ed the
coast within the broken line of the tide-marks, we turned to the
westward, and commenced searching the beach and neighbouring headlands.
I shall not easily efface from my memory the melancholy impression left
by this, my first walk on the desolate shores of Cornwallis Island.
Like other things, in time the mind became accustomed to it; and, by
comparison, one soon learned to see beauties even in the sterility of
the North.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: Horizontal Section, 20 feet circumference.]

[Illustration: Vertical Section, 5 feet 6 inches high.]

Casting off from the sledge, I had taken a short stroll by myself along
one of the terraces which, with almost artificial regularity, swept
around the base of the higher ground behind, when, to my astonishment,
a mass of stone-work, and what at first looked exactly like a cairn,
came in view; it required no spur to make me hasten to it, and to
discover I was mistaken in supposing it to have been any thing
constructed so recently as Franklin's visit. The ruin proved to be a
conical-shaped building, the apex of which had fallen in. Its
circumference, at the base, was about twenty feet, and the height of
the remaining wall was five feet six inches. Those who had constructed
it appeared well acquainted with the strength of an arched roof to
withstand the pressure of the heavy falls of snow of these regions; and
much skill and nicety was displayed in the arrangement of the slabs of
slaty limestone, in order that the conical form of the building might
be preserved throughout.

We removed the stones that had fallen into the building, but found
nothing to repay our labour; indeed, from the quantity of moss adhering
to the walls, and filling up the interstices of the masses which formed
the edifice, I conjectured it was many years since it was constructed,
though it would be impossible to guess when it was last inhabited; for,
at Pond's Bay, I observed the remains of the native habitations to have
the appearance of extreme old age and long abandonment, although, from
the fresh seal-blubber _caches_, there was not a doubt of the Esquimaux
having been there the previous winter.

A mile beyond this ruin we halted for the night. Four of us (for, in
Arctic travelling, officer and man are united by the common bond of
labour) erected the tent over a space which we had cleared of the
larger and rougher pieces of limestone, leaving what was called a soft
spot as our castle