it on our
shoulders for the rest of the journey. The wood which composed the
light framework of the cart being now disposable as fuel, we were
glad to make use of it in cooking a few ptarmigan, which afforded
us another sumptuous meal. It is not perhaps, easy for those who
have never experienced it, to imagine how great a luxury anything
warm in this way becomes, after living entirely upon cold
provisions for some time in this rigid climate. This change was
occasionally the more pleasant to us, from the circumstance of the
preserved meats, on which we principally lived, being generally at
this time hard frozen when taken out of the canisters.

Having finished our arrangements with respect to the baggage,
which made it necessary that each of the men should carry between
sixty and seventy pounds, and the officers from forty to fifty, we
struck the tents at half past two on the morning of the 12th, and
proceeded along the eastern shore of the cove, towards a point
which forms the entrance on that side.

We arrived at the point at five o'clock, and as we could now
perceive that the lake or gulf extended a considerable distance to
the eastward as well as to the westward, and that it would require
a long time to go round in the former direction, I determined to
cross it on the ice; and as the distance to the opposite shore
seemed too great for one journey, the snow being soft upon the
ice, first to visit the island, and, having rested there, to
proceed to the southward. Having walked five miles in a S.S.W.
direction, we landed at seven A.M., near the southeast part of the
island. The wind was fresh from the westward, and the tents were
pitched near the beach, under the lee of the high part of the
island.

We rested till six P.M., and then set off across the ice for a
point to the E.S.E. The snow had now become so soft after the heat
of the day, that, loaded as we were, we often sunk nearly up to
the knees, which made travelling very laborious, and we were,
therefore, not sorry to get on shore by half past eight, having
walked, by our account, three miles and a half.

The spot on which we encamped appeared so favourable for obtaining
specimens of the different animals which frequent this island,
that I determined to remain here one day for the purpose of
sporting and examining its natural productions.

The sportsmen went out early in the morning, and soon after met
with a musk-ox feeding on a spot of luxuriant pasture-