† a beautiful sheet of water on the east side of the tower. Here we erected our tupic, such as we could make, and the United States flag floated from its top. Our appearance at that time may be conceived from the following sketch.

Next morning, having a cloudless sky and a gentle breeze (which afterward, however, increased to a strong gale), we pursued our way. In a short time we captured another fine seal, which was deposited en cache, to be available on our return. As we proceeded, scenes of increasing beauty met my eye. The shore of the "dreaded land" presented many features of interest to me, for it was all new, and especially attractive from its associations with

*Andromeda tetragona, a plant of the heath tribe that abounds throughout the arctic regions.

This bay I named after Samuel Robinson, of Cincinnati, Ohio.