This
circumstance affording a proof of the Esquimaux having visited
this part of the coast at no very distant period, it was concluded
that the piece of bark above alluded to had been brought hither by
these people. From the appearance of the whalebone, it might have
been lying there for four or five years. That none of the
Esquimaux tribe had visited this part of the coast since we landed
there in 1818, was evident from the flagstaff then erected still
remaining untouched. Mr. Fisher found every part of the valley
quite free from snow as high as he ascended it: and the following
fact seems to render it probable that no great quantity either of
snow or sleet had fallen here since our last visit. Mr. Fisher had
not proceeded far, till, to his great surprise, he encountered the
tracks of human feet upon the banks of the stream, which appeared
so fresh that he at first imagined them to have been recently made
by some natives, but which, on examination, were distinctly
ascertained to be the marks of our own shoes, made eleven months
before.
CHAPTER II.
Entrance into Sir James Lancaster's Sound of
Baffin.--Uninterrupted Passage to the Westward.--Discovery and
Examination of Prince Regent's Inlet.--Progress to the Southward
stopped by Ice.
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