one of the white men who come over the salt lake in their big
canoes."

"If so," said Cheenbuk, "we will follow his track, and may come to the
big canoe itself; perhaps some of the Kablunets may be yet alive."

The Indian shook his head.

"Men do not start off alone on a journey to nowhere," he replied. "The
big canoe must have been crushed in the ice, and the men must have
started off together to search for Eskimos. I think they must all have
died on the way, and this one walked farthest."

"The man-of-the-woods is wise," said Oolalik. "If we follow the track
we shall soon find out."

"Yes," said Aglootook, putting on his most prophetic air. "Go on the
track straight as we can go--that is _my_ advice, and we shall be quite
sure to come to _something_."

Cheenbuk acted on the advice. Having buried the body of the unfortunate
sailor in a snow-grave, and taken possession of the carbine and other
things, they leaped on the sledge again, and continued to advance along
the track, which, though in some places almost obliterated, was easily
followed. They had not advanced more than a mile when another mound was
discovered, with another seaman below it, whom they buried in the same
way, and close to it a third, whose costume being in some parts a little
finer, they correctly guessed to be a chief.

At last they came in sight of a large mound, and on uncovering it found
a boat with four dead men lying near it. All seemed to have died of
starvation, and the reason why some of them had forsaken the boat was
obvious, for it was crushed out of shape by ice; the bottom having been
cut completely away, so that all the provisions they had to depend on
had no doubt been lost.

"This is not the big canoe," remarked the Indian, while they examined
it. "The big one must have been sunk, and they had to try to escape in
the little one."

The party spent a long time in examining the boat, and as there was a
good deal of iron about it which might be useful, they resolved to
re-visit it on the homeward journey.

Setting off again, they now made straight for the land discovered by
Nazinred, which now lay like a dark blue line of hills in the far
distance. From the abrupt termination of the land at either extremity
of the range it was judged to be a large island.

As the night was clear and the ice level, the party travelled all that
night, and arrived at the island about daybreak the following morning.

The shore was roc